John Farra – FasterSkier

Want to Ski, Shoot, and Hang Out with Anchorage Olympians? Try Biathlon.

Nathaniel HerzDecember 6, 2023

A tale of how I skied faster than Kikkan Randall for exactly five minutes and 39 seconds until I got tired and she hit more rifle targets than I did. Once upon a time, I was a serious, though definitively not successful, cross-country skier. I raced for my college team in Maine, then kept at it afterward and one time finished 17th (I think, I can’t find the results any more) at the Tour of...

Feature News

The Future of Roller Ski Festivals—Schutzenski 2023

John TeafordNovember 8, 2023

On a sunny October Saturday, the Path of the Annularity—the shadow of an eclipse—passed directly over Soldier Hollow, Utah. For nearly thirty minutes, the sky was shaded, the air cooled, and the valley got eerily quiet. But the action never stopped: races went on, heart rates remained high, sweat continued to drip, and finish lines were crossed while the solar/lunar show swirled in the heavens above. Something special was happening, that’s for sure . ....

Community Feature News

Building Biathletes: John Farra and the USBA

John TeafordOctober 25, 2022

As the new Director of Sport Development for the US Biathlon Association (USBA), John Farra’s career is coming full circle (maybe even for a second or third lap). As he enters this newly established position within USBA, Farra reflects on decades of involvement—as athlete, as coach, as administrator—within the multi-faceted world of nordic skiing and Olympic/Paralympic sport. An alumnus (and former coach) of the University of Utah, a member of the 1992 Winter Olympic Team...

Biathlon News US Biathlon

John Farra Named Director of Sport Development for U.S. Biathlon

FasterSkierSeptember 21, 2022

U.S. Biathlon has taken yet another step to fortify its athletic position for the future, naming Olympian John Farra to the newly-created position, director of sport development. Farra, an NCAA cross country skiing All-American with the University of Utah and a 1992 Olympian, has built a highly-successful career in sport development across multiple Olympic and Paralympic sports organizations. Farra’s new role will focus on talent identification among junior and collegiate cross country skiers and providing a...

Community News Opinion

Opportunity Knocked: Opportunity Seized

FasterSkierDecember 10, 2019

By: Paige Elliott The call to action is clear: Nordic skiing needs more women coaches. From the launch of the Women’s Ski Coaching Association to former U.S. Ski Team coach Pete Vordenberg’s editorial on FasterSkier to Dr. Nicole LaVoi’s keynote presentation at U.S. Ski & Snowboard annual National Cross Country Coaches Symposium, gender equality has been at the forefront of recent conversation in the Nordic community. I believe in this mission and therefore want to...

Biathlon General Interviews News Racing US Biathlon

The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Currier Retires from Biathlon

Gabby NaranjaJune 1, 2018

The first time I contacted Russell Currier for a retirement interview, it was mid-April. I had asked him to share his story, and no more than 24 hours after my initial email to Currier, I received a response. “Yeah, let’s do that. I’m actually in Bozeman right meow,” he’d written. Digging through my memory bank, I recalled Currier having come to Bozeman one other time. Two Aprils ago, the Stockholm, Maine, native spent a...

Canadian National Ski Team General Interviews News Olympics Para Nordic Racing US Ski Team World Cup

FasterSkier’s Coach of the Year: Eileen Carey; Runners-Up: Matt Whitcomb and Robin McKeever

FasterSkierApril 15, 2018

With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to coaches of North American teams in any nordic discipline, at any level – although in an Olympic and...

General Interviews News Para Nordic Racing

From 3 to 16: Behind U.S. Paralympics Nordic’s Medal Leap in PyeongChang

Jason AlbertApril 10, 2018

Success to failure. Failure to success. Two trends of two extremes on the performance metrics on the international cross-country skiing spectrum. There are many in-betweens: scoring World Cup points with a top 30, top 10’s, any spot on the podium. There are the Olympic and Paralympic quads featuring a four-year buildup to North America’s singular focus on bronze, silver and gold hardware. When considering how to develop talent, placing athletes on snow with the absolute...

General News Regional / Local

Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s Snow Factory a ‘Game Changer’

Peter MindeApril 7, 2017

When it came to investing in snowmaking, New York State’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) went with the go-big mentality, leasing a TechnoAlpin Snow Factory for the Mount Van Hoevenberg nordic center and using the technology throughout the 2016/2017 winter season. Following the previous 2015/2016 season, in which Mt. Van Hoevenberg, “Van Ho” for short, was open 37 days, according to ORDA’s annual report, the authority acquired and installed a self-contained snowmaking system at Van Ho, the 1980 Winter Olympic venue in Lake...

