Talking about their summer plans, University of New Hampshire (UNH) skiers Annavitte Rand and Silje Wilson suddenly had what they called a crazy idea. Wilson hails from Hamar, Norway, and Rand from Vermont. They both wanted something new out of this summer: Wilson wanted to train with other college skiers (and not just Norwegian club teammates), and Rand wanted to go somewhere new. “Given that this is the summer before my senior year, I knew...
Harald Bjerke got on a plane to the U.S. in 1963, and after competing for Denver University and earning a degree in business marketing went on to become the product manager for Swix for 42 years.
Another women’s 4 x 5 k World Cup relay, another Norwegian win. Yawn? Not so fast. While the team of Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Heidi Weng, Astrid Jacobsen, and Marit Bjørgen may have picked up the victory, the women’s race in Ulricehamn, Sweden, was anything but dull. For one thing, it was the closest race in 23 months, going all the way back to the 2014 Olympics where Sweden took gold. The top four teams all...
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Ulricehamn, Sweden): 4 x 5 k and 4 x 7.5 k Relays Women’s report Norway notched back-to-back team victories in the women’s and men’s relays on Sunday at the World Cup in Ulricehamn, Sweden, with Finn Hågen Krogh securing a win in the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay by 0.5 seconds over Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson and Canada’s Lenny Valjas. With two kilometers remaining, nine teams were within 3.8 seconds of first. Krogh...
The doping case of Norwegian cross-country skier Therese Johaug has come to at least a temporary conclusion, with Anti-Doping Norway recommending a suspension of the star athlete for 14 months. Johaug told Reuters. “I expect they will have a hearing in February.” The proposed ban would be retroactive to Oct. 18 and last until Dec. 18, 2017, two months before the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. NRK reports that the casefile and the recommendation from Anti-Doping Norway will...
Citing poor air quality which irritated airways, a Norwegian team doctor says he provided competitors with asthma medication at Junior and U23 World Championships in Romania last season. But American and Canadian competitors and coaches do not remember having such problems, and expressed surprise that such medications were being given to young athletes with no medical history of asthma.
With the IBU season opening this weekend with preseason races in Sjusjøen, Norway, FasterSkier contributor Aleks Tangen checked out the venue and spoke with some of the movers and shakers at the venue.
Kershaw tackled our "17 Questions" from a training camp in Utah. After training around Oslo this season, he thinks that Martin Johnsrud Sundby will still be the man to beat when the World Cup starts: "he's a beast."
An eight-year member of the Norwegian national team, Øystein Pettersen insists: "There are sides of Norwegian cross-country skiing that are not so positive. Eating disorders, overtraining, stress, pressure, the equipment arms race and much more. But doping, this is not part of the Norwegian cross-country sport."
Norway's Therese Johaug has been served a two-month provisional suspension while a hearing panel by the Norwegian Olympic Committee decides her fate: a much longer suspension could be in store. The star was caught using the banned steroid clostebol.
A contrite and devastated Therese Johaug announced that she had tested positive for clostebol, an anabolic steroid. It was an ingredient in a lip cream she used after getting a severe sunburn at a high-altitude training camp. Her team doctor had told her that the cream contained no prohibited substances.
After two weeks in Norway, U.S. Ski Team sprinter Andy Newell returned with some new ideas for double poling and a better sense of why skiing is so huge there. "Maybe the coolest part about training in Norway during the summer is not just the awesome roads and cooler weather but also to get a taste of that skiing culture," he explained.
FIS rules did not require a provisional suspension for Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby after his urine samples came back with high concentrations of salbutamol. And after their hearing panel concluded he had broken no rules - a finding later reverse by the Court of Arbitration for Sport - FIS could only publicize the case with Sundby's permission. They say he refused.
All right, so the top Norwegian women are training more than 900 hours per year. What does that mean for everyone else? We chatted with Jodi Hawley, an exercise physiologist who formerly worked with the Canadian National Team for cross-country skiing.
Want to know everything about the training and physiology of the top Norwegian women? A new paper tells all, using training diaries and test data from Marit Bjørgen, Therese Johaug, Heidi Weng, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Ragnhild Haga, and Maiken Caspersen Falla.
Sunscreen, sunglasses, and snow. When it comes to spring workouts, it’s not just the freeing feeling of skiing around in Ray Bans and beach-like weather that makes crust skiing an essential workout for this time of year, it’s also the satisfaction that spontaneous skiing provides after a season of structured ski training.
OSLO, Norway—With one of their best shooting days, the U.S. men’s biathlon team finished eighth in the World Championships relay, 1:27.3 behind host country Norway. The squad of Lowell Bailey, Leif Nordgren, Tim Burke, and Sean Doherty used just five spare rounds, tying them for the best shooting in the field with second-place Germany and third-place Canada. (
Feeling better than she had all week, Rosanna Crawford led Canada to the front of the World Championships women's relay during the second leg, and Sarah Beaudry got a whole lap leading the field. The team eventually finished 15th as the Norwegian women got a hard-earned and unexpected team gold.
Martin Fourcade easily won the 12.5 k World Championships pursuit, despite three penalties. More surprised was Ole Einar Bjørndalen, who repeated his silver medal performance from the sprint. Nathan Smith of Canada placed 15th and Tim Burke of the United States 17th.
Tim Burke, Hannah Dreissigacker, and Leif Nordgren joined Susan Dunklee in the top 20 in the World Championships sprints, while the entire U.S. and Canadian men's teams made the cuts for Sunday's pursuits.