Canmore, Alberta—February 9-13, 2024 The Alberta World Cup Society (AWCS) will host the COOP FIS Cross-Country World Cup for three race days at the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park and one City Sprint in Calgary from February 9-13, 2024. This marks the seventh time that AWCS has invited the world’s best skiers to experience Alberta’s world renowned Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park. And a new challenge has been undertaken by the organizing committee, hosting a...
The pressure was on at Caledonia Nordic in Prince George, BC, for the trials that would be used to select athletes for World Championships in Planica, Slovenia, and U20/U23 World Championships in Whistler. The three days of racing is also a Nordiq Cup, which is a FIS tier 1 event equivalent to a US SuperTour or Scando Cup, but the focus was on earning a spot on one or more of the teams. The snow...
Canada is in the rebuilding part of the success rollercoaster, with many changes to the High Performance team and the development programs. Since May 1st, Chris Jeffries has joined Nordiq Canada (NC) full time as the High Performance Director, Robin McKeever has transitioned from the extremely successful Para program to become the Olympic Stream Head Coach. NextGen coach Eric de Nys and Dev coach Matt Smider are in their first full year in those roles...
We have no excuses for our prolonged absence other than it being the summer time. Devon has school and kids to take care of; Nat has…well, Nat really has no excuse. We taped this show with Robin McKeever, the new Canadian coach, and we’re just getting around to posting it now. You can email us at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.
Racing at the joint Canadian Nationals/US SuperTour Finals resumed on Wednesday, showcasing some of the best racers in North America facing off for a classic sprint. As the Whistler Olympic Park was home for cross country skiing during the 2010 Vancouver Games, the classic sprint course on Wednesday was one that played host to an important stepping stone in North American skiing history. In that competition, both American and Canadian skiers solidified the inroads they...
Carrying the momentum from the first day of racing into a second distance event, athletes lined up once more at the Whistler Olympic Park for a 10 / 15-kilometer interval start classic. Over 130 men and 90 women participated in the open categories, representing clubs across Canada and the United States. Adding a springtime layer of complexity to remind us that we are officially past the equinox, temperatures in Whistler hovered above freezing while a...
During the opening weekend of World Cup racing in Ruka, FIN back in November 2021, Canada’s Antoine (Tony) Cyr popped an 11th place finish in the first distance race – a tough 15-kilometre classic won by Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, now a gold medalist in the event. After the race, Cyr wrote to FasterSkier that the course had suited him with its long uphills and frigiddig conditions; temperatures were near zero degrees Fahrenheit ( -17 C)....
Canucks celebrate best Olympic relay result since 2002 BEIJING, Chn—The Canadian women’s relay squad skied to its best result Olympic result in two decades, finishing ninth on Saturday at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Ski Centre. Skiing on a mission for eighth spot, the women’s team of Katherine Stewart-Jones, Dahria Beatty, Cendrine Browne and Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt mixed together their best relay result on the sport’s ultimate stage since the 2002 Games, skiing into the top-10...
Canada’s Dahria Beatty was beaming after cracking the top-20 for the first time in her two trips to the Olympic Winter Games, finishing the women’s individual start 10-kilometre classic cross-country skiing event in 18th spot. Feeding off career-best Olympic performances in her first two starts, the 27-year-old put down a memorable performance, skiing twice around the demanding five-kilometre loop in a time of 30:00.2. “I definitely feel like I am in the best shape of...
Olivier Léveillé grinds out 31st-place finish on a monster of a course By Chris Dornan on behalf of Nordiq Canada BEIJING, Chn—A trio of Canadian men officially made their Olympic debut in the men’s 30-kilometre skiathlon race on Sunday at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre near Beijing. The youngest member of the Canadian squad at 20 years of age, Olivier Léveillé (Sherbrooke, Que.), finished just outside the top-30 in the 70-man field, clocking a 31st-place...
Three Canadian women ski into elite group of 30 on grueling race day in Beijing By Chris Dornan on behalf of Nordiq Canada BEIJING, Chn — Cendrine Browne and her teammates set the tone for the Canada’s cross-country skiers at the 2022 Winter Games after putting down her best-ever Olympic performance, skiing to 20th place in the women’s 15-kilometre skiathlon race on Saturday in Beijing, China. Competing in her second Olympic Games, the 28-year-old from Prévost,...
CANMORE (January 21, 2022) – Team Canada will now have five women and four men on the cross-country skiing start line as Olivia Bouffard Nesbitt and Rémi Drolet are heading to Beijing for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Bouffard Nesbitt (Morin Heights, Que.) and Drolet (Rossland, B.C.) were the final two athletes nominated by Nordiq Canada to the Canadian Olympic Committee after an additional two quota spots were handed down to Canada by International Ski Federation...
CANMORE (January 13, 2022) – Nordiq Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have announced the four women and three men who will form Canada’s cross-country skiing team nominated to compete at Beijing 2022. Two Olympic veterans will lead a new generation of cross-country skiers loaded with potential into the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. The athletes nominated are: Dahria Beatty (Whitehorse, Yukon) Cendrine Browne (Saint-Jérôme, Que.) Antoine Cyr (Gatineau, Que.) Laura Leclair (Chelsea, Que.) Olivier Léveillé...
Here’s a quick and non-exhaustive look at some recent news in the world of nordic sports. World Cup Cancellation in Les Rousses, FRA and Planica, SLO Earlier this week, the FIS announced the cancellation of the final World Cup stop before the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, which were scheduled for the 21st to 23rd of January in Planica, Slovenia. This news arrives a week after the cancellation of the Les Rousses, France mini tour,...
Rossland, BC native Rémi Drolet had a lot going on during the first year of the pandemic. In his first year on the Canadian senior national ski team, he was studying theoretical physics at Harvard. His junior career ended with a silver medal and an individual fourth place in the 2020 World U20 Championships, right before COVID cancelled the final World Cups and Canadian Senior Nationals. This was also his first season living in a...
Last season, Canada held no races, posted no domestic results, and, in general, vanished into the pandemic fog. Travel restrictions meant that many Canadian skiers didn’t see any skiers from other regions. Which skiers made progress and which regressed over the last 20 months? We finally have hints after the first races last weekend. What is new? Lots. What happens next? Keep reading. Athlete Progress Following the opening FIS races, part of the Western Canada...
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...
CANMORE, Alta.—Eight Canadians are readying themselves to head to Europe in the coming weeks to open the highly-anticipated Olympic and Paralympic season while bringing the maple leaf to the World Cup cross-country skiing start line. Nordiq Canada will send a dynamic group of four women and four men who are determined to climb up the international rankings in the first three weeks of World Cup action before returning to Canada for the holiday break followed...
September 29, 2021 Olympic and Junior/U23 World Championship Trials set for Canmore; Canadian Ski Championships head to Whistler CANMORE, Alta.— After working extensively with its Divisional partners, Nordiq Canada has created a regional, high-level cross-country ski race series for the 2021-22 season that has been designed to strengthen the performance pathway across the country while minimizing travel for the nation’s young cross-country skiers and emphasizing developmentally appropriate racing. Canada’s cross-country ski athletes will...
Nordiq Canada announced earlier this week a reorganization of its high-performance team in the run-up to the 2022 Paralympic and Olympic Games. Kate Boyd, who had been hired as Nordiq Canada’s high-performance director in September 2020, will become the high-performance director of the Para-Nordic team. “Looking at the critical year ahead, and the expectations placed on our Paralympic athletes to not only repeat our success from 2018, but to also ensure the tradition of excellence with this...