Upon returning to Park City from her recent training trip to Norway and Sweden, Liz Stephen spoke about the experience of training with Marit Bjørgen and Therese Johaug, overcoming the fear of new things, and how she plans to carry confidence into next season, where she wants to be on the podium at the Sochi Olympics.
In Drammen, Norway, on Wednesday Justyna Kowalczyk continued the momentum from her distance win in Lahti and charged to victory again, this time in a 1.3 k city sprint. Save for a challenge from Heidi Weng (NOR) in the final round, the Polish star blew the competition away all day, and in the process secured the overall World Cup crystal globe for the 2012-2013 season and for the fourth time in her career.
Two 22-year-old Norwegians, Maiken Caspersen Falla and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, topped Sunday's World Cup team sprint podium, beating Sweden's Ida Ingemarsdotter and Stina Nilsson by half a second in the 6 x 0.85 k skate sprint. The U.S. women with Sadie Bjornsen and Ida Sargent ended up seventh after hanging in third.
School was in session in Switzerland, and Kikkan Randall was doing the teaching. Randall destroyed the field on her way to her second stage victory in just three races in the 2013 Tour de Ski, winning the freestyle sprint in Val Müstair over Norwegians Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Heidi Weng.
An abnormally high pulse in training Saturday morning prompted Norwegian Marit Bjørgen to go to the hospital, and on Sunday, the defending World Cup champion was discharged after being examined for cardiac dysrhythmia, also known as arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat.
The Norwegian women dominated the World Cup opener Nov 20-21, and the Norwegian men want revenge on the Swedes. However, will likely have to achieve the task without reigning World Champion Petter Northug in the Kuusamo (FIN) mini-tour.