Dario Cologna may have won two Olympic gold medals in Sochi, but it's been a heck of a long time since he won an actual World Cup. By besting the field in Saturday's 4.4 k prologue by 5 seconds, he did just that. Calle Halfvarsson of Sweden bested Norway's Petter Northug for second place.
Anders Gløersen had planned to sit out Saturday’s World Cup 15-kilometer freestyle interval start in Davos, Switzerland in order to rest for Sunday’s sprint. However, as fate would have it, several teammates came down with illness and Gløerson was placed on the start list. It turns out fate was in the Norwegian’s favor, as he earned his first World Cup distance victory in convincing fashion.
Photos from an exciting day of World Cup racing in Davos, Switzerland. Take some lessons in classic technique from the best!
Martin Johnsrud Sundby had 99% decided to use skate skis in today's 15 k classic World Cup race in Davos. But then at the last second, he changed his mind. The choice worked, and he earned a 6.6-second win over teammate Didrik Tønseth. Dario Cologna went with skate skis and finished third.
Finn Hågen Krogh had reason to believe he cold hold off Norwegian teammate Martin Johnsrud Sundby in Sunday's 15 k classic pursuit, the final stage of the Lillehammer mini tour. And Johnsrud, who won every tour last winter, had a feeling he could catch Krogh, but got a little nervous when it took longer than he expected.
In the big leagues this season, Finland's Iivo Niskanen, 22, not only notched his first World Cup podium on Sunday, but he won the men's 15 k classic individual start in front of a packed stadium in Kuusamo. Two Finnish skiers made the top three, and Norway's Martin Sundby took second.
Guri Hetland spoke with FasterSkier on Monday about how she and Swiss-Ski were at odds when it came to the direction of the team, a stumbling point that ultimately ended in the non-renewal of her contract. "I had planned to work longer in Switzerland and I hoped and I thought that we could agree on the proposal ... but my bosses in the ski federation wanted some changes," she says.
While Tor Arne Hetland is just starting as Canada's World Cup coach, his wife, Guri Hetland, is no longer head coach of the Swiss National Team. Swiss-Ski Sports Director Mark Wolf referred to negotiations that "ended in disaster" after Hetland and the association could not agree on team decisions. Dario Cologna had already committed to a new personal coach, Ivan Hudáč.
Sunday's 50-kilometer freestyle mass start was the kind of race Russia had been dreaming of since it won the bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics nearly six years ago. For the first time in Olympic history, the Russians swept the podium, and for the first time in 78 years, a single nation took all three medals in the 50 k.
Devon Kershaw said he felt better skiing Friday than previously at this Olympics, but it was hard to tell with too much grip on a klister day in extremely soft and warm conditions. Kershaw placed 35th, his teammate Ivan Babikov finished 39th, Graeme Killick was 65th and Alex Harvey did not finish.
Today's Olympic 15 k saw a podium made of exclusively of skiers that had suffered injuries over the past year, led by Switzerland's Dario Cologna, just three months removed from ankle surgery.
In the wrong place at the wrong time three months ago when he slipped on ice and tore ligaments in his ankle, Switzerland’s Dario Cologna made sure he was in position to do something stellar on Sunday at the first men's cross-country ski race of the Olympics. He won his second Olympic gold, beating the defending champion Marcus Hellner or Sweden to the line.
With a rocket-fast last lap and some unplanned help from Canada's Alex Harvey, Alexander Legkov made Saturday a little less about Dario Cologna, who returned to the World Cup after missing the first half of the season. Legkov won the last distance race before the Olympics, bringing Russia some good vibes before it hosts the Games.
Repeating certain workouts over the course of a training season allow athletes to gauge progress. These aren't necessarily "tests" per se, but more an opportunity to evaluate improvement and feel. Swiss National Team Head Coach Guri Hetland takes us through one such session.
Dario Cologna finally won World Championships gold in February. But his craving for medals has hardly been satisfied, and he has one goal on his mind: the Olympics in Sochi. Even his beloved Tour de Ski is falling by the wayside. We dropped in on a training session in Davos and chatted with Cologna about the upcoming winter.
Switzerland has a population just a bit smaller than the state of Virginia, and despite the Alps and Jura mountains faces some of the same challenges in developing World Cup skiers that you might find in North America. We chatted with Swiss U24 coach Christian Flury, formerly of Alberta World Cup Academy, about how his squad represents his country's future, and how he manages it.
Petter Northug, Jr., joined rare company on Sunday in becoming the second Norwegian in history to win more than one overall World Cup crystal globe. He kept Alexander Legkov and Dario Cologna at bay with his victory in the 15 k pursuit at World Cup Finals to finish off a memorable season in Falun, Sweden.
The typical plot line never materialized. Norway's Petter Northug was supposed to spend the first several laps back in 25th and then surge to the front for the victory in the final 100 meters at World Cup Finals in Sweden. Instead, Northug's teammate Eldar Rønning salvaged a tough season with a surprise 15-kilometer classic mass start victory, posting a time of 43:26 minutes on the 2015 World Championships course.
Just when spectators thought he might falter, Petter Northug rebounded from a nearly five-second deficit midway through Friday's 2.5 k prologue to win his second-straight race of World Cup Finals by 2.1 seconds over teammate Pal Golberg. Norway showed its strength on the modified course, putting six in the top seven.
On Saturday in Oslo, Norway, Alexander Legkov triumphed on Holmenkollen's notoriously brutal track, persevering through vicious pace changes, 2,000 meters of climbing, and warm, wet conditions to win the prestigious 50 k freestyle by 1.2 seconds over Martin Johnsrud Sundby.