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Jessie Diggins

Pärmäkoski Wins Another 10 k Classic; Diggins 8th, Bjornsen 11th in Falun

FALUN, Sweden — To those watching, even to those racing, the winner was the woman who had led most of Saturday’s 10-kilometer classic mass start: Norway’s Marit Bjørgen. “Marit and Tiril [Udnes Weng], another Norwegian young girl, they were skiing really fast and I thought that they would be first and second,” Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg told FasterSkier after the race. Seven minutes after the start gun, Bjørgen had moved to the apex of the...

Saturday Rundown: Pärmäkoski Beats Bjørgen in Falun 10 k Classic; Bolshunov Notches First Win

FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): 10/15 k classic mass starts Men’s report Day 2 of World Cup Finals in Falun entailed 10- and 15-kilometer classic mass starts on Saturday, and in the first race of the day, Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski pulled out a thrilling finishing-sprint victory over Norway’s Marit Bjørgen. After American Jessie Diggins led early in the first 2.5 k loop, Bjørgen set the tone from the front for most of...

Falk Wins Last Sprint in Falun; Caldwell 6th in Final, 3rd in Sprint World Cup

FALUN, Sweden — Even the sky had predictions for Sweden. Without a cloud in sight, cerulean blue and a golden sun served as Falun’s backdrop for the opening race of the 2017/2018 World Cup Finals on Friday: the 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint. Exactly nine weeks ago in the city sprint held in Dresden, Germany, Sweden’s Hanna Falk was showing shades of greatness. In the first race of the new year, the 28-year-old Swede claimed the Dresden...

Friday Rundown: Falk, Klæbo Win Last Sprint of Season in Falun; Caldwell 6th

FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): Freestyle sprints Men’s report In the last sprint of the season and the first race of the three-day World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden’s Hanna Falk and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won their respective 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint finals, while Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Klæbo claimed the season-long Sprint Crystal Globes and Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. placed third in the Sprint World Cup. Falk started Friday...

Diggins Goes All In for the Win, Bjørgen Earns 7th Holmenkollen Title

*Update: This article previously stated that Jessie Diggins was the first American woman to reach a podium at the Holmenkollen. Diggins is actually the first American woman to reach the Holmenkollen podium in the 30 k distance, second woman to podium at a Holmenkollen in history. In 1980, American Allison Owen reached the podium in the 10 k distance.  OSLO, Norway — Some pointed to the broadcast screen in disbelief. Others began waving their Norwegian...

Sunday Rundown: Holmenkollen 30 k; Kontiolahti Mass Starts

FIS Cross Country World Cup (Oslo, Norway): Women’s 30 k freestyle mass start last race of the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea (a 30 k classic mass start), Bjørgen came from behind to win Sunday’s Holmenkollen 30 k and wasn’t able to let off too much before finish. She didn’t take the lead until less than a kilometer to go and put just enough time into her competition to take the win in 1:18:12.4...

Falla for the Win, Diggins Third in Drammen Classic Sprint

DRAMMEN, Norway — Barring the spectators cheering from their apartment balconies, the most marked aspect of Wednesday’s 1.2-kilometer classic sprint course was the finish line. It crosscut the top of a 15-meter climb. Throughout the day, no skier closed out Drammen’s uphill finish better than Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla. After winning the day’s qualifier in a time of 3:19.44 minutes, Falla won her quarterfinal in photo-finish fashion and outlunged Sweden’s Stina Nilsson to place first...

Wednesday Rundown: Falla & Klæbo Take Drammen Sprints, Diggins Third

FIS Cross Country World Cup (Drammen, Norway): Classic sprints Men’s report The cross-country World Cup hit the city on Wednesday, with classic sprints contested in the Oslo suburb of Drammen on snow which had been trucked onto the streets. And the crowd was rewarded with wins by two Norwegian favorites: Maiken Caspersen Falla in the women’s sprint and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in the men’s race. In the women’s final, Falla and Natalia Nepryaeva of Russia battled at the lead for...

20-for-20 with Lexie Madigan

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this past week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 16-year-old Lexie Madigan, who represented the United States at her first Youth World Championships. Over the last week, Madigan placed 70th in the youth women’s 6 k sprint,...

20-for-20 with Grace Gilliland

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 18-year-old Grace Gilliland, who is representing the United States at her second World Youth Championships. On Friday, Gilliland placed 55th in the youth women’s 6 k sprint, meeting her...

20-for-20 with Chloe Levins

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 19-year-old Chloe Levins, who is representing the United States at her first Junior World Championships. She previously represented the U.S. at Youth World Championships, including a

20-for-20 with Megan Bankes

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 20-year-old Megan Bankes, who is representing Canada at her second World Junior Championships after also competing at 2015 World Youth Championships. Bankes won

20-for-20 with Tim Cunningham

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 19-year-old Tim Cunningham, a freshman on the Saint Lawrence University ski team who is representing the United States at his first World Junior Championships. On Tuesday, Cunningham was part...

20-for-20 with Garrett Beckrich

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 17-year-old Garrett Beckrich, of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, who is representing the United States at his first World Youth Championships. Today in Otepää, Beckrich finished 48th in the youth men’s...

20-for-20 with Emma Stertz

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 17-year-old Emma Stertz, of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, who is representing the United States at her first World Youth Championships. *** “My full name is Emma Stertz but you can call...

Classic Bjørgen Closes Out Olympic Career with 30 k Gold; Diggins 7th

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, team sprint, Bjørgen surpassed Bjørndalen’s medal total by one. She added gold to her collection on Sunday after taking the win in the women’s 30-kilometer classic mass start. All told, Bjørgen now has 15 Olympic medals, eight of them gold. She claimed the win in the final race of the Olympics in 1:22:17.6 hours. Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski claimed silver (+1:49.5) and Sweden’s Stina Nilsson earned bronze...

Sunday Olympic Rundown: Bjørgen Dominates 30 k Classic; Diggins 7th

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Report Marit Bjørgen went out with a bang. Skiing in presumably the final Olympics race of her illustrious career, the most-decorated Winter Olympian in history simply skied away from a strong field less than 10 kilometers into Sunday’s 30 kilometer classic mass start, earning the 15th Olympic medal of her career (and eighth gold) in dominant fashion. Behind her, Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski (+1:49.5) and Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (+1:58.9) rounded...

Madshus USA, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In this episode of Nordic Nation, FasterSkier sat down with U.S. cross-country skier, Kikkan Randall — known by some as Kikkanimal — to discuss her fifth and final Winter Olympics, as well as what lays ahead for the Anchorage, Alaska native.  On Wednesday evening earlier this week, Randall and teammate Jessie Diggins paired up to take...

Bill Koch Reflects on U.S. Gold: ‘This could just be the start of an era’

Like the rest of the U.S. cross-country skiing community with a watchful eye on the Olympics, Bill Koch had been waiting for Olympic women’s freestyle team sprint unfold via live timing on the computer — numbers rather than images — as opposed to a live broadcast. When he saw USA rank first at the finish, becoming the first Americans to do so in an Olympic cross-country race (and the first to win a medal since his...