No frills, no guests, just Devon and Nat breaking down six races from Lahti, Finland, as the World Cup returns to Scandinavia. Two more weekends to go after this one — stick with us. Send feedback, comments and anything else at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.
Has it really been a week since the Olympics already? The World Cup’s furious schedule forges on with more racing this weekend in Lahti, Finland. Special guest host, Finnish Olympic gold medalist Sami Jauhojaervi, joins us to break down those results and other Finnish highlights from this season. We also cover results from the World Junior Championships in the early part of the podcast, and finish with a brief discussion of how cross-country skiing is...
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...
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. Snapping back after a week away from racing, the World Cup resumed in wintery Lahti, Finland with a 1.6 kilometer freestyle sprint. The American women made their presence immediately known,...
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. By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Ian Tovell During a brief reprieve from racing, the top tier of international racing made its way from the high desert of Zhangjiakou, China...
We all thought the big news would be the return of Norway. And certainly, that was the news, just not the lead. Norway swept both the men’s and women’s skiathlon podiums on Saturday and won the 4 x 5 k and 4 x 7.5 k relays on Sunday. But…and this is a big but, Alexander Bolshunov made the headlines with his violent behavior as he crossed the finish line in Lahti on Sunday. Down the...
In the big global picture, much has transpired since Jessie Diggins won the Tour de Ski. On the macro side of things, that being on the World Cup, a break has transpired. On Saturday, the cross-country World Cup returns with a skiathlon. The more notable news is the Norwegian national team will spice up the skiing as they return from a self-imposed hiatus from the World Cup since early December. We also answer some...
It is Monday after all. A day late for the Lahti relay recap but right on time to discuss U.S. skier, Gus Schumacher’s 10 k classic win at World Juniors. The 19-year-old Schumacher from Anchorage, Alaska can close – and he did that Monday with a burning fast final 3.3 k loop in taking the win. And yeah, the women’s 4 x 5 k and the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relays played out at...
Sports fans talk a lot about home field advantage. Which team will play at home at Game 7 of the World Series? Or in the playoffs before the Stanley Cup? Home turf and the swells of a crowd whose numbers are skewed toward the home team has an undeniable effect. Yes, the Norwegian team of Tiril Udnes Weng, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Therese Johaug, and Heidi Weng won yet another 4×5-kilometer relay with a time of...
In a typical season, you might expect late February in Lahti, Finland to look wintery. 61 degrees North latitude, ample snow on the ground and clinging to the trees, maybe even a reindeer? In fact, in a plug for the venue showed a woman skiing through a snow-laden town and arriving at the base of the towering ski jumps. But it was not so today. Women time-trialed through the woods for two laps on a...
On Saturday in Lahti, Finland, Kevin Bolger of the Sun Valley XC Gold Team made his World Cup debut. In his first season since graduating from the University of Utah, Bolger earned start rights for the final period of World Cup racing by leading the SuperTour. It was quite the debut: in the skate sprint, Bolger qualified in 16th, then advanced through the rounds to the semifinals and finished 11th on the day. There are...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from American Caitlin Patterson.) The 2018 Olympics were pretty successful for Finland, in terms of cross-country skiing: Iivo Niskanen won gold in the 50 k and Krista Pärmäkoski earned silver in the 30 k and bronze in the skiathlon and the 10 k skate. After the Games finished, the FIS Cross Country World Cup moved to Finland, but on the first day of competition – skate...
You could call him a specialist. An all-around contender in classic distance races, Alexey Poltoranin of Kazakhstan has proven time and time again that he has the 15-kilometer classic individual start figured out. On Sunday in Lahti, Finland, he set a new World Cup record by winning his eighth-career 15 k classic (including both individual and mass-start formats). He had previously tied Swedish legend last 15 k classic contested in Planica, Slovenia. Three of Poltoranin’s...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Lahti, Finland): 10/15 k classic Men’s report Racing at home in Finland, Krista Pärmäkoski picked a good time to collect the second World Cup victory of her career, and again in a 10 k classic. Pärmäkoski’s first win came in the 10 k classic in Planica, Slovenia, earlier this season. In second was Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva, who picked up her first World Cup podium. The current U23 standings leader, Nepryaeva’s time was 20.9...
The men’s freestyle sprint final in Lahti, Finland, started in almost comical fashion: the six men who had made it to the final heat of the day skied slowly, then even slower, as nobody wanted to lead. The final was full of dangerous men. Norwegian youngster Johannes Høsflot Klæbo has won five sprints this season, and he just became an Olympic gold medalist in the sprint in PyeongChang, South Korea, a mere ten days ago....
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Lahti, Finland): Men’s & women’s freestyle sprints Men’s report The defending world championships from the 2017 freestyle sprint prevailed again in Lahti on Saturday, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla winning the women’s 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint final and Italy’s Federico Pellegrino coming out on top in the men’s 1.6 k final at last year’s World Championships venue. Falla’s rise to the final started with her qualifying in 12th, 7.96 seconds off the...
Note: This is the first of a multiple-part series on the 2018 Winter Olympic selection criteria for the U.S. cross-country ski team. A selection criteria and procedures for nomination to the U.S. Olympic team. Briefly put, what does it take to get to PyeongChang? And what factors will U.S. Ski Team (USST) coaches and (Lahti in 2017. First comes objective qualification via performance on the World Cup. Second comes the potential use of discretionary picks....
With the 2016/2017 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 outstanding Canadian skiers competing primarily, but not exclusively, at the Continental Cup level. *** Katherine Stewart-Jones, U25 National team/NTDC Thunder Bay/Nakkertok...
Whew, that was a whirlwind. Over the last two and a half weeks of Nordic World Championships racing in Lahti, Finland, we witnessed the U.S. and Canadian cross-country teams capture a total of four medals: silver and bronze in the women’s freestyle sprint (with Americans Sadie Bjornsen), and gold in the final race of World Championships: the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start (won by Canada’s Lazenbyphoto.com. (Click each photo to enlarge)
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Men’s 50 k freestyle mass start After a week of missing out on the medals at 2017 Nordic World Championships, Canada’s Alex Harvey, a four-time World Championships medalist from 2011, 2013 and 2015, achieved his first individual gold medal in the final race of this year’s World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Harvey, 28, won the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start in a drag race to the finish. Entering the...