Sticky skis and icy conditions — they don’t always mix. You didn’t have to tell Ida Sargent that. But it wasn’t about the number of times Sargent fell down on Sunday’s rock-solid course at Sjusjøen, Norway, that mattered. As the starting leg of the U.S. women’s cross-country ski team in the 4×5 k World Cup relay, she had to get back up. “I didn’t want to lose anymore time than I already had,” Sargent wrote...
Less than one week after arriving in Europe, the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Kikkan Randall had the best distance performance of her career—8th place— for the opening World Cup in Sjusjøen, Norway. On a four-lap 10 k course, Randall finished +58.2 back from the winner, Marit Bjoergen (NOR), and was less than a second behind Therese Johaug (NOR), who finished 7th. “I felt like [my race] would have been a success if I was around...
With the biggest squad in recent memory, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) looks to continue building on last season’s results on the World Cup this year, starting with the salvaged opener on November 19. Mild weather put the Americans’ travel plans in limbo last week, delaying their arrival to Europe. With their planned tune-up race in Beitostølen, Norway canceled, Saturday’s race in Sjusjøen will be the first time most of the U.S. contingent puts on...
The only Americans to race this weekend were athletes on the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), who competed all three days in Muonio, Finland after training there for about a week. When they booked flights for Europe, it was with the goal of getting in quality early-season training on snow and brushing off the race cobwebs with serious European competition. With the abysmal snow conditions in Scandinavia leading up to this weekend, and no reason...
As the air turned slightly cooler in Muonio, Finland, Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) won her third race of the weekend on Sunday in the 5 k classic. In only two short laps, she bested the women’s field by 20 seconds, clocking in at 11:40.7. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (FIN) notched her second runner-up performance of the weekend. Sami Jauhojärvi (FIN) won his first race of the series in front of a home crowd after placing second on Full...
On a fast 5 k skate course, Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) notched her second victory in Muonio, Finland. The defending Tour de Ski and overall World Cup distance champ cruised over the icy, two-lap course in 10:31, four seconds ahead of a pack of six Finns. “The route in Muonio was really fast,” said Kowalczyk on her website. “I am satisfied with the result and how the ball [is] rolling for me.” Norway’s Snorri Einarsson held...
Despite the warm weather, which has already complicated plans for teams and race organizers all across Scandinavia, the season still managed to kick off on Friday with a classic sprint in Muonio, Finland. Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) cruised to victory over the women’s field, while Andreas Nygaard (NOR) fought off Russia’s Egor Sorin and Nikolay Bolotov in a close race for first. Ida Sargent (CGRP/USST) had the best American finish of the day, finishing 10th overall...
Whether or not the Beitostølen World Cup
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Tad Elliott isn’t a big runner. Reflecting on his training from inside the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center, he was quick to admit that. So when fellow U.S. Ski Team rookie Ida Sargent took him on a long run in Park City, Utah, and the two ended up lost, he wasn’t thrilled. Elliott, the fun-loving, laid-back jokester, not happy? “I was cranky,” he said of what turned out to be a...
On a brilliant sunny day in Lake Placid, New York, Liz Stephen (USST) extended her Climb to the Castle podium streak to five in a row, earning her first victory in the challenging five-mile hill climb since the inaugural event in 2007. Stephen and US Ski Team (USST) teammate Ida Sargent overcame an early deficit to Tara Geraghty-Moats (CNSC), turning the 45 minute test into a two-woman race by the end of the first mile....
Mansfield Nordic (MNC) has wrapped up its summer training program with special “celebrity guest coaches” in recent weeks. U.S. Biathlon Team members Susan Dunklee and Corrine Malcolm shared technique and strength drills they hope will propel them to the 2014 Olympic team. MNC skiers also got to do a biathlon clinic with the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club to test their shooting and skiing skills. Skyler Davis made “sprint day” a highlight of the summer with...
The following is the USSA’s list of nominations for the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Ski Team. The nominations include those athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria. The USSA will announce the actual team roster later this spring, naming those athletes who accept the responsibilities of being a part of the U.S. Ski Team and who are planning to compete in the 2012 season. Athletes nominated to the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Ski Team...
The U.S. Cross-Country Ski Team (USST) for the 2011-2012 season is expected to be announced in a few hours, according to John Farra, the program’s director. The nominations haven’t been made public yet, but in making them, Farra and Chris Grover, the USST head coach, have faced a familiar dilemma: add a number of athletes to the squad, and dilute an always-tight budget, or preserve the higher levels of support that come with a smaller...
Four down, one to go. The best season of Kikkan Randall’s career is almost over, and she’s going out in style, having won four straight races at the SuperTour Finals and U.S. 30 k Championships in Sun Valley. The latest was Friday’s classic sprint, in which she skied into the finish with a clear, two-and-a-half second lead over her roommate, Canadian Chandra Crawford, with Utah’s Maria Graefnings in third. Under a hot sun, the finals...
At the top of the results sheet for Friday’s classic sprint qualifier in Sun Valley, there weren’t any surprises: Kikkan Randall, Ida Sargent, and Chandra Crawford were the top three women, and Andy Newell, Simi Hamilton, and Skyler Davis were the top three men. But scanning down and looking through the rest of the top 30, one name was conspicuously absent: that of Kris Freeman, who was the overall leader of the SuperTour Finals mini-tour...
The OPA Cup series is supposedly to be skiing’s equivalent of baseball’s minor leagues. But last weekend’s racing in Ramsau was about as far from a dingy Southern ballpark as you can get. Surrounded by jagged, snowy peaks on a plateau in the Austrian Alps, Ramsau was the last stop on this year’s OPA circuit, which a contingent of U.S. athletes has been following for the last two weeks. Nearly a dozen Americans took part...
“Comfy,” was how American Sadie Bjornsen described the leader’s chair, the seat occupied by the finishers with the best times after they cross the line in individual start races. The young American continued a strong World Championships showing, notching her second top-30 in two starts in the 10 k classic in Oslo. Starting at bib 36, Bjornsen was not unseated as race leader for nearly five minutes, when Sweden’s Sara Lindborg took over. Bjornsen, who...
Europe seems to suit Sadie Bjornsen just fine. Nearly a month into her first long-term overseas tour, Bjornsen is skiing fast and appears to be getting faster. She led a contingent of a US World Championship skiers in the 5km classic FIS race in Beitostolen, Norway, placing 8th overall. The race was won by former overall World Cup runner-up and current Norwegian World Championship team member, Astrid Jacobsen. The veteran posted a time of 15:02,...
The group of junior and U23 skiers who stayed in Europe to race a series of Scandinavian Cup races in Latvia and Estonia wrapped up their Baltic stay with strong results. Reese Hanneman (APU), the lone US man to start, finished 36th in the 15km classic. “It was a very positive experience, even beyond the good (relatively, for me) result, because I got to ski with some very fast guys that were lapping through with me,”...
Ida Sargent (CGRP) has been struggling to find her top form following a December car accident. But things may be looking up for the World Championship-bound 23-year-old. Sargent skied to a strong fifth place finish in the 1.2km classic Scandinavian Cup sprint in Jõulumäe, Estonia on Saturday morning. “Today was really good,” Sargent wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “It was the best I’ve felt during a race since November so I think Im on...