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...
This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Here we are in the back half of the 2021 World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. As athletes strive for their peak fitness, storylines from the World Cup season, pandemic,...
Oslo in late winter – it’s be hit or miss. Fog. Bluebird. A maritime climate, with plentiful moisture in the air, a slight drop in temps can morph the Holmenkollen ski complex into a ping-pong-ball-world. Athletes were mere shadows striding into and out of view on a foggy- drizzly day at the Holmenkollen. As spectators were limited to trail side spots as the main stadium was closed due to the Covid-19 virus, for some concerned,...
Picking up where we left off in Östersund, Sweden: a pursuit start 15-kilometer classic. Unlike the women’s field where Therese Johaug “administered a beatdown”, creating a large time gap for herself, the margins for the men were much smaller. A glance at Final Results | Time of Day Results
The six-stage Ski Tour 2020, which runs from Sweden to Norway over the next week, began Saturday in Östersund, Sweden with the men’s 15-kilometer individual start skate. The race began with twilight immersing Östersund with the sky eventually morphing into black as the seeded group of skiers looped around on what FIS called a 4.71 k course. This much can be concluded after a single day of what will be a hotly contested tour: the...
And the World Cup beat goes on. Nearly 70 men lined up in Oberstdorf, Germany for a 15/15-kilometer skiathlon, battling across techniques in front of a Bavarian Alp backdrop. The venue will be the home of the 2021 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. The 3.75 k course in Oberstdorf featured a variety of terrain, with the Burgstall hill climb bringing athletes to the high point of the course. To increase the pulse in the long...
In this episode of The Devon Kershaw Show … it is all things Davos. While the glam Swiss valley boasts mountain scenery, and a fusion of traditional Swiss cowbell and high finance, in many ways it remains decidely old school. Among other things, we discuss what some say is an outdated Davos distance course and the killing it Swedish women’s team. We’ll be releasing a mid-week episode where we chat about last week’s WADA...
Sunday’s men’s 15-kilometer freestyle individual start race in Falun, Sweden, was the final European stop for the World Cup. With the race concluded, athletes will pack up ski bags, moth-ball the wax buses, and jet across the Atlantic. Next week athletes will race amidst the crowds and city-scape of Québec. The final Euro-leg of the World Cup saw Alexander Bolshunov of Russia win his third individual race in a row. His top-step effort was his...
FIS World Cup Falun, Sweden 10k/15k Inidividual Freestyle The sun rises. The sun sets. And Norway’s Therese Johaug won the 10-kilometer individual start freestyle in Falun, Sweden. In 25:23.9 minutes, Johaug made her winning statement. Sweden’s Ebba Andersson placed second (+18.75), with the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Jessie Diggins in third (+30.3). Fourth place went to Ingvild Flugstad Østberg of Norway who finished 30.8 seconds back. Sadie Bjornsen (USST) raced to 12th (+1:05.7), Julia Kern...
Russian skier, Alexander Bolshunov made history today during the Holmenkollen 50-kilometer classic mass start race. With his victory, Bolshunov became the youngest person and the third Russian to win the storied Holmenkollen 50 k. Bolshunov finished today’s race in 2:23:49.8 hours. For Bolshunov, who comes off a World Championships during which he won four silver medals, this was his fourth World Cup win of the season. The victory on Saturday reinforced Men’s Results
The 2019 Seefeld World Championships event came to a close on Sunday, the 11 days of competition capping off with a men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start. Unlike two years ago at the Lahti World Champs, whenResults -David Brown and Jason Albert contributed Double click on the photos below to enlarge.
FIS Nordic Ski World Championships Men’s 50 K Freestyle Mass Start It has come to a close. The 2019 Nordic Ski World Championships ended today with the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start. Hans Christer Holund of Norway began to make his mark on the race shortly after 20 k with a solo attack. In his bold ski-alone effort, Holund was able to fend off any chasers and win in 1:49:59.3 hours. Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov timed...
While a temperature in the upper thirties would not normally classify as cool to a ski racer, it was a welcome break from the blazing sun and upper 50’s that have been ever-present in the 2019 Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austria. Light rain peppered the athletes in the 4 x 10-kilometer relay, continuing to keep things challenging for the wax techs. The relay is a testament to both a nation’s depth and strategy,...
The 4 x 10-kilometer men’s relay was a two-team tango as Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo were tagged for their respective anchor legs on Friday. The two teams stuck together until Klæbo moved ahead with less than five k to go and gapped Russia by 22 seconds. naltrexone revia It was enough final leg surge for Norway’s Emil Iversen, Martin Johnsrud Sundby, Sjur Røthe, and Klæbo to win in 1:42:32.1 hours. Russia’s...
It was a tough day in Seefeld, Austria Wednesday on and off the race tracks. The efforts and drama in the men’s World Championship 15-kilometer classic were overshadowed by the news of several athletes arrested on suspected doping violations. The distractions shed more light on the underbelly of some high-speed athletes and those who support the cheating. The only thing deafening the day’s police actions was the roar of the considerable Norwegian fanbase in Seefeld. Shedding...
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Seefeld, Austria Women’s Individual 15 k Classic Norwegians travel well to international cross-country races. That was evidenced by the roar of the crowd in Seefeld, Austria during Wednesday’s 15 k classic as Martin Johnsrud Sundby crested the final climb and descended into the home stretch. Nothing was for certain until +2.9 seconds popped up next to Russian Alexander Bessmertnykh’s name as Sundby crossed the finish. Sundby won the race in...
This Op-Ed comes from Chad Salmela, the commentator for World Cup nordic skiing and IBU Biathlon at NBC Sports. Salmela also coaches running at the The College of St, Scholasticia. *** Saturday’s Men’s Skiathlon and Why I Think it Matters I don’t have a blog and I didn’t get to call the race Saturday, but I thought it was compelling on a couple levels. (Disclaimer: You may have figured all this out without me, so my...
*This article has been updated to include comments of Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave By the time the camera panned past the 26-kilometer mark of the men’s 30 k skiathlon at 2019 World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austria on Saturday, the original pack of 72 starters had dwindled to five: Norwegians Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Sjur Røthe, Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov, Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, and France’s Clement Parisse. The leaders had been unphased by Niskanen’s hot pace...
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Seefeld, Austria 15 k/30 k Skiathlon Men’s Race Report | Women’s Race Report Between 3.75-kilometers and 4.85 k on Saturday, Norway’s Therese Johaug began to pull away in earnest during the women’s World Championship 15 k skiathlon — by then she had built a near 15 second lead. The time back to the Norwegian would only grow. Johaug powered into the classic to skate transition zone in control with a...
The tension in the interval start race comes down to watching the clock. The seconds tick, the time checks pass, the squirm of the of the skier in the leader’s chair only quelled after the top-prospects slide past the finish — and there’s only a reference to time back. On Dec. 12, that was France’s Maurice Manificat, the thirty-two-year-old skate skiing star, residing where he often belongs, sitting in the leader’s chair in Davos,...