Nordic Nation: Matt Whitcomb and the Art of Coaching
Jason AlbertNovember 23, 2017
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Ski World Reacts to Legkov, Belov Punishment (Updated)
Alex KochonNovember 1, 2017
This article has been updated to include comments from Canadian World Cup Team member Alex Harvey as told to on Wednesday. *** As the news spreads of the told Norway’s Nettavisen, according to a translation. “It’s my only Olympic medal. It is clear I will take it.” In an interview with Wieschemann firm stated in its press release on Wednesday. “[It] mocks the declaration of the President of the IOC, Dr. Thomas Bach, to decide only on...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canadian coach Ivan Babikov on his team’s recent camp in Park City, Utah.) Two days after Andy Newell and Erika Flowers tied the knot in Bozeman, Mont., seven members of the men’s U.S. Ski Team and eight U.S. women’s team members jumped into an intensity training block at their respective dryland camps in Park City, Utah, and the Methow Valley in northern Washington. The 10-day camps...
Western REG Camp Recap: Agony Hill and All
FasterSkierJuly 11, 2017
The following recap was written with the help of Mike Elliott, director for the Western Regional Elite Group (REG) camp, which took place June 17-24 in Park City, Utah. FasterSkier encourages coaches and athletes from any regional offseason camps (dryland or on-snow, in the U.S., Canada or abroad) to submit their own recaps and photos to
Note: This is the first of a multiple-part series on the 2018 Winter Olympic selection criteria for the U.S. cross-country ski team. A selection criteria and procedures for nomination to the U.S. Olympic team. Briefly put, what does it take to get to PyeongChang? And what factors will U.S. Ski Team (USST) coaches and (Lahti in 2017. First comes objective qualification via performance on the World Cup. Second comes the potential use of discretionary picks....
OSLO, Norway — Here’s something dizzying: six times around an 8.3-kilometer course with a total vertical gain of just over two thousand meters. In non-metric terms, all 47 finishers on Saturday’s Holmenkollen 50 k classic race accumulated roughly 6,574 feet of climbing. On the sharp end of the race for most of those kilometers were Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Finland’s Iivo Niskanen. They were the animators for the hordes of Norwegians lining the course...
Nilsson Back to Winning Ways in Drammen Classic Sprint; Caldwell Top American in 9th
Alex KochonMarch 9, 2017
Drammen is one of those staples on the World Cup, appearing on the circuit late each season and remembered for its trademark uphill finish in the middle of a city of 63,000 inhabitants, just 40 kilometers west of Oslo, Norway. “It tends to be fairly predictable snow,” U.S. Ski Team Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb told FasterSkier during an in-person interview in Drammen on Wednesday. “It’s generally clean [snow]. It’s generally some sort of klister.” But...
LAHTI, Finland—The Norwegian lineup for the women’s 4 x 5-kilometer team at the 2017 Nordic World Championships on Thursday was daunting: Maiken Caspersen Falla, Heidi Weng, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, Marit Bjørgen. On paper and on snow, a rundown of names and accomplishments. Here during these Lahti championships the Norse foursome have hauled; Falla and Weng with a classic team sprint gold, Bjørgen a 15 k skiathlon gold, and Jacobsen’s hardware was a bronze in the 10 k classic. On Thursday...
Classic Combo: Bronze for Bjornsen & Diggins; Gold for Norway in World Champs Team Sprint
Gabby NaranjaFebruary 26, 2017
LAHTI, Finland — Statistically speaking, most might have bet on the Swede — particularly if it came down to a lunge to the line. After all, that’s how Sweden’s Stina Nilsson 2017 sprint world champion Maiken Caspersen Falla. On two other occasions, Nilsson has skate sprinted to the win in a photo finish — once during freestyle sprint in Falun, Sweden. Perhaps most memorably, it’s also how the Swede gold at the 2013 World Championships in Val...
Nilsson Cements Sprint-Favorite Status; Diggins 5th in Otepää Skate Sprint
Alex KochonFebruary 18, 2017
At 23, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson has nailed a business-like approach to World Cup starts. Standing 5-foot-9, she appears to tower over most of her competitors, and before her signature races (sprints) she appears deep in contemplation, definitely in the zone. During those races, she’s usually the one setting the pace, and afterward, she’s almost always celebrating at the finish. So far this season, Nilsson has won seven World Cup races — including today’s freestyle sprint in Otepää,...
