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Nikita Kriukov

Race-cation: Erik Bjornsen and Marine Dusser on Iceland and the Fossavatn Ski Marathon

While many skiers were blowing the dust off of their rollerskis, hitting the track or trail, or looking for crust to cruise on May 1st, Erik Bjornsen and his wife Marine Dusser were previewing the race course for the Fossavatn Ski Marathon, or Fossavatngangan, in Isafjördur, Iceland.    While it might seem odd to begin a new season by racing a 21 k followed by a 42 k just two days later, Bjornsen and Dusser...

Legkov and Seven Other Skiers’ Doping Bans Overturned by CAS (Updated)

((Update: In accordance with the CAS decision outlined below, thewrote in a press release. “With respect to these 28 athletes, the appeals are upheld, the sanctions annulled and their individual results achieved in Sochi 2014 are reinstated.” The athletes whose results will be reinstated are: 50 k gold medalist and relay silver medalist Alexander Legkov 50 k silver medalist, team sprint and relay silver medalist Maxim Vylegzhanin, also fourth in the 30 k skiathlon relay...

World Cup Windup: Russia

Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. RUSSIA Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: Fourth Women’s Ranking 2016/2017: Fifth Men’s Ranking 2016/2017: Second Who’s Back: Ust-iu-gov! Ust-iu-gov! Sergey Ustiugov, a sensation in the last two seasons, is back for more. There’s also top-20 ranked overall skiers...

Hopes Dashed for Finland and Norway, Russia Claims Team Sprint Gold

LAHTI, Finland — The breath taken out of a nation. Throughout the lifetime of a sporting fan, high-stakes races or games offer the chance for seared-into-the-neurons moments, things you remember for an eternity with the distinct recollection of where you were and what you were doing when the news came down. But those are exceptionally rare moments. And depending on what side of the equation you’re on, they can be mile high or a mile...

Sunday Rundown: Lahti and Osrblie (Updated x2)

FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Classic team sprints Defending champions Norway repeated gold in the women’s team sprint, with Heidi Weng and Maiken Caspersen Falla crossing the finish line first in Lahti, Finland. On the second-to-last loop, it looked like Russia could have something to say about that. Yulia Belorukova put in a furious sprint up the course’s biggest climb, and then beat Weng to the exchange. But her teammate Natalia Matveeva could not match the pace when Falla...

Retivykh Wins Again in PyeongChang; Newell & Hamilton 4th in Team Sprint

France has never won a World Cup team sprint, neither for men nor women, classic nor freestyle. And its team will have to wait a bit longer for that time to come. But France was oh-so-close on Sunday, with Baptiste Gros and Lucas Chanavat racing against the Russian duo of Andrey Parfenov and Gleb Retivykh in the men’s 6 x 1.5-kilometer freestyle team sprint in PyeongChang, South Korea. Chanavat, last year’s U23 world champion in the freestyle sprint, tried...

FIS Nordic Junior World Championships (Midway, Utah): Junior relays Hailey Swirbul, Julia Kern, Hannah Halvorsen, and Katharine Ogden on the podium. That’s right. Two days after Ogden became the first American to earn an individual medal at Junior World Championships, those four U.S. junior women listed above did the same, placing third in the 4 x 3.3-kilometer relay on the last day of 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. The team...

Russia Sends a Message in Classic Team Sprint; Hamilton and Newell Combine for Notable Fifth

Twenty-five days before the Olympics open in Sochi, Russia, Nikita Kriukov couldn’t have timed Sunday’s 6 x 1.6-kilometer team-classic sprint victory much better. The 28-year-old Russian’s execution was right up there as well. Meanwhile, Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell teamed up for one of the best U.S. men's team-sprint finishes in recent memory.