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BONUS ARTICLE: This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. In the early morning hours of any FIS World Cup race day, messages are bouncing back and forth among a team of diligent FasterSkier writers, doing their best to craft illuminating articles on the race coverage flitting across our screens. And on...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Ruka, Finland is an area known for challenging race courses and rapidly changing conditions. As the women’s field wrapped up the morning race, the men took on the course under snowfall and near-freezing...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. It’s been two full seasons since Therese Johaug last toed a starting line in a FIS World Cup distance event. In that time, the field has been able to convince itself that they...
Jessie Diggins, the superstar of American cross-country skiing, made history in the 2023/24 season by securing her second overall World Cup title. As she now looks to defend her crown, the upcoming season promises to be a thrilling challenge for Diggins as she faces a highly competitive field. A Historic 2023/24 Season The 2023/24 season was a monumental one for Diggins, filled with achievements that cemented her legacy in the sport. She won six individual...
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2025 in Trondheim, Norway, promise to be a monumental event in winter sports, running from February 26 to March 9, 2025. With its rich history in skiing and the newly modernized Granåsen venue, the championship is set to host exciting races across cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Let’s dive into what you can expect from this world-class event and how the odd look like on gamblingguy.com. A...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Last week, the International Ski Federation (FIS) held its annual spring meeting. Among the topics were finalizing next year’s calendar and fine tuning of some of the sport’s rules. All actions taken...
In a recent Instagram post (June 21, 2023), the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced that permanent changes have been made to the “equality” in race distances for men and women in both FIS sanctioned races and those races set to be staged at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in 2026. The post included the following wording: BIG NEWS: Equal distances has taken another step, a step that involves the Olympics in Milano Cortina 2026!🙌🏼 The...
This week, FasterSkier caught up with U.S. cross-country team member Julia Kern. It turns out catching up with Julia isn’t just hard on the racecourse, but it’s pretty darn challenging in life. No one would begrudge any team member a much needed travel respite after a draining World Cup season. But Julia appears to thrive on movement—she seems to be a living example of Newton’s First Law of Motion— a body in motion will remain...
In a tersely worded announcement, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced that its ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes would continue. The entirety of the release was contained in the summary notes of decisions made at the FIS Council meeting held May 24th. The current FIS policy, which does not allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in FIS events, will remain in effect until further notice. ...
The International Ski Federation’s (FIS) annual Congress held at the end of May this year was an unusually dramatic affair. Fights over media rights – whether to look at serializing the sport of Nordic skiing into something like Formula 1’s Drive to Survive – sent skiing’s international governing body into a metaphorically different part of the Netflix catalog, less Dive to Survive and more House of Cards, West Wing, or Newsroom. If only Aaron Sorkin...
The International Ski Federation (FIS) is again postponing its ban on the use of fluorinated (fluoro) waxes, originally passed in November 2019. The decision to delay the ban’s implementation until after the 2022-23 season was announced in a press release earlier today. The FIS cites the need for “further refinement of the fluoro testing device and to define procedures to protect the integrity of FIS competitions.” The same concerns over an efficient and effective testing...
In most sports, the question of whether men and women would compete on equal playing fields, so to speak, was answered long ago. While gender inequalities remain- a recent decision by the IOC to maintain the exclusion of Women’s Nordic Combined from the Olympics comes to mind- the sport of cross-country skiing will now be joining the list of those in which competition is equal for men and women. In a press release issued on...
On Monday, June 20th, the Ski Associations of Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and Croatia made good on threats issued after the FIS Congress in May, and filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) contesting the voting procedure that elected the unchallenged FIS President Johan Eliasch. The four nations argue that it was unlawful to deny them the option of voting no to Eliasch, and that the election procedure violated FIS statutes and...
Elections at FIS Congresses are normally not the scene of political intrigues, particularly when there is only one candidate for President. Yet, in a surprise twist, a bloc of powerful ski nations walked out on FIS President Johan Eliasch’s uncontested election and voted out Dexter Paine, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard representative, as well as a FIS Vice President and Councilor. Prior to the vote for President on May 26th in Milan, Italy, Croatia’s representative...
Click here to read part 1 and part 2 of this series, which takes a look at international news surrounding the Russian athlete ban through the spring. For how these bans have impacted a broader cross-section of the sporting world and analysis of the complex questions surrounding whether Russian athletes should be able to compete, check out this recent Sports Illustrated article by Michael Rosenberg. Historically, athlete bans meant to pressure a government have not...
Click here to read part 1 of this series, which takes a look at international news surrounding the Russian athlete ban through the spring. For how these bans have impacted a broader cross-section of the sporting world and analysis of the complex questions surrounding whether Russian athletes should be able to compete, check out this recent Sports Illustrated article by Michael Rosenberg. Concerns over both fair play and propaganda have been tied to the...
I think we can all agree that the last two years have been a wild ride. For those at the helm of the cross-country program at U.S. Ski & Snowboard, added layers of COVID safety precautions and expensive testing have increased the otherwise mounting demands of preparing for an Olympic Games. There have been numerous domestic and international competitions canceled, including a full season of SuperTour racing in 2020/2021, numerous World Cups canceled, and three...
With Russian athletes banned from all FIS competitions, and no end in sight for the war in Ukraine, there is a growing belief that Russian skiers are unlikely to rejoin the World Cup next season. Some commentators have gone further, proclaiming that we have seen the last of Bolshunov, Neprayeva, and the rest of the Russian team on the international stage. The pessimism is rooted in the history of similar bans—which tend to be long...
You’ve been waiting on pins and needles for the first episode of this season’s Devon Kershaw Show; we know. But it’s been a busy spring. This edition was recorded a couple of weeks ago, so apologies we’re not up to speed on all the latest developments, but we break down some retirements and other off-season news and we’ll be back soon with some discussion of equal distance racing and other news. You can email us...