of twenty thirteen, we’ll be producing the show regularly. Expect interviews with the country’s biggest cross-country skiing stars and coaches, plus analysis from the FasterSkier crew. This week, Topher Sabot and Nat Herz interview Erik Flora, the head coach of the Alaska-Pacific University Nordic Ski Center club team, which includes World Championships medalist Kikkan Randall, and U.S. Ski Teamers Holly Brooks, and Erik and Sadie Bjornsen. Randall has been dealing with a stress fracture in...
It is saying nothing new to point out that Kikkan Randall becoming the World Cup Sprint Champion last season was a breakthrough for U.S. skiing. The enormity of the moment in March when an American woman was handed the crystal globe has been well documented since the conclusion of the 2012 season. Each photo that has surfaced online this summer of Randall, her trophy and a new group of wide-eyed fans is a reminder...
Last week in Anchorage, a freak windstorm rolled through that would have devastated most mainland Americans. Gusts estimated at 130 miles per hour spewed trees across Alaska’s largest city, leaving at least a thousand residents without power through Saturday – almost four days after the storm hit Tuesday night. In a phone interview, U.S. Ski Team member Kikkan Randall said the electricity and all the lights at her home came on at 2:15 a.m. Saturday....
This is the last of several previews in a quick-and-dirty series on U.S. elite teams. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. Teams were presented in no particular order. Team name: Alaska Pacific University (APU) Nordic Ski Center Coach: Erik Flora (head coach/director) Roster: Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team A-team), Holly Brooks (USST B-team), Sadie Bjornsen (USST B-team), Becca Rorabaugh, Rosie Brennan, Kate Fitzgerald, Erika...
dwatts@alaskapacific.edu) for registration and further information.
When it comes down to it: health matters. That’s what Kikkan Randall and her coach at Alaska Pacific University, Erik Flora, reasoned when the U.S. Ski Team veteran decided to sit out a few races nearly two weeks ago. After feeling slightly rundown, Randall first skipped the 15 k freestyle mass start on Feb. 4 in Rybinsk, Russia. She pulled through the 15 k skiathlon the next day, but came down with a cold shortly after....
Holly Brooks’ 2012 season was off to a magical start. Building on strong World Cup results at the end of the 2011 season, Brooks took advantage of the start rights provided by her SuperTour title the season before, quickly establishing herself as a consistent points threat in all formats and distances. Heading into the Christmas break, she had placed in the top-30 five times in nine individual starts, putting herself in good position in the...
When a race lasts for more than two-and-a-half hours, there’s bound to be a little more material than can fit inside a single race report. Below, some extra tidbits that didn’t make the first cut: –The conditions for the race could have ended up being a lot more challenging for waxers, had the temperature warmed more than it did—in the end, hard wax did the trick. While most of the lead men ended up with...
Out of a crowd of 20,000 people watching at the 2011 World Ski Championships, there can’t have been more than a few dozen who were disappointed when American Kikkan Randall crashed out of the women’s sprint. After all, the race was in Oslo, and as a big favorite, Randall was one of the only athletes expected to threaten the hometown favorite, Norwegian superwoman Marit Bjoergen. So when Randall slipped on one of Ida Ingemarsdotter’s (SWE)...
Four weeks training at home without a race did not slow Kikkan Randall. The defending World Championship silver medalist in the freestyle sprint picked up where she left off a month ago, and found herself in the same spot – standing on the top of the podium. Randall scored her third career World Cup victory, and second in a row when she powered to the front on the tough finishing stretch in the Konnerud Ski...
Despite traveling the farthest distance, few teams outnumber Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Club at the US Nationals in Rumford, Maine. And still, some worthy skiers are left at home.
Last week, a new race format debuted on tough courses, with freezing temperatures as a backdrop. Reviews from athletes and coaches were mixed. The Ruka Triple, the three-day World Cup mini-tour in Finland? Nope. Try the SuperTour Sprint Showdown, the double qualifier held in West Yellowstone, MT, last Thursday. The event was the first of its kind in North America, and so far as anyone knows, in the world. Thus far, other countries have not...
Leif Zimmermann is one of only two athletes in West Yellowstone with European racing experience this winter. But he’s also one of two athletes coping with the effects of a transatlantic jet flight, making a pair of sensational performances this weekend even more impressive. With his 20-second victory in Saturday’s 10 k classic, Zimmermann (BSF) won for his third time in four years in West Yellowstone, less than one week removed from racing 4,500 miles...
You had to look hard, but the signs were there. Over the past two years, Kate Fitzgerald’s results had been steadily progressing, topping out with a 14th place at last year’s U.S. Nationals. A few weeks ago, she was nearly as fast as 2010 Olympian Holly Brooks in a time trial with her club, Alaska Pacific University (APU). And in Thursday’s double sprint qualifier, she finished third and fifth. Still, no one expected Fitzgerald’s victory...
If skiing were baseball, APU would be early winners in the 2010 free-agent class. Two-time National Champion, and former NMU standout, Morgan Smyth, and 20-year-old Sadie Bjornsen, a veteran of four World Junior Championships, have joined the Anchorage-based squad. Smyth was not re-nominated for a fifth year on the US Ski Team after struggling through a challenging 2010 season, undergoing surgery for compartment syndrome and battling mono. Still only 24, Smyth won a National Title...