After an unusual and unprecedented season, many athletes have announced their retirement as they move on from professional ski racing. Aside from the three notable retirements from the U.S. Ski Team, Sadie Maubet-Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell-Hamilton, and Simi Hamilton, twelve international athletes have said goodbye to World Cup competitions. Perhaps the biggest name among them is Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway, who after a somewhat inauspicious start to his World Cup career in 2005 when he...
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla torched the start of the women’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint on Thursday at the 2019 World Championships in Seefeld, Austria. She skied snappy and smooth – her compact frame channeling energy downstream and towards the awaiting finish line. Like a prize fighter knowing she had her peers against the ropes, Falla first appeared to give the knock-out blow a minute into the race. She pushed over the top of the first...
FIS World Cup Lahti, Finland 1.4 k/ 1.6 k Freestyle Sprint In the women’s skate sprint qualifier in Lahti, Finland Slovenia’s Eva Urevc laid down the fastest time in 2:40.67 minutes. Swiss skier Nadine Faehndrich was the second fastest qualifier, 4.21 seconds back, with the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Sophie Caldwell third (+4.36). Canada’s Dahria Beatty qualified 25th (+10.21). Also making the heats for the U.S. were Ida Sargent (USST) in 26th (+10.36), and Kelsey Phinney...
If the Grand Prix were to host a ski race, it might look like the Team Sprint in Dresden, Germany. With 10 teams racing the 6 x 1.6-kilometer final and the racetrack style, three-lap loop situated in the city’s center, the tactics of a Formula One driver seemed employable on the relatively flat course. For most teams’ skiers, that meant patience; staying in one’s lane and in contact until the last lap. Norway’s Team I...
The 2018 Blink Ski Festival continued in full force on Friday and Saturday, with cross-country and biathlon prologues, 10- and 15-kilometer cross-country races and biathlon mass starts all taking place on Friday, followed by sprints on Saturday. Results: Men’s cross-country prologue After the elite men’s prologue, athletes geared up for a men’s and women’s biathlon prologues. Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø took the men’s biathlon prologue win in a time of 10:30.2 after two misses (1+1)....
BEITOSTØLEN, Norway — A year ago, 20-year-old Johannes Høsflot Klæbo leapt onto the scene with a Friday’s 15 k classic, 18 seconds behind reigning Overall World Cup champion Martin Johnsrud Sundby. On Saturday, Klæbo won the 1.5 k classic sprint in Beitostølen without so much as a blemish, winning the qualifier to start the day then topping each of his heats en route to the final. Up against five other Norwegians in the final, Klæbo...
BEITOSTØLEN, Norway — For the reigning Sprint World Cup champion who never lost a classic sprint last season (and placed first or second in all but one World Cup skate sprint), Sunday’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint was about starting where she left off. Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla did just that, qualifying first then cruising through the heats to win the women’s freestyle sprint on Sunday in Beitostølen. Part of a three-race series, it was held on the final day...
Marit Bjørgen's gotten used to winning opening mini tours in Kuusamo, and she seems to have no problem getting off to a strong start in the first of three races in Lillehammer, either. "It is always fun to win," she told NRK after her second-straight World Cup sprint win in Friday's 1.3 k freestyle sprint.
No snow-speed records were broken at the sixth edition of Bysprinten, but the annual two-day ski festival on the streets of Mosjøen, Norway provided plenty of excitement for the 3,000 spectators who came out to see their favorite national team members ski as fast as possible. On Saturday, Eirik Brandsdal (NOR) prevailed in the men’s final sprint, and Laurien Van der Graaf (SUI) topped the women’s field. “I am very fond of Bysprinten. I often do...
For the second straight day of sprint racing in Dusseldorf, Germany, the American women brought the fireworks. During the second day of World Cup racing in Dusseldorf, the Norway I team of Mari Eide and Maiken Caspersen Falla took the win. In a surprise move, United States I featuring Sadie Bjornsen and Kikkan Randall crossed the line second, 1.6 seconds back of the Norwegians. The bronze medal went to Natalia Korosteleva and Natalia Matveeva of...