A predictor for the winter ski season ahead? Could be. Either way, Norway’s Blink Ski Festival, or as it’s called in Norway, Blinkfestivalen, remains the ultimate in rollerski racing and returned for the 12th year in a row on Wednesday. The festival opened with elite men’s and women’s distance rollerski races, known as the currently training with the British national team in Norway. Following the Blink Classics on Wednesday, the Blink Ski Festival will turn to the...
This week FasterSkier presents a workout from British national ski team members Nichole Bathe and Annika Taylor. Last season, both Bathe and Taylor competed overseas on Great Britain’s national nordic team. They were interviewed on the phone last fall and email this spring. *** May. For some, it’s a month marked by caps and gowns and new beginnings. Last year, May was a month in question for Nichole Bathe. The Madison, Wisconsin, native had just...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Drammen, Norway): Classic sprints Men’s report The cross-country World Cup hit the city on Wednesday, with classic sprints contested in the Oslo suburb of Drammen on snow which had been trucked onto the streets. And the crowd was rewarded with wins by two Norwegian favorites: Maiken Caspersen Falla in the women’s sprint and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in the men’s race. In the women’s final, Falla and Natalia Nepryaeva of Russia battled at the lead for...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Nichole Bathe.) BEITOSTØLEN, Norway — The question of whether Bjørgen or Weng will be the bigger name this season went in the favor of the former on Friday at Norway’s first big matchup of the season. Marit Bjørgen, now 37 and in her 20th World Cup season, won the first race of the three-day International Ski Federation (FIS) weekend in Beitostølen, starting last out of...
FIS Nordic Combined Junior World Championships (Park City and Midway, Utah): Normal hill/5 k [UPDATED] In the individual normal hill/5-kilometer Gundersen on Saturday, the last nordic-combined competition of 2017 Nordic Junior World Championships, American Ben Loomis captured his first top 10 in his third Junior Worlds in ninth place. Eighteen-year-old Loomis jumped to 10th then picked off one place in the 5 k to finish ninth, 1:22.3 minutes behind the winner, Germany’s Vinzenz Geiger. Geiger...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Paddy Caldwell.) Three years ago, American Patrick “Paddy” Caldwell made his debut at Junior World Championships, racing to classic sprint. Then, on Thursday in the men’s 15 k freestyle, he cracked the top 10 for the first time in his U23/Junior Worlds career. “I was really excited going into today’s race,” Caldwell wrote in an email on Friday morning. “15km FS is one of my...
FIS Nordic U23 World Championships (Midway, Utah): 10/15 k freestyle Paddy Caldwell, of the Stratton Mountain School and U.S. Ski Team D-team, raced to the first top 10 of his career at a U23 World Championship on Thursday, placing ninth in the men’s 15-kilometer freestyle individual start at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. Caldwell started 44th (of 53) and crossed the finish in sixth before being bumped down three places to ninth. Upon being passed by the eventual...
A year ago, Canada’s breakthrough at the Ski Tour Canada classic sprint in Canmore, Alberta. Beatty lives and trains in Canmore as a member of both the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) and Canadian National U25 Team. She led the NorAm (Continental Cup) standings at the end of last season, reiterating her position as freestyle sprint prologue at U.S. nationals at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. Then on Tuesday, on the same 1.3-kilometer sprint course...
FIS Nordic U23 World Championships (Midway, Utah): Classic sprint [UPDATED] All four American women and three Canadians qualified for the women’s classic sprint heats on the first day of U23 World Championships on Tuesday, and in the men’s qualifier, three Americans finished in the top 30 to advance to the quarterfinals at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. Kelsey Phinney led the Americans in sixth in the women’s 1.3-kilometer qualifier, clocking in 2.77 seconds off the fastest women’s...
In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at next week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2017 USANA Nordic Junior World Championships and U23 Cross Country World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 21-year-old Nichole Bathe, of University of Alaska Fairbanks and CXC Team, who’s representing the U.S. at her first U23 World...
APU’s Scott Patterson and Jessica Yeaton, UAA’s Hailey Swirbul, and the UAF team all skied well in Fairbanks over the weekend in the continent’s first FIS races. Patterson jokes that he plans to purchase a time turner, so that he can “continue to win every single race in the U.S.”
You might say the CXC Team is rebuilding, but that wouldn't sum up what's entirely going on. "All the coaches agreed, the team needs to get back to the roots of developing athletes," executive director Yuriy Gusev said. A new head coach, Andy Keller, has been tasked with leading that effort.
Heads turned when the first American across the line in the women’s 5-kilometer classic race at the 2014 NCAA Championships in March was an 18-year-old freshmen from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This year, Nichole Bathe has her sights set on even better results at NCAAs and qualifying for another Junior World Championships.
UVM's Anja Gruber defended her title in the women's 5 k classic at the NCAA Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah, today. She was followed by DU's Sylvia Nordskar and UNM's Eva Severrus.
The Junior World Championships ended Monday with the junior relays, where Norway won the men's race and Sweden took the women's team title, and the Canadian women had the top North American finish in 10th.
While Russia stole the spotlight in the men's and women's individual classic races at Junior World Championships on Sunday, two Canadians notched top-15 career bests on the second-to-last day of the championships: Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier and Dahria Beatty.
Patrick Caldwell took his first skiathon by the horns on Friday at Junior World Championships, placing 10th in the 20 k event despite heavy snowfall in Val di Fiemme, Italy.
In her third race of the season with CXC after studying, training and racing in Russia, Natalja Naryshkina won the women's classic sprint at U.S. nationals on Friday with a flawless run through the qualifier and heats. Rosie Brennan (APU) was second for her second national title in two years.
In front of the capitol building in downtown Madison, Wis., Rosie Brennan and Dmitry Ozerskiy out-sprinted a tight field for the first wins of this weekend's SuperTour.
Members of the U.S. Ski Team’s National Training Group (NTG) spent last week in Park City, Utah, for a training camp centered on group training and exposure to the resources at the Center of Excellence. Athletes joined interval sessions with the national team on the rollerski track at Soldier Hollow and underwent a series of physiological tests for assessment and feedback on their development. The camp was a new addition over last year’s schedule; the...