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IIvo Niskanen

Klaebo Tops Niskanen in 10 k Classic Duel

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. The guy is just unbelievable . . . on a day when steady snow fall, swirling winds, and temperatures just above freezing would seem to allow fewer racing advantages for Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo...

Klaebo Crushes Finland’s Hopes, Defeats Niskanen at Home

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. The World Cup entered its home stretch of the season with racing continuing in Lahti, Finland. Today, the racers competed in the 20 k Classic Individual Start. For the men, the Overall and...

Second Day in a Row—Valnes Emerges at the Front

  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. For World Cup racers, mass start racing is always tense, nervous, high-risk, rough-and-tumble. Long skinny skis and long fragile poles make close-quarters racing—on courses seldom more than four tracks wide—a bit of...

Norway’s Men Continue Distance Domination

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. Day Two of the 2023-2024 FIS World Cup season showcased the individual start 10 k Classic race in Ruka, Finland. The Finn’s were chomping at the bit for an opportunity to break the Norwegian men’s stranglehold on distance racing: last...

Early Gaps Decide Men’s Relay: Norway Delivers on Expectations

This World Cup 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.  In sport, sometimes “foregone conclusions” prove to have been premature; that can make for exciting racing. At other times, foregone conclusions prove accurately prescient; that makes for situations in which the anticipation...

Only Norway—Krueger Leads Sweep of 30 k Skiathlon Ahead of Klaebo and Roethe

This World Cup 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.  Thirty kilometers is a long way to race. It’s the sort of distance that recreational skiers race as a “marathon,” the kind of overlong race effort from which mere mortals...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Don’t sleep on Les Rousses

Holy smokes, that was an epic weekend of racing. Devon and Nat are joined by Tony Cyr, the breakout Canadian star, and a mystery guest drops in later on in the episode. We break down the sprint and two distance races held at the festive French venue in Les Rousses. And we promise, we’ll get you a mailbag episode before World Championships starts in a few weeks. Get at us at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.

Action in Les Rousses:  Klaebo Back on Top, Cyr Again Top Ten, Patterson Powers to 12th

This World Cup 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. Ski racers know steep hills: the stomp up the first climb in the Swedish Vasaloppet, Wave 8 of the American Birkebeiner on “B**** Hill,” the race-changing “Russian Hill” on Lake...

North American Men End on High Note in Falun 15 k Free; Patterson 7th, Léveillé 9th, Ketterson 15th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. Following the men’s Olympic 50-turned-28.6 k in Zhangjiakou, long-time American distance champion Kris Freeman and Devon Kershaw called Scott Patterson an “Olympic Specialist”, commenting on how Patterson had found many...

The Devon Kershaw Show: The Super Bowl of Skiing with Guest Jess Cockney

It doesn’t get much better than a weekend of full sun, epic skiing and meetings with the king of Norway. But that’s what we’ve got for you after another fun weekend of racing, at Oslo’s classic Holmenkollen venue. With help from Canadian retired Olympian Jess Cockney, we break down the 30 k and 50 k from Saturday and Sunday, touch on the COVID outbreak that’s hitting World Cup teams including the U.S. and take the...

Norway Sweeps Podium as Revelry Returns at Holmenkollen 50 k; Martin Leads US in 26th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. In Oslo on Sunday, came another sign of the times. The Holmenkollen Ski Festival, the beating heart and center of the modern sport of skiing since Torjus Hemmestveit won...

Update: Falun, SWE to absorb World Cup Finals Mar 11 – 13th

After officially canceling the World Cup Finals scheduled for Tyumen, Russia on February 25th the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced in a brief press release today (see below) that no replacement venue has been found, and thus the upcoming three-day race weekend in Falun, Sweden will instead absorb the event, ending the season one week prematurely.  No schedule changes have been made to the event in Falun, leaving a classic sprint, a 10/15-kilometer skate, and...

Niskanen Strides for 15 k Classic Victory on Home Turf; Cyr leads North American Men in 23rd

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. Racing continued in Lahti, FIN with the men’s 15-kilometer classic individual start. The field was smaller than usual, with just 68 starters contrasting the 104 racers in the 15 k...

Norway Pulls off a Historic Team Sprint Gold Repeat; Canadians in 5th and Americans in 9th for Strong Team Debut

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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.   The team sprint: it’s the youngest event on the Olympic program, having been contested only since the 2006 Torino Games. The event has since become a marquee event...

The Devon Kershaw Show: No-doubt Niskanen in the 15 k Classic

We’ve got our latest episode straight out of China to break down Iivo Niskanen’s dominating win in the Olympic 15 k individual start classic. We talk about some of the drama on the Norwegian team, cover the American and Canadian results and bring on special guest Vahur Teppan, a retired Estonian athlete who coached members of China’s national team for the past four years. Thanks for listening!

Niskanen with the golden stride in 15 k classic, while North American men hold strong on tough tracks

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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.   In the sport of cross country skiing, the Olympic 15-kilometer individual start classic might be considered the “granddaddy of them all.” The technique was classic, as was the...

(Press Release) Olympic Rookie Olivier Léveillé Leads Canucks in Individual Classic Cross-Country Ski Race at Beijing

The youngest member on Canada’s Olympic cross-country ski team, Olivier Léveillé, battled to a 29th-place finish at the Beijing Olympics on Friday. The 20-year-old from Sherbrooke, Que. found his groove while steadily working his way around the 15-kilomtetre course to finish in the elite group of 30 with a time of 40:52.0. “It is always hard to ski at altitude, but I felt good today,” said Léveillé. “Sometimes you feel like you are stuck in a gear,...

(Results Brief) Niskanen strides away with gold medal; Bolshunov 2nd, and Klæbo 3rd; Patterson top US skier in 38th

In what might be the rematch of the games, Finland’s Iivo Niskanen faced Alexander Bolshunov of the Russian Olympic Committee in the 15-kilometer individual start classic event. In the opening event of the Games, the 30 k mass start skiathlon, Niskanen and Bolshunov raced together to set the pace well off the front of the men’s pack for the first 15 k, raced classic, but Niskanen could not hold the effort in the freestyle half....