Entering these 2010 Olympic Games, the top result by a Canadian man was a 14th by the legendary Pierre Harvey in 1988. Ivan Babikov bettered that with an 8th place in the 15km, but the best was yet to come. Pierre Harvey’s son, Alex topped his father’s result, finishing 9th today. And he was the just the third Canadian across the line. Babikov set yet another new record, finishing 5th, and in medal contention until...
With a few hours to go before the start of the men’s 15k freestyle this morning, what was Dario Cologna thinking about? Not the pressure he was under. Not that the race was his Olympic debut. In fact, Cologna wasn’t thinking about cross country skiing at all: Instead, he was watching alpine skiing on TV, waiting to find out how his Swiss countrymen would fare in the men’s downhill race. Cologna ended up five minutes...
The first cross-country races of the 2010 Olympics – the 10/15km individual start freestyle – may represent the best chance for medals – for both the US and Canada. Kris Freeman (USA) has twice finished 4th at the World Championships in this distance, and while he has had more success in classic, he has raised his skating to a similar level in recent years, and should be better positioned in the individual start format. While...