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Marit Bjoergen

Bjørgen Solos to Yet Another Tour Victory in Toblach Pursuit

The only thing that can stop Norway’s Marit Bjørgen from winning her first ever Tour de Ski title is herself. Entering Thursday’s fifth stage, a 5 k skate pursuit, in Toblach, Italy, Bjørgen had a 1.34.3 advantage over teammates Heidi Weng and a 2.16 lead over defending Tour de Ski champion Therese Johaug. If either Weng or Johaug wanted a chance to catch Bjørgen, the oppurtunities were winding down and they needed to catch her today.

The first three of the 36 cross-country skiing medals at stake at the Sochi Olympics are up for grabs Saturday, as racing begins here with the women's 15 k pursuit. Four Americans and three Canadians are entered in the event, which will have the athletes racing four 3.75-kilometer laps on trails at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Center --a massive Olympic complex installed at the top of a ridge in Russia's Western Caucasus Mountains over the last five years.

Weekend Roundup: And So It Begins

The official beginning to the 2014 racing season didn't disappoint with tons of exciting nordic action taking place across the globe. FasterSkier was on-site in West Yellowstone to cover the SuperTour opener, Kikkan Randall opened with her best classic-sprint finish of second in Kuusamo, Noah Hoffman notched the fastest men's time in Sunday's 15 k pursuit to end the Kuusamo Ruka Triple, and Tim Burke had his first podium of the biathlon season.

The ‘Opinionated and Controversial’ Marty Hall Holds Forth

You can say a lot about Marty Hall—and, in fact, most of it has probably already been said. The former coach of the American and Canadian national cross-country ski teams is an outspoken and prolific observer of the sport today, but that’s nothing new. He famously implied that the Russians were doping at the 1988 Olympic Games, and an Ottawa newspaper story upon his departure from the Canadian squad referred to him as the “opinionated...

Johaug Takes Sixth Skarverennet Title; Jespersen Holds Off Northug for Win

Just when you thought the ski season was over, Norway hosted one of the world’s biggest ski marathons, the 38 k Skarverennet, on Saturday morning. About 12,220 skiers competed in the race that runs from Finse to Ustaoset, high in the mountains. Therese Johaug won in 1:41:33, defeating Norwegian teammate Marit Bjoergen by 19.8 seconds. Martine Ek Hagen took third, one-tenth behind Bjoergen. Johaug took it out hard up a long incline out of Finse, and Bjoergen...

Randall and Stephen Lead U.S. at Holmenkollen With Top-30 Finishes

With enthusiastic cheers of “USA all the way!” to push them onward, the American women battled through an energetic 30 k classic at the famous Holmenkollen venue in Oslo, Norway on Sunday. The throngs of happy fans stood in contrast to what the athletes experienced out on the course — the combination of a sprint-like early pace and slow snow later on made for a challenging 90-plus minutes of racing. The U.S. women were the...

Rybinsk World Cup Preview

For the past few years, the World Cup in Rybinsk, Russia has been the weekend frequently skipped over by national teams and various individuals. With the overall World Cup title a focal point this season and no major championship to save up for, however, the expected fields are nearly double what they’ve recently been, in spite of the handful of athletes who have decided not to race in the extreme cold. The forecast initially looked...

You’ll recall that recently this rivalry has been fairly one sided, no matter how much Justyna’s fans want to believe otherwise. The previous two season simply saw Marit winning far more of their head to head match-ups. At the start of the season, things looked even worse for the Justyna camp, as she struggled quite [...] Related posts:

  1. Victims & Nemeses: Marit and Justyna Edition
  2. Bjoern Daehlie vs Thomas Alsgaard
  3. Head-to-Head: Marit vs Justyna

While Men Ski Mountain Pass, Women Ski Laps; TDS Field Reacts

TOBLACH, Italy – Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski, which took place Thursday, is the event’s crown jewel: a 35-kilometer point-to-point race that sent competitors up an over a mountain pass, with the craggy Dolomites as a stunning backdrop. Or, to be more precise, it sent male competitors up and over a mountain pass, with the craggy Dolomites as a stunning backdrop. The women, meanwhile, skied three laps of a standard five-kilometer course on...

TOBLACH, Italy – Cross-country skiing has plenty of unlikely alliances, from Norwegians running the Swiss national team to an American heading up the Canadian coaching staff. But few alliances were more curious than the one forged on Thursday between Marit Bjoergen (NOR) and Justyna Kowalczyk (POL). In Thursday’s Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski, Bjoergen outsprinted Kowalczyk on the homestretch here to win by two seconds, taking her fourth straight victory and her third...

Kowalczyk Scores Tour Hat Trick, Shuts out Field in Classic Sprint

OBERSTDORF, Germany – Three wins in three days over a range of distances and in both techniques—exactly what many expected in the Tour de Ski, just not from Justyna Kowalczyk (POL). Norwegian Marit Bjoergen dominated the first World Cup period, winning five of the six races she started, most in dominating fashion. Despite taking a pass on the Tour for two years, Bjoergen entered the 2012 edition as the favorite. Two consecutive overall Tour wins,...

Randall in Disbelief After Semifinals Crash; “Everything Seemed to Be Clicking”

OBERSTDORF, Germany – Kikkan Randall’s pink tiara will have to wait until next year. The birthday girl had a cardboard crown on hand for Stage 3 of the Tour de Ski on Saturday—a gift from her mother that Randall was ready to pull out if she made the final heat of the classic sprint race. Unfortunately, the tiara had to stay in her backpack, as the Alaskan got a 29th birthday present of an unexpected...