You’ve probably heard the news by now: Marit Bjørgen, the Norwegian queen of cross-country skiing, has decided to retire. The 38 year old made the announcement a week ago after winning the first race of Norwegian nationals, the 5-kilometer classic, on April 6. “In reality it has been a long process,” she told NRK that day, according to a translation. “I had almost decided before the competitive season started. I feel that I lack the...
Saturday was the second day of World Cup Finals mini tour, held in Falun, Sweden, which conclude the 2017/2018 season. Holmenkollen 50 k skate. World Cup Finals conclude with 10/15 k freestyle pursuits on Sunday. Falun mini-tour standings|
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canada’s Bob Thompson.) Federico Pellegrino’s winning move in the men’s 6 x 1.2-kilometer freestyle team sprint on Sunday wasn’t exactly the same as yesterday when the Italian attacked on the final climb of the Saturday’s individual sprint, Locke placed 15th for a career best. The two ultimately finished seventh in the first team-sprint semifinal, just one place behind Great Britain’s James Clugnet and Andrew Young....
IBU Biathlon World Cup (Ruhpolding, Germany): 12.5/15 k mass starts Kaisa Makarainen of Finland took her first win of the season and will start next weekend with the overall World Cup leader’s bib after she outsprinted Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier by 0.8 seconds to claim the win in the 12.5 k mass start. In a tight race for third, Veronica Vitkova of the Czech Republic edged out Rosanna Crawford of Canada for the final spot on the podium; the pair...
How do you beat Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo at his competition-crushing game? Take him by surprise with minimal time to recover. Italy’s Federico Pellegrino did just that on the last uphill rise of the 1.2-kilometer sprint course on Saturday in Dresden, Germany. Dresden, a historic city in eastern Germany, debuted its brand-new course along the Elbe River on manmade snow amid damp conditions and temperatures above freezing throughout the day. Pellegrino had done what he...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Dresden, Germany): Freestyle sprints Men’s report For her second-straight World Cup sprint, Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. Ski Team reached the podium in the women’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint on Saturday in Dresden, Germany. Caldwell placed third in the final behind Sweden’s Hanna Falk, who won it in 2:11.02 minutes, and Maja Dahlqvist, also of Sweden, who placed second (+0.23). Caldwell and Dahlqvist both lunged in a photo finish for second,...
Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. SWEDEN Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: Second Women’s Ranking 2016-2017: Second Men’s Ranking 2016-2017: Third Who’s Back: Stina Nilsson, second in the Sprint Cup and fourth in the World Cup overall; Hanna Falk, third in the Sprint Cup;...
Eight years ago, France’s Maurice Manificat and Jean-Marc Gaillard waved to the French cheers of their country’s fans as they climbed onto the men’s World Cup relay podium in La Clusaz, France. The two — along with their former national-team teammates, told VG. “I did that today by getting a real beating.” As the first freestyle leg began to unfold, it was Sweden’s Martin Johansson who led the charge, not far behind was Russia’s Alexey...
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers. *** FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Lillehammer: Classic sprint Men’s report For the Men |
It’s a new year, yet some things remain the same. Jan. 1 marked the opening stage of the 2016 Tour de Ski, a 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint in in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. It also marked the third World Cup sprint victory in a row for Italy’s Federico Pellegrino.
Andy Newell remembered a thing or two about the Kuusamo course, and he shared them with his U.S. teammates before the World-Cup opening classic sprint there on Friday. His calculations worked, as Newell ended up just over a second off the podium in fourth for his best result in three seasons.
A year after placing third behind fellow Norwegians Eirik Brandsdal and Petter Northug, Sondre Turvoll Fossli, 22, turned the tables on his teammates and won his first World Cup -- the Ruka classic sprint -- on Friday ahead of Brandsdal and Northug, respectively. American Andy Newell had his best World Cup result since February 2013.
Two 22-year-old sprinters topped the podium in the men's and women's freestyle sprints in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, with Norway's Havard Solås Taugbøl beating four Swedes and Even Northug in the men's final and Stina Nilsson denying Charlotte Kalla of her third-straight victory.
Which is worse: Petter Northug winning Friday's 10 k classic in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, while wearing the Swedish colors, or him comparing the win to a teenager beating a toddler in a footrace?
Johan Olsson reigned supreme in the first FIS race of the season in Bruksvallarna on Friday, edging fellow Swedish national-team member Calle Halfvarsson by 0.4 seconds because of an announcer flub (and a self-described cocky move) at the finish. Charlotte Kalla topped the women's field by 13.4 seconds with a surprise first-year senior, Sophia Henriksson, in second.
The Swedes swept the podium in Friday’s classic sprint race in Falun, Sweden. The final day of World Cup sprinting didn’t disappoint the local fans who had come to see their team win on home snow.
In the final few hundred meters, Pål Golberg stormed ahead of a tiring Teodor Peterson and Alexey Petukhov to win his second career World Cup victory. "It was a crazy final with two falls," he said, "I was bit lucky I could avoid a crash, but luck belongs to sport. Today it was my turn."
It was a long and tiring journey to Lahti, Finland for Alex Harvey. After suffering cramps in the Olympic 50 k, excessive travel, a lack of training gear, and general exhaustion, the Quebec native bounced back for a top ten finish in Saturday’s 1.5 k freestyle sprint, placing seventh.
A rookie and veteran teamed up to claim a gold medal for Finland in the men's Olympic team sprint, after a finish that was marred by a crash in the lead pack.
If you missed the 2 ½-minute men’s freestyle sprint final on Sunday in Davos, Switzerland, but caught a glimpse of the top three at the finish – you wouldn’t have a clue what happened. Everyone was happy -- an unusual thing at this level -- and the Norwegian winner, Anders Gløersen, was perhaps the least animated of the bunch.