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IIvo Niskanen

Sweden’s World Cup Weekend! Poromaa Swipes Les Rousses 20 k

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. Les Rousses’ 20 k Mass Start would be a race conducted without the usual pace-makers. The Norwegian team had mostly stayed home for their own championships, and the Russian team was voted off the...

Nyenget Tops International Podium in Davos 20 k Classic

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.  World Cup Nordic skiing can seem like it’s become fairly predictable: the Swedish team dominates the Women’s Sprints, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) is unbeatable in the Men’s Sprints, and Therese Johaug (NOR)...

The Devon Kershaw Show: A breakout McWeekend in Ruka, and much more from Finland

Devon has a cold, but don’t let that deter you — he perseveres, and we welcome special guess Zanden McMullen after his breakout weekend in Ruka. We’ve got recaps of the astonishingly entertaining racing in Finland, plus bonus discussion of sponsorship feuds and other news. Send us your questions, comments, fan mail and hate mail: nat@fasterskier.com and devon@fasterskier.com. We’ll be back after Lillehammer.  

Niskanen Secures Victory at Home as Ruka Launches World Cup Season

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...

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...