First World Cup Win for Klæbo; Hamilton 8th in Otepää, Misses Final by Inches
Harald ZimmerFebruary 18, 2017
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is young enough that he could have started at the U23 World Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah, earlier this month. And the 20-year-old Norwegian probably would have done well there. But the 2016 Junior World Champion in the freestyle sprint and 10-kilometer classic races held in Râsnov, Romania, already has his sights set much higher this season, targeting next week’s senior International Ski Federation (FIS) Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland. And...
2018 is sooner than you think. The World Cup makes its pre-Olympic presence in PyeongChang, South Korea this week and the U.S. and Canadian teams are there.
Falun Extras: Bonus Quotes
FasterSkierJanuary 31, 2017
We’re a couple days out from last weekend’s World Cup in Falun, Sweden, with several top racers taking a two-week breather now to prepare for World Championships, but several more are headed to PyeongChang, South Korea, to preview the 2018 Olympic course at this coming weekend’s three-day World Cup, Friday through Sunday. Here is a final wrap of some of the North American comments from Falun that didn’t make it into the race reports. Saturday’s freestyle sprints...
*Note: this article has been updated to include comments from U.S. women’s head coach Matt Whitcomb as of Monday, Jan. 30. After sealing her 105th individual World Cup victory on Sunday, and her yesterday’s sprint winner — and Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski. Also within firing range was American Jessie Diggins, skiing in seventh, along with Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Maiken Caspersen Falla, and Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla. However, within another four kilometers, the Norwegians had broken away, a close...
Yellow and blue, blue and yellow: either way it comes up Sweden as Stina Nilsson (SWE) wins the 1.4 k freestyle sprint in Falun, Sweden. And it was five U.S. women into the heats as Kikkan Randall makes her first final in nearly two years.
Norway Women Win Again, But It’s Closest Relay in Two Years; U.S. Fourth in Nailbiter (Updated)
Chelsea LittleJanuary 22, 2017
Another women’s 4 x 5 k World Cup relay, another Norwegian win. Yawn? Not so fast. While the team of Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Heidi Weng, Astrid Jacobsen, and Marit Bjørgen may have picked up the victory, the women’s race in Ulricehamn, Sweden, was anything but dull. For one thing, it was the closest race in 23 months, going all the way back to the 2014 Olympics where Sweden took gold. The top four teams all...
Inside the Lahti World Champs Roster with Chris Grover
Gavin KentchJanuary 19, 2017
You already learned who's going to Lahti next month. FasterSkier talks with USST head coach Chris Grover about the reasoning behind who was and was not selected for next month's world championships team.
TDS Stages 5, 6, 7: Toblach/Val di Fiemme Quotes
FasterSkierJanuary 8, 2017
That’s a wrap, folks! With the 11th Tour de Ski coming to an end on Sunday with the infamous Alpe Cermis final climb in Val di Fiemme, we wanted to share some of the athlete and coach comments that didn’t make it into the race reports. Below are quotes from the last three stages of the Tour, all in Italy. *** Stage 5 (Toblach, Italy): 5/10 k freestyle Men’s report On pre-race feelings: “I think nerves were...
One Year Later, Diggins Repeats Toblach 5 k Win; Sadie Bjornsen Notches First Podium
Alex KochonJanuary 6, 2017
Lining up at the start of the women’s 5-kilometer freestyle individual start on Friday, it was a different Jessie Diggins than a year ago. Here the American was, again in Toblach, Italy, again in the third-to-last stage of the Tour de Ski, again about to race another one of those rare formats on the World Cup circuit: the 5 k individual. But this time last year, she had never won a World Cup, let alone...
U.S. Nationals Open This Weekend at SoHo; World Champs Starts on the Line
Gavin KentchJanuary 5, 2017
Who’s racing what when U.S. Nationals begin at SoHo on Saturday morning? And what are they racing for (besides bragging rights)? FasterSkier explains why, when it comes to domestic racers hoping to make it to World Champs in Lahti, second place this month is worth more than first place last month.