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Nat Herz

The Devon Kershaw Show: More Olympic hardware for Diggins and a banner day for the U.S.

What. A. Day. American cross-country skier Jessie Diggins scores another Olympic medal in Beijing, this time a silver, gutting out a strong race even though she was suffering from food poisoning. We break down the full 30 k freestyle race with Therese Johaug’s win and a furious chase for bronze. And we’re thrilled to welcome guest hosts Holly Brooks and Sadie Maubet (Bjornsen), the retired U.S. Olympians who joined us from Alaska. We’ll be back...

The Devon Kershaw Show: They only raced half a 50k. We’ve still got a full podcast.

This isn’t a spoiler, even if it spoiled some of the glory Saturday: Organizers shortened the Olympic men’s 50 k to a 28 k skate. People were mad; the athletes still raced and delivered a good show. We’ve got our own show here, featuring guest star Kris Freeman, the retired American Olympian. Alaska’s Scott Patterson threw down the best Olympic result for a U.S. man in nearly a half-century, too. We break that down, plus...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Russia waltzes to men’s relay gold as Norway slouches to silver

The men’s 4 x 10 k relay itself lacked for drama, but fortunately there’s plenty going on in the Norwegian team for us to talk about. Devon and Nat are back to break down Russia’s convincing win in the relay, the most disappointing silver ever for Norway and a gold-like bronze for France. Send questions and feedback to devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com. We’ll be back Wednesday. Related reading: “Burmania”: Swedish xc skier’s snack-sampling video goes viral in China The...

The Devon Kershaw Show: No-doubt Niskanen in the 15 k Classic

We’ve got our latest episode straight out of China to break down Iivo Niskanen’s dominating win in the Olympic 15 k individual start classic. We talk about some of the drama on the Norwegian team, cover the American and Canadian results and bring on special guest Vahur Teppan, a retired Estonian athlete who coached members of China’s national team for the past four years. Thanks for listening!

The Devon Kershaw Show: A 10 k thriller in Zhangjiakou

The pod is back to recap a good old-fashioned individual start throwdown, with special guest Kristin Størmer Steira. We break down Therese Johaug of Norway’s nail-biting win over Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen and another nail-biting race for third between Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski and Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva. And we discuss questions about the U.S. team selection for the upcoming women’s relay, and the pressure cooker environment of the championships. We’ll be back after tomorrow’s men’s 15 k.

The Devon Kershaw Show: Diggins Bronze Medal Highlights Historic Day for Americans in Freestyle Sprint

Get your cheese doodles ready. Here’s Nat and Devon breaking down (and celebrating) an historic day for the U.S. A bronze medal for Jessie Diggins stands as the highlight – she’s the first American woman to win an individual medal – but there were several other steps taken forward by the men and women wearing stars and stripes. In particular, Rosie Brennan popped the second fast time in qualification. Overcoming a bad pole plant-induced fall...

The Devon Kershaw Show: First Olympic episode! Breaking down the women’s skiathlon

Kicking off the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games with a look into the women’s skiathlon. Co-host Nat Herz was on site during the race, braving the wind and cold to collect deeper insights into the scene, while Kershaw gives his hot take as a very-well-informed armchair quarterback. Note that Kershaw picked two of the top-three athletes correctly in his pre-Olympic podium picks: unsurprisingly, the favorite, Therese Johaug took gold, while Natalia Nepryaeva (ROC) earned silver instead...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Pre-Olympic epic — Podium predictions and COVID protocols with Alex Harvey

This episode of the Devon Kershaw Show breaks down the lead-up to the Olympics with special guest star Alex Harvey, the Canadian World Championships gold medalist. Harv and Kersh make their podium predictions for the six Olympic events; we discuss the nightmare scenario with COVID cases inside Norway’s national team; and Nat checks in from his quarantine in Los Angeles in advance of his flight to Asia. We’ll be back periodically during the Olympics —...

