A Russian racer skied over Sadie Bjornsen's tips 2.5 kilometers into the 4 x 5 k relay, but the Americans fought back strong to finish fourth. "We all skied the best we possibly could today," said Liz Stephen. "I’m already dreaming for the next chance at a podium.”
Bryan Fletcher leapt into contention in the large hill/10 k individual at 2015 World Championships with the 13th-best jump to start the race within 44 seconds of first. In the fight for third until the last few hundred meters, he placed fifth for U.S. Nordic Combined's best individual result at World Championships since 2009.
Ivan Babikov couldn't believe what he was hearing early in the 2015 World Championships 15 k freestyle. Two years after placing fourth in that race, he was in danger of finishing near last if he didn't speed up. Babikov turned it on for his second lap, which ended up being 24 seconds after than his first, to place 20th. Also for Canada, Graeme Killick placed 32nd and Jess Cockney was 57th in his first distance race in almost three months.
While the American men missed their personal marks in Wednesday's 15 k freestyle at World Championships, some, like Kyle Bratrud, were more satisfied with their performances than others.
Just how anomalous was the podium in the women's 10 k freestyle at FIS World Championships on Tuesday? We find that FIS points still provide a great overall correlation to the results - and that while the five unseeded early starters had an advantage, the biggest losers in terms of snowstorm effects appeared to be the Germans, not the Norwegians.
Americans Jessie Diggins and Caitlin Gregg discuss how they were able to take advantage of the opportunities in Tuesday's 10 k freestyle individual start at the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. The USST also boasted a day where all of its four starters landed in the top 15 with Liz Stephen in 10th and Kikkan Randall in 15th.
Charlotte Kalla made for a happy local crowd on Tuesday with a 41-second win in the 10 k freestyle at 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. Two Americans joined her on the podium for a historic first in a women's distance race at a World Championships: Jessie Diggins in second and Caitlin Gregg in third.
With the pressure off, the Canadian women posted some career-best performances on Tuesday in the 10-kilometer freestyle individual start at 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Emily Nishikawa took 30th, and Perianne Jones placed 32nd in what she said would probably be her final international race.
The U.S. Ski Team finished Sunday's team sprint in the middle of the pack, as the defending world championship team of Sophie Caldwell and Jessie Diggins skied to eighth and the American men's team of Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton notched seventh.
Longtime friends and teammates Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Maiken Caspersen Falla, of Norway, were out for some redemption after their fourth-place finish in the 2013 World Championships team sprint, and they got it with a sizeable win over Sweden's Ida Ingemarsdotter and Stina Nilsson, while Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk and Sylwia Jaśkowiec were thrilled with bronze.
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.
Erik Bjornsen of the U.S. Ski Team and Alaska Pacific University notched his best-distance result of the season on Saturday in his first race of 2015 World Championships. He led the U.S. men in 28th in the skiathlon, while Noah Hoffman placed 44th, Kris Freeman was 48th and Matt Gelso finished 54th.
FasterSkier’s coverage of the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, Sweden, is brought to you by the generous support of Kikkan Randall training wear. Norway’s Didrik Tønseth was looking at a podium finish in his very first FIS Nordic World Ski Championships event. Now he’s looking at doing more pushups. Twenty-three-year-old rookie Tønseth was leading for part of the way in the men’s 30-kilometer skiathlon on Saturday. “I was thinking that, ‘This is it. I’m...
The start lists are out and it's official: Sophie Caldwell and Jessie Diggins will be representing the U.S. women in Sunday's freestyle team sprint at World Championships. While it was a tough decision to leave Kikkan Randall off the team, U.S. head coach Chris Grover explains the reasoning behind it.
In the first nordic-combined competition of World Championships, Germany's Johannes Rydzek had some of the best timing all day, attacking late to drop his lone rival before the finish: Italy's Alessandro Pittin. The U.S. saw top-20 jumps from Billy Demong and Ben Berend, and Taylor Fletcher skied up from 25th to 19th.
At 19, Ben Berend made his World Cup debut last month in Schonach, Germany. After a whirlwind trip to Kazakhstan for Junior Worlds and Austria for the last Continental Cup, the Colorado native is set to compete in his first senior World Championships on Friday in Falun, Sweden.
Out of six U.S. Ski Team members who advanced to the heats in Thursday's World Championships classic sprint, Sophie Caldwell and Simi Hamilton went the farthest, making it to the semifinals before finishing 10th and 12th, respectively. Andy Newell placed 17th and rookie Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess led his quarterfinal at one point before ending up 30th overall. Sadie Bjornsen was 19th and Ida Sargent placed 29th.
Marit Bjørgen overcame the spectator roars for Sweden's Stina Nilsson to hold off the home-crowd favorite by 0.42 seconds in the women's classic-sprint final on the first official day of 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. Bjørgen captured her 13th World Championships gold, Nilsson notched silver and Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla took bronze.
Four North American women advanced to the heats on the first day of medal competition at the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, with American Sophie Caldwell leading the crew in 21st in Thursday’s classic-sprint qualifier. Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk won the qualifier by 0.24 seconds, and Kikkan Randall missed advancing by 3.22 seconds in 36th.
U.S. Nordic Combined named two rookies to its five-man World Championships team earlier this month, which will be competing in four events at 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, Sweden, over the next two weeks. Adam Loomis, 22, is one of them.