General Para Nordic Racing

Five Races in Four Days: U.S. Paralympics Sit Ski Nationals & IPC Continental Cup Recap

BrainspiralJanuary 16, 2016

Last week, the 2016 U.S. Paralympics Sit Ski Nationals and IPC Continental Cup were held in Craftsbury, Vt., where Oksana Masters swept the women's races, newcomer Joy Rondeau placed second in four of them, and Andy Soule won all but one of the men's races. “I was impressed with the group as a whole and am excited to see what is to come,” head coach Eileen Carey explained.

General Interviews News Para Nordic

Fourth No More, Soule Up to Third Overall in IPC World Cup with Five Medals at World Champs

Alex KochonFebruary 12, 2015

With five medals already in his possession before the last day of IPC World Championships in Cable, Wis., American Andy Soule didn't have to ski the standing, skate course in the mixed relay -- but he wanted to. Not only did it show him what he was capable of, but it allowed "a lot of people to see exactly what is possible for a sit skier, too,” Soule, IPC Athlete of the Month, said last week.

General IPC News Para Nordic Regional / Local

IPC World Champs Return to U.S., Cable to Host at Telemark

Alex KochonOctober 3, 2014

The U.S. is hosting world championships this year -- specifically, Cable, Wis., where the American Birkebeiner starts annually, is gearing up to be the site of the 2015 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Championships from Jan. 22-Feb. 1.

General IPC News Para Nordic

U.S. Paralympics Stoked But Not Quite Satisfied: Sights Set on Korea

Alex KochonSeptember 30, 20141

While the three medals U.S. Paralympics Nordic won in Sochi are still fresh, the team's moving on and doing everything it can with the money it has to be a leading force in Paralympic cross-country skiing and biathlon. "Medals are good, but they’re not critical," director John Farra explains. "I think they’re going to be more critical in Pyeongchang.”

Camps General News Para Nordic Testing Training

One Wild Ride: U.S. Paralympics Innovates Sit-Ski Treadmill Technique Training (Video)

Alex KochonSeptember 26, 20143

Last week, the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Team toyed with a new kind of training at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center: technique on a rollerski treadmill using live-video feedback. Oksana Masters was nervous before, but ramped it up to 10 mph at a 10-percent incline before the workout was over.

General IPC News Para Nordic Racing

McFadden Takes Silver in Sochi Sprint, Dream Comes True; Masters One Second from Bronze

Mark VosburghMarch 12, 20142

Tatyana McFadden rose to the occasion yet again to notch the second U.S. silver medal in cross-country skiing at the Sochi Paralympics, becoming the second woman to do so in the last 20 years. Just 0.1 seconds back from gold, the Russian-born McFadden medaled in front of both her adoptive and birth mothers.

Para Nordic

Masters Notches First-Ever U.S. Cross-Country Silver at Paralympics, Teammates in the Hunt

Mark VosburghMarch 9, 2014

Oksana Masters won silver in the women’s 12 kilometer cross country race in the second day of competition at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi. The medal ends a 20 year medal drought for U.S. women’s paralympic cross country skiing. Masters reacted her medal saying, “I really have to thank my training from rowing because it prepared me well for skiing; I am so happy right now.”

Interviews IPC Lifestyle Para Nordic

World-Class Wheelchair Racer, McFadden Sets Sights on Sochi

Mark VosburghDecember 5, 2013

With less than a year of nordic experience, Tatyana McFadden -- a three-time Summer Paralympian with 10 Paralympic medals and a marathon Grand Slam to her name -- has her heart set on Sochi. "I have to just be relaxed and go with the transitions," she says. "When it comes time for me to put my skis on the snow, I have to remember everything I've learned ... and ski as fast as I can and hopefully make people proud.”

Interviews Lifestyle Para Nordic Racing Training

After 10 Years in the Marines, Bermejo on his Next Mission

Alex KochonNovember 26, 20131

In his third season of skiing, Omar Bermejo is striving for the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. The 31-year-old U.S. Paralympics Development Team member joined the Maine Winter Sports Center this summer in an effort to make that happen and trained with teammates like Kris Freeman in Italy.

General Interviews Lifestyle News Other Racing Training US Nationals

After London Paralympics, Dana Could Aim for Sochi

Alex KochonAugust 14, 2012

Like most athletic children of a certain era in Putney, Vt., Alicia Dana grew up cross-country skiing. She learned the ropes from the legendary John Caldwell, a Putney School coach who went on to lead the U.S. Ski Team, and took up racing at an early age. It wasn’t long until Dana, formerly Brelsford, developed an affinity for other sports as well. By the time she was 16, she had competed at two cycling nationals...

Continental Cup General News Racing

Three Years After Initial Run, Experimental Sprint Qualifier Sparks Debate

Audrey ManganFebruary 6, 201220

A sprint qualifier can be defined as the preliminary stage of a sprint race in nordic skiing. In a race against the clock, competitors leave the starting gate at intervals and go as hard as they can for anywhere between 1 and 1.8 kilometers. The top 30 in most internationally sanctioned competitions, and sometimes a lesser number in other events, move onto the quarterfinals to face off against five other athletes at a time for...

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