The questions started rolling in this spring. How’s training going? Are you going for 2019 World Championships? What’s the plan for next winter? When you’re Caitlin and Brian Gregg, Olympians and local superstars in the Midwest, it’s hard to keep your athletic profile on the DL. Since buying a house on Theodore Wirth Park seven years ago, the couple has immersed themselves in the greater Minneapolis community — both in and out of skiing. They’ve...
After six years, the end is in sight: construction is underway for The Loppet Foundation’s Masters World Cup Jan. 19-26 at Wirth Park. Winning the World Masters bid added urgency to the project, and it’s given The Loppet Foundation an eye for future major nordic competitions. “We would like to bring in events like Junior Nationals, senior nationals and maybe even a World Cup,” Munger said. Brian Gregg, a 2014 Olympian and one of the highest-profile athletes associated...
In another 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes that will be competing at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 18-year-old Amanda Kautzer, of Michigan Tech and Loppet Nordic Racing, who is representing the U.S. at her third Youth Worlds. On Wednesday, Kautzer placed 53rd in the youth women’s 10 k individual and on Friday, she was
LAHTI, Finland — Tuesday at Lahti’s venue for the 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships, the sun sets early. Although technically sunset was 5:22 p.m., the sun on this clear-sky day was still wintertime reluctant. It seemed too short a time for the sun’s transect to thaw Lahti. Temps were in the mid-to-low 20 degrees Fahrenheit. But a brisk wind called for down coats and insulated pants for those not actively skiing — in the shade, it...
Need to train hills, but you don't live in the mountains? Caitlin Gregg and Loppet Nordic Racing are here to show you how to get a killer interval workout off just 175 feet of vertical.
After partially relocating to Park City and "getting excited" with her training last year, Caitlin Gregg suffering World Cup disappointment. Based 100 percent in the Midwest again, Gregg is focusing on leading the SuperTour and showing up strong at U.S. nationals -- a.k.a, doing what might get her to Lahti, Finland, for World Championships.
Caitlin Gregg didn't feel like herself when she started out the season on the World Cup, so after pushing through the Tour de Ski she came home. Now she's shooting to win the American Birkebeiner for the fourth time and set a new record as the all-time winningest athlete in race history.
While the Yellowstone Ski Festival is a time for team bonding, catching up with old racing buddies, and improving fitness and technique, it’s also a celebration of the nordic community. People of West Yellowstone gives insight into the people who make this yearly event truly special, whether they are nationally acclaimed athletes or employees at our favorite local businesses.
Almost three years ago now, Reid Lutter and Piotr Bednarski decided that rather than watching their two Twin Cities training programs compete for skiers and resources, they should join forces. The results are a lesson in what city-based ski clubs can accomplish: in 2014 Loppet Nordic Racing was the most successful junior team in the country.
The highlight of Caitlin Gregg’s day was seeing all her Midwest fans, her Loppet Nordic Racing buddies, at the finish of each heat on Friday during the first SuperTour sprint of the season. That gave her reason to celebrate and smile every time she won, which Gregg did all morning and early afternoon in the West Yellowstone 1.3 k skate sprint.
Coaching a college team which you yourself are part of might not seem like the best way to learn the tricks of the trade – or to become a better athlete, for that matter. And yet that was the situation in which Piotr Bednarski found himself in the late 1980’s at Cornell University in upstate New York. From there, he has gone on to be one of the most successful coaches in the Midwest, across...