January 12, 2011 (Park City, UT) – World Championship silver medalist Kikkan Randall (Anchorage) will lead a strong 2011 U.S. Cross Country World Championship Team to compete at Holmenkollen in Oslo beginning Feb. 24. Randall is one of 14 athletes named Wednesday to compete in the biennial Championships. The International Ski Federation’s 2011 Nordic World Ski Championships are especially important this year, taking place in the heart of nordic skiing and in its most prestigious...
Calgary, Alberta/Bethel, Maine – Fast and Female’s third annual US X-Country Ski Festival held on Sunday, January 9 in Bethel, Maine will go down in history as a tremendous success. Hosted by Gould Academy, the event saw 140 girls from Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire between the ages of 9 to 19 years old take part in a day of inspiration with female Olympic ambassadors and US Cross-Country Ski Team athletes Morgan Arritola and New...
With six laps, the women’s 20km freestyle at the US National Championships had no shortage of action. Here is a look at the effort of the podium finishers from Kris Dobie.
The Alaska Pacific University women’s team was finally dethroned on Thursday—but it took a world-class athlete to do it. After Holly Brooks and Sadie Bjornsen took the first two races of this week’s U.S. National Championships in Rumford, the U.S. Ski Team’s Liz Stephen finally broke up the monopoly with a persuasive win in the women’s 20 k. Brooks preserved her squad’s pride by placing second, 58 seconds down, while Morgan Arritola (USST) was third....
In the women’s 10 k classic in Rumford on Wednesday, it was an athlete in the familiar blue, white and black of Alaska Pacific University to climb to the top step of the podium. It just wasn’t the one you’d expect. After Holly Brooks’s win in Sunday’s classic sprint, she was a clear favorite coming into the first distance race of the 2011 U.S. National Championships. But instead of Brooks coming out on top, it...
Classic distance races are on tap for the U.S. National Championships in Rumford, ME on Wednesday, after two days of rest to allow for optimal course preparation. Volunteers, coaches, and even U.S. Ski Team member Liz Stephen worked with heavy equipment and shovels throughout Tuesday, leaving a 2.5-kilometer loop available for racing at Rumford’s Black Mountain. Under clear skies and with temperatures cooler—in the 20’s—the action gets started with the women’s 10 k at 10...
With 15 titles over the past decade, Kikkan Randall has turned the U.S. National Championships into something of a one-woman show. In the 2010 edition, which was held in her hometown of Anchorage, she swept all four events—collecting nearly $5,000 en route to wins in two distance races and a pair of sprints. This year, the country’s fastest women will assemble at Black Mountain in Rumford, ME. But when the first event of the championships...
As the World Cup circuit heads towards its Christmas break, Marit Bjoergen is still in a class by herself. After breaking away from the pack less than five kilometers into the La Clusaz 15 k freestyle on Saturday, along with her teammate Kristin Stoermer Steira and Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk, Bjoergen easily matched challenges by her opponents on the last of six laps, then turned on the jets on the homestretch to pull away for the...
Rocket boosters? Tiny electric motors? Cutting the course? The World Cup women’s field is going to have to come up with something, because it’s pretty clear that plain old training and technique isn’t going to be enough to beat Norway’s Marit Bjoergen any time soon. In Saturday’s 10 k classic in Davos, Switzerland, Bjoergen won for her fourth time in five races this year, skiing to a 30-second victory over her Polish rival Justyna Kowalczyk....
This weekend’s World Cup city sprints in Dusseldorf aren’t supposed to start in the airport. But the American and Canadian ski teams will be cutting it pretty close. Thanks to a strike by Finnair’s flight attendants, the two squads’ sprinters are spending Thursday night in Finland and departing for Germany on Friday—giving the teams a buffer of roughly 24 hours before the start of the races on Saturday. American Andy Newell’s schedule will be even...
After failing to win the Overall World Cup title last season, Norway’s Marit Bjoergen continues to make a statement on the World Cup in this season. On a cold Sunday with little glide and many tactics, Bjoergen picked up yet another win, crossing the line first in the 10 k skate pursuit in the ‘Ruka Triple’ in Kuusamo, Finland. While many other skiers moved up and down the rankings Sunday, Bjoergen was consistent, leading wire...
While skiers at the first SuperTour event in West Yellowstone, Montana, were feeling the effects of cold weather this weekend, their fellow skiers on the World Cup in Kuusamo, Finland, faced similar temperatures. The official FIS press release listed the temperature in the northern Finnish town as a balmy -17 degrees Celsius, just under the legal racing limit. Despite struggling during Friday’s classic sprint, finishing 42nd and failing to qualify, on Saturday Randall bounced back,...
Norwegian fans looking for a good view of the finish line for the women’s relay at the 2011 World Championships might want to start staking out their seats now. Given this weekend’s performance by the Norwegian women, there’s not much doubt about who will be waving her country’s flag as the winner of the relay in Oslo. After putting six of their skiers in the top 11 in Saturday’s 10 k freestyle, the Norwegians skied...
Much to the chagrin of certain US ski fans, the US Ski Team has not put much focus on relay events over the past eight years. Not since the 2002 Olympics have the Americans posted a top result, and more often than not, have been well to the back of the field. That is not going to change overnight, but with a both a men’s and women’s quartet hitting the trails on Sunday, and a...
If there were any doubts left after last year, they’re gone now: Marit Bjoergen has it figured out. Bjoergen, who won five medals at the Vancouver Olympics, annihilated the women’s field in the 10 k freestyle in Gallivare, Sweden on Saturday morning, winning by more than 40 seconds over Charlotte Kalla (SWE) and Italy’s Arianna Follis. “She’s the queen right now,” said Kikkan Randall, who was the top American finisher in 19th. Kalla, the winner...
As the season gets fully under way, FasterSkier will be featuring previews of teams and athletes at different levels. We published our piece on US World Cup athletes, check out our 24 Teams in 24 Days series. With eight athletes headed to Gallivare, Sweden for the World Cup opener, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) will have the numbers to field both a men’s and women’s relay team for the first time in many years. The increased...
American ski fans can draw a few lessons from last weekend’s season-opening races in Muonio, Finland. Kris Freeman looks to be on-form. Kikkan Randall also looks fit. Ida Sargent is the next big thing. But for two members of the U.S. Ski Team (USST), Morgan Arritola and Liz Stephen, the season still appears uncertain. Each skied to lackluster results in Saturday’s 5 k classic race, while Sunday’s 10 k skate brought results that were stronger,...
The Triac Basket – No Tools, No Glue, No Excess. “We placed a priority on reducing swing weight and achieved this by removing all excess material including glue and even lettering at the basket end of the pole” says Lars Karlöf, the Swix Sport R&D engineer. With the first of the kind interchangeable yet glue-less basket you finally have a 100 % reliable connection between the basket and the shaft with a minimum of weight....
It isn’t even Thanksgiving, and the international racing season is officially just over a week old, yet there has already been plenty of high-octane racing action to satisfy even the most demanding ski fan. With elite skiers tuning up for the season opener, and up-and-comers out to make a name for themselves, FIS races in Finland, Sweden, and Norway featured a level of competition usually limited to the World Cup. It is always a challenge...
While Kris Freeman couldn’t quite match his winning performance from yesterday, he made a strong effort in the 10 k skate at Muonio today and was rewarded with a second-place finish, showing impressive consistency early in the season. “I’m always more comfortable in classic than skate,” he told FasterSkier after the race. As usual, the women competed first, also in a 10 k race. The temperature had dropped overnight and thanks to the humidity of...