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Luke Jager

U20 Worlds 15 k/30k Classic Mass Start Rundown: A Big Day for the U.S. and Canada

The mass start classic races for the U20 athletes at the 2019 World Junior World Ski Championships dawned on another crisp, bordering on a frigid day in Lahti, Finland. A scroll through the results makes clear the day was strong for North Americans as the U20 men raced a 30-kilometer classic mass start, the women a 15 k classic mass start. In the men’s race, the six laps around the 5 k course which climbed...

World Juniors Classic Sprint Rundown: Ogden 8th, Keeffe 12th

Sunday featured the first day of racing at the 2019 Junior World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland. To kick things off at the crown jewel of Finnish ski venues was the U20 classic sprint. The men raced a 1.6-kilometer loop, the women a 1.4 k course. Several North American males qualified for the heats after Russia’s Alexander Terentev qualified first in a time of 3:28.74 minutes. For the U.S. all four athletes entered in the...

The Phenom Next Door: Gus Schumacher Looks to Lahti

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gus Schumacher spent last winter traveling the world for ski racing, including laying down the season’s most dramatic anchor leg, non-Jessie Diggins edition, to bring the U.S. men’s relay team from fourth to a historic second at World Juniors. The then-high school senior also spent the season touring the country to plan his future in ski racing, talking with multiple NCAA coaches to discuss their programs and weigh everything from coaching philosophy...

Gus Schumacher Leads the Way in First Besh Cup Weekend

Note: FasterSkier is accepting submissions for regional race reports, including for juniors racing. If you would like to see a particular race circuit covered and have the writer with the will to do it, please have them email info@fasterskier.com. Be sure to include a link to results, and preferably a few original race photos with proper credits. GOVERNMENT PEAK RECREATION AREA, outside Palmer, Alaska — On a day that had a decidedly old school feel,...

Yeaton, Norris Take Dramatic Mt. Marathon Wins

The 91st annual Mount Marathon Race, one of the oldest footraces in the country, once more descended on the small town of Seward, Alaska, on July 4. Crowds estimated at up to 30,000 perennially throng to the waterfront community, population less than 3,000, to watch racers push themselves up a steep mountain and hurl themselves back down. At the end of the day, a pair of Alaska Pacific University (APU) skiers, Jessica Yeaton and David...

FasterSkier’s North American Performances of the Year

With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil the last of 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 the North American Performances of the Year in cross-country, biathlon and nordic combined. Previous categories:...

FasterSkier’s Juniors of the Year: Ben Loomis and Hailey Swirbul (Updated)

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 outstanding North American junior athletes across all nordic disciplines.  *** Ben Loomis, U.S. Nordic Combined Team In late January,...

Saturday Rundown: Relay Silver for U.S. Men; Loomis 4th; Plus Hakuba & Gatineau

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Americans Ben Loomis, Luke Jager and Gus Schumacher.) Junior World Championships (Goms, Switzerland): Men’s and women’s relays Two individual medals and a relay podium. That’s how the U.S. team fared this week at Junior World Championships in terms of a medal count, but the significance of its breakthroughs go way beyond the hardware. Hailey Swirbul became the most successful American nordic skier at Junior World...

Under 23 Questions: Luke Jager

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2018 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships in Goms, Switzerland, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 18-year-old Luke Jager, of Alaska Pacific University (APU), who’s representing the U.S. at his first Junior Worlds.  Jager started his week by racing to 60th in the freestyle sprint then...

Halvorsen Eighth to Lead U.S. in World Juniors Sprint, Canada’s Ritchie 12th

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from American Hannah Halvorsen.) 2018 World Junior Championships is off and running and two brand-new champions have been crowned. Moa Lundgren of Sweden took the women’s skate sprint title while the men’s final went to Tom Mancini of France. On a perfect blue-sky day nestled deep in the Swiss Alps, the world’s best skiers under the age of 20 raced around a hilly sprint course with...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — No two races are exactly alike, the saying goes, and there’s a lot of truth to this cliché. But if you step back just a little bit, two race days can start to look awfully similar to one another. For example, for the second time this week, a Hanneman brother won the sprint qualifier, Reese Hanneman won the final, and Alaska Pacific University (APU) put three athletes in the final and two on...

Alaskans Revel in October Skiing at Hatcher Pass, Birch Hill

Note: We’re seeking submissions for this year’s “U.S. or info@fasterskier.com with the subject line: “Fall Skiing”. Deadline for submissions is Nov. 3. *** HATCHER PASS, above Palmer, Alaska — Winter is in the eye of the beholder, but whatever you’re looking for to mark the skier’s favorite season, this spot at 3,500 feet in the Talkeetna Mountains probably has it. Seven kilometers of groomed trails? Check. Literally Extra Blue conditions? Check. A nearby lodge with a...

‘Why Not Go Again?’ Patterson Makes Mt. Marathon His Own One Year Later

As with other epic modern-day adventure race series, the fabled origin of Seward, Alaska’s annual Mount Marathon — held every July 4 — began with beer and a bet: who among us can run from the streets of downtown to the top of the 3,022-foot mountain crowding Seward’s skyline, then back to the bottom the fastest? What about within the hour? While the footrace race has evolved massively since the port town’s pioneer miners took...

Monday Rundown: SuperTour Finals Skiathlon

U.S. SuperTour Finals (Fairbanks, Alaska): Women’s and men’s skiathlons The first day of racing was skiathlon day at the 2017 U.S. SuperTour Finals, also referred to as Spring Series, in Fairbanks, Alaska. It marked the World Championship medal in a classic event, it is still one of those things for me I am always going to feel like I am trying to fix it, always trying to work on it, which is good.” Diggins has...

Saturday Rundown: Holmenkollen, Kontiolahti, Jackson, and Lake Placid (Updated x4)

NCAA Skiing Championships (Jackson, N.H.): 15/20 k freestyle mass starts On the final day of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Skiing Championships in northern New Hampshire, the University of Utah pulled out a 16.5-point victory over the University of Colorado-Boulder (and finished 17.5 points ahead of the University of Denver) in the team standings, and the Petra Hyncicova, achieved their second-straight titles in as many nordic races this week. On a frigid Saturday morning in Jackson,...

Friday Rundown: Kontiolahti & Lake Placid (Updated)

IBU World Cup (Kontiolahti, Finland): Men’s & women’s sprints [UPDATED] Fifth place is becoming a habit for US Biathlon’s Susan Dunklee, who shot 9/10 on Friday (1+0) and finished 34.9 seconds out of first for her third fifth-place result in the last three individual races. Twice at last week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea, Dunklee placed fifth: first in the sprint and again in the pursuit. She ended her racing there...

Monday Rundown: Junior Nationals Open in Lake Placid

USSA Cross Country Junior Championships (Lake Placid, N.Y.): 5/10 k freestyle individual starts The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA) Cross Country Junior Championships (a.k.a. Junior Nationals) opened Monday in Lake Placid, N.Y., with U16, U18 and U20 men’s and women’s 5/10-kilometer freestyle individual start races taking place at the Olympic Jumping Complex trails just up the road from Mt. Van Hoevenberg, where organizers had originally planned to host the weeklong event. A lack of natural...