Quotes, observations and photos from the Frozen Thunder freestyle distance, classic sprint and skate-sprint qualifier last week in Canmore, Alberta. “Frozen Thunder is definitely a huge asset to western North America. There is no doubt that it helps get you into ski shape long before the season starts,” local skier Russell Kennedy states.
Here's an in-depth look at the upcoming U.S. SuperTour schedule, addressing why the season’s first races won't be in West Yellowstone, why some SuperTour races are in Canada, why U.S. nationals are returning to Soldier Hollow so soon, why there is a skiathlon at Spring Series, etc.
Prior to June 24, Canada's Ivan Babikov was training in Canmore, prepping for the upcoming World Cup season. Then "boom", he's retired and named Cross Country Canada's national-team coach. We caught up with coach Babikov while he was in Quebec, where he is helping lead the national team's first camp of the summer.
Longtime Canadian World Cup skier Ivan Babikov is retiring to take on coaching responsibility for his former teammates Devon Kershaw, Lenny Valjas, Jess Cockney, and Graeme Killick. "Ivan has been in our system and his job is to execute the plans," Cross Country Canada High Performance Director Tom Holland explains.
On Friday, Cross Country Canada announced its veteran skier Ivan Babikov has retired from racing to help coach the Canadian World Cup Team. Babikov will work specifically with Devon Kershaw and the men’s World Cup level athletes based in Canmore, Alberta, while also serving as B-Team coach.
Cross Country Canada is serious about developing its coaching pipeline and hiring in-house, as evidenced by its decision to hire athlete Kevin Sandau as head coach of the Canadian National Ski Team. "I don’t have much experience coaching at this sort of level but I feel like my practical experience on the domestic circuit and top-50ish on the World Cup is what really sets me apart from the rest," Sandau said.
Earlier this week, Cross Country Canada announced that its head coach Justin Wadsworth will be stepping down at the end of this season. Wadsworth spoke with FasterSkier about his decision and recommendations for developing North America's next crop of World Cup skiers while also bringing international cross-country events to his home continent.
FasterSkier intern Eric Byram, of Canmore, Alberta, was one of 10 juniors selected to Canada's Junior B-Tour, which included two weekends of racing in Germany and Switzerland.
With fewer than two weeks remaining until the Ski Tour Canada visits Gatineau, Montreal, Quebec City, and Canmore from March 1-12, we spent some time breaking down the provisional North American picks and estimated costs for Canadian nation's group skiers at the season-ending World Cups.
What do you get when you bring a couple dozen of Canada's best up-and-coming and veteran skiers together to train? National-team head coach Justin Wadsworth explains, and reflects on how the first-ever Alignment camp went.
Starting with a freestyle sprint in Gatineau, Quebec and concluding with 10 and 15 k classic pursuits in Canmore, Alberta the eight-stage Ski Tour Canada 2016 will take place over the course of the first 12 days of March.
Alex Harvey's personal coach and the head coach of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre for more than a decade, Louis Bouchard has been recognized as one of Canada's top coaches for some time. This year, FasterSkier picked Bouchard -- the man behind two individual World Championships medals -- as its 2015 Coach of the Year.
Cross Country Canada announced its national-team nominations Tuesday with little change to the World Cup and Development rosters. The 2015/2016 Senior National Team will feature 12 athletes ranging from the World Cup to U23 Development Teams.
A year after an energy-draining Olympics, Justin Wadsworth said the energy within Cross Country Canada is palpable. He, for one, is ready to get back to co-coaching the World Cup Team, trading weekends on the road with Louis Bouchard and working with up-and-coming domestic coaches in Europe.
Tor-Arne Hetland, a Norwegian Olympic gold medalist and multiple world champion, will become the Norwegian national team coach this 2015/2016 season after a year as Canada's World Cup Coach.
Alex Harvey approached Saturday's 30 k skiathlon with a winning mindset and came out with bronze, his second medal in as many races so far at 2015 World Championships. "A medal today is as good as gold," Canadian National Team Coach Justin Wadsworth says, "We couldn’t want anything more." Russia's Maxim Vylegzhanin outlasted Switzerland's Dario Cologna for his first world title.
A day after Alex Harvey rose to silver in the men's classic sprint on the first official day of 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden, Cross Country Canada Athlete Director Colin Abbott caught up with high-performance director Tom Holland about the significance of silver.
Three of nine athletes met Cross Country Canada's primary standards for selection to the 2015 World Championships Team, and CCC named another six skiers to the team on Monday.
The four-man Canadian World Cup Team we've come to know over the years is back at it again, and has been training for the last two weeks with four other top domestic skiers -- Perianne Jones, Emily Nishikawa, Graeme Killick, and Jesse Cockney. This week, most of the team will test its stuff with the best of them at the World Cup opener in Kuusamo, Finland.
When Brittany Webster’s name appeared atop a list of results this past weekend, it wasn’t for Canmore’s Frozen Thunder. Instead, Webster replaced snow with sand and finished as the first amateur female in the 2014 XTerra Off-Road World Championships on the north shores of Maui, Hawaii Oct. 26.