For the past 13 years, Eric de Nys has been ingrained in the sport of cross-country skiing and its offshoots, including biathlon. He spent 10 years as a coach on Cross Country Canada’s national team, leading the women’s World Cup team in his final two years there. Based in the same town and out of the same training facilities in Canmore, Alberta, de Nys parted ways with the national team after the 2014 Olympics and October 2015, de Nys...
2017 Canadian Ski Nationals (Canmore, Alberta): Days 1, 2 & 3 On the third day of Canadian Ski Nationals in Canmore, Alberta, World Cup skiers Devon Kershaw and Emily Nishikawa — both fresh off World Cup Finals in Quebec City — picked up victories in the men’s and women’s classic interval starts on Tuesday. Kershaw won the men’s 15 k in 45:05.3 minutes, 44.6 seconds ahead of two University of Denver (DU) skiers Dag Frode...
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The 2017 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Nordic Skiing World Championships concluded this past weekend Feb. 18-19 in Finsterau, Germany with a biathlon sprint and a middle-distance cross-country event. Claiming their second gold medals of the week were Oksana Masters, of the U.S., and Canada’s Mark Arendz. Race recap and results below. *** The U.S. Paralympics Nordic Team’s Oksana Masters is plenty used to winning cross-country events. She ended last season undefeated in every cross-country race and...
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Looking up from the finish line on Sunday, Canada’s Len Valjas saw something he would never forget. Amidst a sea of waving Swedish flags, a trio of men ran toward him. Their arms were outstretched and a chorus of cheers escaped all three as they charged toward their teammate. Just a week ago, Valjas had celebrated his Johnsgaard, of Canada’s U25 Team, maintained his position within the middle of the lead pack. “Alex tagged me off...
The feeling was beyond déjà vu. Simi Hamilton remembered the exact moment so clearly: almost exactly Tour de Ski’s first stage in Val Müstair, Switzerland. After leaving the Tour after Stage 2, Hamilton competed in two OPA Cup races last weekend in Planica, Slovenia. There, he won the skate sprint and finished fifth in the 10 k skate. “That definitely increased my confidence and I felt much better about where I was fitness-wise and speed-wise...
Could Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov be the first cross-country skier to perform a seven-stage sweep? He’s certainly well on his way, after collecting his fourth Tour de Ski win in a row on Wednesday in the men’s 15-kilometer freestyle pursuit in Oberstdorf, Germany. Ustiugov’s four-stage streak alone is unprecedented. Until this year, no other nordic skier in the International Ski Federation (FIS) has been able to complete such a feat during the Tour. Not even Norway’s defending overall World...
At the start of last season, Canadian cross-country skier Andy Shields one point. With some of his early season results –including a first place finish in last year’s NorAm skate sprint at Sovereign Lake, B.C. –Shields earned the opportunity to compete for Canada in two World Cup races in Planica, Slovenia. They were his first. A little less than a month later, Shields returned to Canada to compete in more domestic racing, and before he knew it, he found himself living...
Cross Country Canada, the nation's governing body for cross country skiing will have a new leader in Shane Pearsall starting January 1st. He comes to the role new to skiing, but with a background helping lead Bobsleigh Canada and Skeleton as well as ties to oil and gas, an industry tied to the nordic skiing funding pipeline in Canada. As an athlete, Pearsall was an elite hockey player and was a member of the 1980 men's national team. Pearsall answers Nordic Nation's questions in this episode.
Welcome to “17 Questions for 2017”, where we are catching up with American and Canadian national-team members before the beginning of the winter season. *** Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt ended last season on a high note: Canada’s 2015 World Championships team member won the sprint qualifier and placed second in the final at Canadian National Championships. The 24-year-old member of Cross Country Canada’s U25 Team had to take a pause this summer, however, after suffering a stress fracture...
Welcome to “17 Questions for 2017”, where we are catching up with American and Canadian national-team members before the beginning of the winter season. *** The day after her 22nd birthday last March, Dahria Beatty made the case that she could be Cross Country Canada’s next star. Not only did she score her first World Cup top 30, but she nabbed a remedying some back troubles and building strength, Beatty says she looks like a...
The opening World Cup races came to a close this Sunday, with Finland's Iivo Niskanen taking the overall win in the men's 15-kilometer classic race for the second time in a row. The Finnish skier held off the likes of Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby in order to secure the victory. "This was a really important victory, because last year was so difficult," Niskanen said during a T.V. interview.
It's not easy picking a World Cup team. Ask Cross Country Canada's High Performance Director Tom Holland, who recently spoke to FS about this season's goals and how they selected their best athletes to achieve them.
A photo gallery of images from the cross-country national team camps held in Soldier Hollow and Park City, Utah, last month, mostly of the U.S. Ski Team and its development contingent.
Update: Early Thursday, Cross Country Canada (CCC) announced that Jess Cockney has been selected for World Cup Period 1, referencing both his Olympic history and last season's World Cup top-10 result.
What's one thing Canadian senior national team member Cendrine Browne would change about skiing? "I'd take back the [FIS] rule on double poling!"
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.
Athletes at all levels of the competition spectrum constantly seek the missing piece of their performance puzzle. For many years now, sport psychology has played an increasing role in solving that puzzle. From the World Cup to the junior ranks, FasterSkier explores how some skiers and coaches make use of sport psychology.