Canada’s Olympic Trials kicked off on Wednesday at the Canmore Nordic Centre with the first of two freestyle sprint races. With perhaps only two spots per gender on the Olympic team up for grabs, there is little room for errors for racers wanting to qualify for the Olympics.
In the last big North American race before the holiday break, Kevin Sandau (AWCA/NST) and American Kate Fitzgerald (APU) took home top honors on Sunday in the Black Jack NorAm 10/15 k classic individual starts in Rossland, B.C.
Another cold one at Sovereign Lake kept the organizers and athletes scrambling in temperatures around -20 degrees Celsius, but the end result was an exciting first NorAm of the season, with two Americans taking the top spots in the men's 15 k and Heidi Widmer winning the 10 k skate.
Because the Olympics only come around every four years, domestic races hold even more value in the months leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. In Canada, they’ll determine who will fill approximately four remaining spots on the Olympic nordic team. The fun starts this weekend at Sovereign Lake, British Columbia.
With almost the same number of athletes as last year, the AWCA in Canmore, Alberta, has fewer women this season, but coach Chris Jeffries is pleased with the team's training quality despite some injuries. "The group is very focused this year and more mature," he says.
On the last day of racing at 2013 Canadian Nationals, American Torin Koos and his Swiss girlfriend Bettina Gruber were the big winners in the 50- and 30-kilometer freestyle mass starts, respectively. Brent McMurtry ended his ski career on a high note, and Zina Kocher took the Canadian women's title.
Canada's domestic series, the NorAms, wrapped up in Grand Prairie, Alberta, this weekend, where Graeme Killick of the Alberta World Cup Academy and Nakkertokk racer Alana Thomas won grueling but exciting three-day minitours. We caught up with podium finishers for their comments on the race.
Brittany Webster tallied an important win at her home course and race favourite Graham Nishikawa skied away from the field at the Highlands Nordic NorAm on Sunday, which concluded the Canadian World Championships trials.
For the second time this season, the Nishikawa siblings pulled out a NorAm victories on the same day at the World Junior/U23/Senior World Sprint Trials in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Emily won the women's 15 k skiathlon by 9.1 seconds and Graham took the men's 30 k by 3.7 seconds.
Twenty-nine Canadians put themselves to the test Thursday in the first of three races at the Alberta World Cup. FasterSkier spoke with several nation's group skiers to see how the 10- and 15-kilometer classic mass starts went. For some, they it was their first World Cup.
Thirty Canadian men and women will be putting on World Cup bibs in Canmore this weekend. Some are old pros and some are competing in the first World Cups of their lives.
While the U.S. SuperTour season has already started, the Canadians are just about to get warmed up -- and without much time to do so -- when the NorAm opener doubles as Canadian World Cup trials this weekend.
This past spring, nine Canadians learned they prequalified for their nation’s World Cups in December. Most had an inkling they were in the mix; last season’s NorAm winners Kevin Sandau and Alysson Marshall automatically guaranteed themselves starts in every Québec and Alberta World Cup race, as did the second-place finishers Brent McMurtry and Emily Nishikawa. But then there were some wild cards, like Canadian national-team biathlete Rosanna Crawford. In March, Crawford jumped into a couple...
Welcome the land of fried chicken. That’s what Alberta World Cup Academy and Canadian development team skier Kevin Sandau saw on his drive down to Whitefish, Mont., when he tweeted a photo of a license plate: Montana. Treasure State. FRDCHKN. The entire World Cup Academy (AWCA), with two weeks in Sweden, where she trained with the U.S. and Swedish national women’s teams in Sälen and Torsby. She’s taking a little breather in Canada first. In...
This is the third preview in a quick-and-dirty series about Canadian national-training centres. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order. Team: Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) Coaches: Chris Jeffries (head coach/women’s coach), Mike Cavaliere (racing director/men’s coach), George Grey (women’s assistant coach), Stefan Kuhn (universal coach/men’s assistant), Jeremy Hecker (summer intern), Rob Soffer (strength...
Less than a week after racing in Germany last December, Alysson Marshall smiled as she soaked up her surroundings at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre in Vernon, British Columbia. The Canadian senior development team member had just completed the first four World Cups of her career and left Europe on an extremely high note. With national team skier Dasha Gaiazova, she placed 21st in the team sprint in Düsseldorf, Germany. Six days later, Marshall won...
MONT SAINT-ANNE, Québec – To say that Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey are close would be a massive understatement. When Kershaw decided to pack it in for the season, Harvey and some of his other teammates on the Canadian National Ski Team convinced him to reconsider. They found Kershaw on the start line Saturday as fired up as ever for the 50-kilometer classic mass start at Canadian Ski Nationals. After skiing together with a lead...
All 2012 FIS World Cup Finals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of Men’s results. Matthew Voisin contributed reporting.
All 2012 FIS World Cup Finals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of Complete Race Report Matt Voisin contributed reporting.
All 2012 FIS World Cup Finals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of