Sturla Holm Lægreid (NOR) crushed his competitors in the IBU biathlon World Cup opener on Saturday and earned his first World Cup victory. On Sunday, turbo junior Helene Fossesholm (NOR) posted the second-fastest time of the day in the 10-kilometer pursuit at the FIS Nordic World Cup opener. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I never imagined I would win,” Lægreid said after his race, which took place in in Kontiolahti (FIN). The 23-year-old dominated the 20-kilometer individual competition,...
This morning the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced the postponement of the Lillehammer, Norway World Cup events. President of the Norwegian Ski Federation, Erik Røste, told FIS, “Based on the difficult time we are in, the uncertainty and the consequences associated with Covid-19, the Norwegian Ski Association believes that it is not right to arrange the World Cup in Lillehammer now. We would rather work on finding new dates in consultation with FIS and...
On short notice in October, the International Ski Federation (FIS) reversed its fluoro wax ban for the upcoming season. Bryan Fish, Cross Country Sport Development Manager for U.S. Ski & Snowboard, explained this was termed a “delayed implementation”. What had been expected to be a fluoro-free racing scene at the FIS level, became a business as usual wax policy for 2020-2021. In short, fluoros, C8 or otherwise, are allowed at FIS sanctioned events. The FIS...
2023 World Juniors/U23 goes to Canada Recently, Canada was awarded the right to host the 2023 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships. The hosting club is Black Tusk Nordic which runs much of its ski training out of Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley. The venue hosted nordic events that included cross-country, jumping, nordic combined, and biathlon at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. “We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to bring this prestigious event for...
Like so many organizations, FIS, the governing body for international skiing, is a slow-to-change entity. Doping reforms, for example, have evolved but at a yawn-worthy rate. So in rather atypical fashion, like a finger snap, FIS voted to oust its Secretary General, Sarah Lewis, on October 9th. Lewis had been considered a lifer at FIS. She’d been on staff for two decades. News on the “why” of her removal remains sparse. Yet it was an...
The International Ski Federation announced last Friday that Secretary General Sarah Lewis has been relieved of her duties effective immediately. “At its meeting today, the FIS Council, including the members of the Marc Hodler Foundation, has decided by a great majority vote to terminate the employment relationship with Sarah Lewis (in accordance with its contractual terms) and that she is released from her work duties as the Secretary General of FIS, effective 9th October 2020.”...
This morning the International Biathlon Union (IBU) and the International Ski Federation announced they were postponing their fluoro wax bans until the 2021-2022 season. The stated reason in the IBU press release was the following: “allow more time to test and refine the Fluorine Tracker device that is currently under development.” FIS also claimed the device was not ready for use on the World Cup: “Despite the accuracy of the device measurement technology, testing also...
Last week, the International Ski Federation (FIS) concluded its fall Cross-Country Committee meetings. The most pressing issues are COVID related and concern the calendaring and running of safe events. Many variables remain in play, like how each hosting country experiences a predicted uptick in COVID cases this winter. Within this context, the Cross-Country Committee made several recommendations that have yet to be approved by the FIS Council. The FIS Council is scheduled to meet...
The local organizing club for the first cross-country Word Cup of the season, Kuusamon Erä-Veikot, announced on it’s website According to an official statement, the decision was made after consulting with the Finnish Ski Association and the International Ski Federation (FIS). However, organizers make clear that it still awaits “final confirmation” from FIS.
With the ever-evolving nature of the pandemic, two months out from our article titled “Covid-19 Trends and Early Season World Cups“, we thought it an appropriate time to review Covid-19 trends in Europe. If the International Ski Federation chooses not to modify Period 1 and Period II on the World Cup, Finland, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy will host already calendared events. In early June, when we first examined Covid-19 in those countries, the overall...
This won’t be easy. Seeing a “normal” World Cup season go down will take considerable coordination, stakeholder buy-in to behavioral modifications aimed at community wellness not necessarily individual needs, and broader control over the spread of Covid-19. Here in the U.S., the major sports, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MSL, and MLB, have opened their respective seasons. The models for each league differ, the NBA maintains a relatively strict bubble, whereas the MLB chose a more lax...
This news round has an eye towards the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) move to mitigate COVID spread on the World Cup as it eyes a new racing season. Before we delve into that, we wanted to raise some awareness to a most excellent non-ski related podcast. In short, it’s called TWIV. Longform, it’s “This Week In Virology: the podcast about viruses – the kind that make you sick.” No, it’s not The Devon Kershaw Show....
Matthias Scherge is the director of the Fraunhofer Microtribology Center in Germany. As one of the major European research institutes specializing in industrial lubricants, Scherge and his colleagues have a hand in the ski wax game. Currently, Scherge is assisting the International Ski Federation (FIS) to implement its fluoro-free policy. Specifically, they are determining the thresholds at which a positive or a negative test will be triggered when testing a ski base for fluoros. Scherge...
Last November, the International Ski Federation announced in a press release the banning of fluorinated waxes starting with the 2020-2021 race season. FIS states, “The use of fluorinated ski waxes, which have been shown to have a negative environmental and health impact were banned for all FIS disciplines from the 2020/2021 season.” Behind the scenes, the transition to fluoro free racing has begun both in Europe where the majority of World Cups are held, and...
A phrase we probably have all become familiar with: Risk assessment and Covid-19. The International Ski Federation (FIS) published guidelines last week to assist local organizing committees of FIS World Cups to mitigate community spread at races. This comes on the heels of FIS joining an initiative called #Sport4Recovery. According to FIS, the new entity aims to organize stakeholders and “highlight the importance of sport for mental and physical health recovery as well as...
Last week U.S. Ski and Snowboard announced the recipients of two awards. Gus Schumacher of Anchorage, Alaska, and newly minted U.S. B-Team member, won the Beck International Trophy recognizing the top athlete in international competition. He shared the honor with alpine skier Mikela Shiffrin. Schumacher comes off a year during which he won the 10 k classic at World Juniors and anchored the men’s 4 x 5 k relay to their second consecutive Word Junior’s...
This article has been updated to clarify the relationship between the junior races now known as FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships and its precursor, the World Junior Nordic Championships and the European Junior Nordic Championships. There are, to briefly traffic in the obvious, 60 seconds in a minute. Sixty seconds in a minute; 60 minutes in an hour; 3,600 seconds in an hour. Skiers measure their lives in these increments; we track total yearly training hours,...
First in a two-part series. Coming next week: The meaning of a single FIS point for national team selection. The recent news that David Norris was not named to the national team by the narrowest of margins, following the application of objective selection criteria tied to an athlete’s position on an overall FIS points world ranking list, has inspired FasterSkier to take a closer look at where these numbers come from. The goal of this...
Sports fans talk a lot about home field advantage. Which team will play at home at Game 7 of the World Series? Or in the playoffs before the Stanley Cup? Home turf and the swells of a crowd whose numbers are skewed toward the home team has an undeniable effect. Yes, the Norwegian team of Tiril Udnes Weng, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Therese Johaug, and Heidi Weng won yet another 4×5-kilometer relay with a time of...
To the point: thoughts and opinions on WADA’s decision to ban Russia from major international competitions for four years.