Avoiding omicron is an Olympic-level challenge for Alaska skiers with Beijing Games, and virus tests, looming

This article originally appeared on Wednesday January 19th, 2022 in the Anchorage Daily News. Reposted with permission. The organizers of next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing have imposed a rigorous regime of testing, quarantines and isolation for incoming athletes and staff. Among the casualties is Steve Patterson’s pickleball game. Patterson has two adult children, Scott and Caitlin, who grew up in Alaska and are both Olympic hopefuls in cross-country skiing. They’re planning to prepare for...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Inside Olympic Skis and Waxing with Zach Caldwell

  In this episode of the Devon Kershaw Show, we bring back Zach Caldwell, one of North America’s leading ski and wax experts. We get into the arcane and arguably misguided rules around the use of fluorocarbon waxes at high-level races, along with potential challenges for wax and ski technicians at the little-studied Beijing Olympic venue. You can find a host of resources from Zach on skis, wax, and grinds that might more-directly apply to...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Special Delivery – The Mailbag Episode

You asked, now Devon is answering. We’re finally here with a long-promised mailbag episode for you this week. Devon takes us through questions from more than a dozen listeners; we cover World Cup competition formats, tactics, training, broadcasting and a bunch of other random fun stuff. We’ll be back soon with coverage of Olympic team selection and hopefully some more intel on the Olympic venue in Beijing. Send us questions and feedback to devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.

The Devon Kershaw Show: Wrapping Up the 21/22 Tour de Ski with Guest Kikkan Randall

We’ve got extra-special Alaska-based guest Kikkan Randall joining us for this episode to recap the 2021/22 Tour de Ski. We break down a rough finish for a head cold-afflicted Jessie Diggins, some sensational skiing by Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, and some lingering questions about Olympic preparation. We’re planning a mailbag episode in the next few days; send your questions to devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com. We’ll be back soon!

The Devon Kershaw Show: Happy New Year — Unless You’re Jessie Diggins

Welcome back to the Devon Kershaw show for our Tour de Ski stage 3 and 4 recap. We get into Frida Karlsson’s withdrawal from the tour after her egregious take-out of Jessie Diggins in Saturday’s classic sprint. We also cover Calle Halfvarsson and Joanna Hagström delivering for Sweden, Johannes Klæbo giving a couple of beat-downs, and Diggins’ come-from-behind win Friday. We’ll be taping a mailbag episode next week — send us your questions at devon@fasterskier.com...

The Devon Kershaw Show: The Highs and Lows of a Davos Weekend

Davos brought another entertaining weekend of racing for American ski fans, with Rosie Brennan in the mix in both competitions, a podium from Jessie Diggins, and breakout performances from Hailey Swirbul, Sophia Laukli, and Novie McCabe. Devon Kershaw and FasterSkier’s Nat Herz take us through the results with special guest Eirik Brandsdal, the longtime, now-retired Norwegian World Cup sprint racer. Have questions for Devon or Nat? Send them to devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com to have them answered. We’ll be...

The Devon Kershaw Show: A 21-22 Season Opener featuring Russell Kennedy

The Devon Kershaw is back from summer hibernation! This week, Devon takes a break from medical school to break down the first big tune-up races of the season in Muonio, Finland. Joining him are the show’s new co-host, former FasterSkier reporter Nat Herz, along with Canadian athlete Russell Kennedy, who popped a huge result in one of the races in Finland. Russell catches us up on the European circuit; we also discuss Charlotte Kalla’s recently...

‘Why Not Go Again?’ Patterson Makes Mt. Marathon His Own One Year Later

As with other epic modern-day adventure race series, the fabled origin of Seward, Alaska’s annual Mount Marathon — held every July 4 — began with beer and a bet: who among us can run from the streets of downtown to the top of the 3,022-foot mountain crowding Seward’s skyline, then back to the bottom the fastest? What about within the hour? While the footrace race has evolved massively since the port town’s pioneer miners took...

Totally Terrifying but Surprisingly Straightforward: FasterSkier Takes Up Ski Jumping

As I pulled into the parking lot in Lake Placid at 8:30 on a Saturday morning, two hours before the launch of my ski jumping career, I was feeling an appropriate amount of trepidation. Not none, but not a jaw-clenching, heart-thumping terror, either. More like pre-race nerves. I got out of the car, carried my backpack up to the lodge, and took a look around. I could see four ski jumps: the two gigantic Olympic...