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Olivier Léveillé

The Devon Kershaw Show: Quick bonus episode with the Canadian relay men

Canada threw down an impressive fifth place finish in Friday’s men’s 4×10 k relay, finishing just seconds from the medals. We caught up with the team afterwards in the mixed zone — here are our interviews with, in order, Tony Cyr, Graham Ritchie and Olivier Leveille. (We interviewed scramble leg skier Xavier McKeever earlier in the day, which is why he’s not featured in this clip.) We’ll be back tonight with a recap of the...

North American Men End on High Note in Falun 15 k Free; Patterson 7th, Léveillé 9th, Ketterson 15th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Following the men’s Olympic 50-turned-28.6 k in Zhangjiakou, long-time American distance champion Kris Freeman and Devon Kershaw called Scott Patterson an “Olympic Specialist”, commenting on how Patterson had found many...

In Front of a Long-Awaited Crowd, Klæbo and Chanavat Take It to the Line in Lahti Freestyle Sprint

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com.   By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Ian Tovell During a brief reprieve from racing, the top tier of international racing made its way from the high desert of Zhangjiakou, China...

(Press Release) Olympic Rookie Olivier Léveillé Leads Canucks in Individual Classic Cross-Country Ski Race at Beijing

The youngest member on Canada’s Olympic cross-country ski team, Olivier Léveillé, battled to a 29th-place finish at the Beijing Olympics on Friday. The 20-year-old from Sherbrooke, Que. found his groove while steadily working his way around the 15-kilomtetre course to finish in the elite group of 30 with a time of 40:52.0. “It is always hard to ski at altitude, but I felt good today,” said Léveillé. “Sometimes you feel like you are stuck in a gear,...

(Results Brief) Niskanen strides away with gold medal; Bolshunov 2nd, and Klæbo 3rd; Patterson top US skier in 38th

In what might be the rematch of the games, Finland’s Iivo Niskanen faced Alexander Bolshunov of the Russian Olympic Committee in the 15-kilometer individual start classic event. In the opening event of the Games, the 30 k mass start skiathlon, Niskanen and Bolshunov raced together to set the pace well off the front of the men’s pack for the first 15 k, raced classic, but Niskanen could not hold the effort in the freestyle half....

Bolshunov Dominates Men’s 30 k Skiathlon to Win First Olympic Gold; Patterson Matches Olympic Career Best in 11th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com.   On the heels of the women’s opening Olympic race, a colorful lycra field in their Sunday best lined up to race the men’s 30-kilometer skiathlon. While the women raced a...

(Press Release) Young Nordic Canucks Get First Taste of Olympic Experience in Skiathlon

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...

Canadian Journey to Beijing

Canada was successful in delivering the team to Beijing and getting them on snow in Zhangjiakou. The decision to go above and beyond in isolating athletes before a carefully planned drive to a charter flight worked, although other countries also succeeded with a more laid-back approach. What can fans expect from the Canadian team in Beijing? It all comes down to qualifying and performing. Qualifying Canada had an Olympic quota of four women and three...

An Inside Look at the Canadian Olympic Prep Camp

The Canadian Prep Camp in Sovereign Lake and SilverStar, BC prior to the 2022 Beijing Olympics sounds like a nordic skier’s heaven. A two-week ski vacation with 100 kilometres of perfectly groomed snow. A private room above a great coffee shop (pain au chocolate!) and next door to some great beer. January weather just below freezing with enough falling snow to make every day a hardwax day. Two weeks of what locals call superhero snow. A...

Norway Takes the Relay Win at Home in a Close Match; United States I Team Races to 9th, Canada 10th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Most-often the champions of the event, the Norwegian men’s program has been waiting for another crack at the 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay on home turf for the last two...

Junior World’s Relay: U.S. Women 2nd, U.S Men 1st, Canada 2nd

Friday was a much anticipated day across the Atlantic from the Oberwiesenthal, Germany: Junior World’s relay day.  Junior Women’s 4 x 3.3 k Relay For the U.S. junior 4 x 3.3 k relay, oh-so-close was last year’s World’s just off the podium fourth place performance. Twelve months later and a loaded team featuring (in this order) Sydney Palmer-Leger, Kendall Kramer, Sophia Laukli, and Novie McCabe, the group skied themselves into second overall, 4.9 seconds off...

Schumacher Wins World Junior’s 10 k Classic; Ogden 9th, Jager 10th (With Audio Interview)

The weight is heavy. Pressure from expectations that can cripple or tap into even more primal motivation. Gus Schumacher (U.S./AWS), after qualifying first, and bowing out on Saturday’s World Junior’s skate sprint in the semifinals, placed seventh overall. That is stout. But so is the person behind the results who possesses a killer instinct on the race course but by all accounts projects humility in the rest of his life. The impression is that this...

Ogden Sixth, Schumacher Seventh, Schoonmaker 13th for U.S. in Junior World’s Sprint

The monochromatic backdrop during the junior women’s sprint was the persistent theme in Oberwiesenthal, Germany  — it bled right into the World  Junior men’s 1.3 k freestyle sprint. For U.S. fans, in particular, this first event of four for the junior men possessed an element of tension. The tension, for those that follow, was seeded last year with an unequivocal success story that was the U.S. junior men’s run at the 2019 Junior Worlds in...

MSA Trials Rundown: Classic Interval Starts

Fresh snow greeted day two of the Mont Sainte-Anne Trials for the interval start classic. With athletes battling to qualify for U20/U23 World Championships in Oberwiesenthal, Germany and three separate World Cup trips (Falun/Scando Tour, Sprint Tour, Canmore), it was never going to be a simple matter of skier against the clock. Racing started with the open men’s 15km on a 5km loop that was shared by all the elite categories. Early on, it looked...