When we began this series, The Escape, we imagined it would be a slippery slope. It turns out the slope is blue-ice slick. Cabin-lust is real. This past spring, just as Covid-19 began making headlines in the U.S., one of the best treat makers on the planet, Zoë Roy, was chef at Talus Lodge. Roy, along with a friend who is rumored to ride bicycles in all forms, settled at the lodge for approximately two-months...
Day two of the first NorAm and SuperTour weekend was interval start classic, with 10km for the men and 5km for the women. The US SuperTour athletes took the chance to show their depth today, packing the top ten of the open categories. The 154 men raced first, with the U.S. Ski Team’s Zak Ketterson winning comfortably in 27:33.1. National team member Antoine Cyr was second at 15.0 back, followed by CGRP’s Ben Lustgarten at...
Canmore hosted the second NorAm of the 2018/2019 season on December 13th, 15th, and 16th. The event also served as U23 and Junior World trials. By the end of the weekend, starts at the U23/Junior World Championships and the World Cup’s Tour de Ski would be earned. This event was originally scheduled for Whistler Olympic Park but had to be moved as a result of heavy rain and inclement weather forecasted into the immediate future. The...
Today in Hochfilzen, Austria, Dorothea Wierer of Italy won the sprint in a time of 21:04.9 minutes. Wierer missed one shot standing for a single penalty during the race. Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland was close behind in second, 0.6 seconds back. Mäkäräinen also had one missed target standing. Third place went to Russia’s Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht, finishing 24.4 seconds behind. Yurlova-Percht short clean in the race. Susan Dunklee was the best placed American in 34th (+1:33.0,...
This is the second part of FasterSkier’s report on the state of high performance cross-country skiing and athlete development in Canada. You can read part one here. Cross Country Canada (CCC), as the national governing body for cross-country skiing in Canada has the difficult task of steering a rather large ship. The idea in steering the ship is to maintain a path requiring little quick and nimble maneuvering. Survey the landscape, mine the data, set...
Cross Country Canada (CCC) has begun a reboot process as the new Olympic cycle starts. Corporations call this a reset, a rebranding, a new direction, restructuring, and various other names that try to disguise the challenges and issues that come with enacting real change. The reboot process traditionally starts with an acknowledgement that the current level of success, and that of the foreseeable future, doesn’t align with the goals or the potential of the organization....
On April 26, Devon Kershaw posted a photo on social media of Alpina boots hanging on a line. The next day, he spoke on the phone with FasterSkier from his new home in Lillehammer, Norway, after a day of running around outside with his 15-month-old daughter, Asta Isabel. Kershaw was tired, but in a good way. For the first time in 17 years, he was ready for a new challenge, a new focus and much...
After feeling like health issues stunted her career two seasons ago, two-time Olympian Perianne Jones decided to give it one more year and go out on a high note. She did so, staying healthy and logging some career-best distance results in her final season with the Canadian national team.
Canada Nations Cup Ranking: 12th (1161 pts) Men: 10th (848 pts) Women: 13th (313 pts) 2010/2011 A Team Men Alex Harvey Devon Kershaw George Grey Ivan Babikov Women Chandra Crawford Dasha Gaiazova What you may have missed last season: The sheer amount of injuries and setbacks the Canadian team endured this season, especially at the Tour de Ski. The World Cup circuit had barely kicked off when former head coach Inge Braten slipped and fractured...
Sara Renner is getting a crash course in normal living. Since announcing her retirement from skiing after her final race—the 30 k race at the Olympics, she’s jumped into the “real life of motherhood and work” with both feet. “It’s really eye-opening the amount of stuff you do in a day when you don’t ski [train],” she said. “It’s so busy!” Renner is now balancing motherhood with a new position—she and her husband, Thomas Grandi,...
Between Kikkan Randall, Sara Renner, Chandra Crawford, and Beckie Scott, there has been no shortage of successful female athletes in North American over the past decade. Step off the trails and into the wax room, and you’ll find even more involved in the sport as coaches for collegiate and club programs. But during the May meetings of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association in Park City, Utah, an accomplished group of female coaches gathered not...
After being “screwed by the jury” in Wednesday’s sprint, according to one of her teammates, Canada’s Sara Renner had some unfinished business to take care of. In the sprint, Renner was impeded when a skier in the track in front of her wouldn’t move—causing her to miss out on the heats in the same event in which she took third just two weeks ago in Canmore. But today, in the 15k pursuit, she got a...
Sunny skies and warm temperatures greeted sprinters on their arrival at Whistler Olympic Park this morning for the men’s and women’s sprint. This is a big chance for the Canadians and the U.S.—all six Americans are capable of qualifying for the heats, with three medal hopefuls in Kikkan Randall, Torin Koos, and Andy Newell. The Canadians are set up just as well, with Devon Kershaw, Sarah Renner, Dasha Gaiazova, and Perianne Jones gunning for the...
In her first full season back after having a daughter in February of 2007, Renner is looking to come back in full form, with “consistent top 10 results in distance racing” and “a return of my sprinting form”. As Dave Wood points out, Renner has always been an all-around skier, excelling in distance and sprint events alike. But some of her strongest performances have been in the sprint events, such as Canada’s first WCh medal...
In the men’s classic sprint in Canmore on Saturday, there were all kinds of tactics in play. In the women’s version, there was just one: go like hell, and leave everyone else in the dust. That was Justyna Kowalczyk’s M.O. today. Using the massive engine she’s developed by racing every event in her path, the Polish dynamo crushed her competition in every single heat she skied on Saturday. In the final, she had more than...
With a thin international field here contesting the classic sprint in Canmore, for the world’s best, Saturday morning’s qualifier was just a formality. From here, the stage is set for a knock-down, drag out series of heats on what the U.S.’s Torin Koos called a “strong-man’s course.” 1.7k long and striding-heavy, the difficulty and length of the new sprint loop in Canmore will make for a tough, tactical afternoon. “Nobody’s going to want to put...
George Gray led the Canadians with a 17th place in yesterday’s prologue. Sara Renner took 27th in the prologue and moved up in today’s pursuit for a final finish of 21st place. Renner: Today, I was slow off the start but stronger at the end. It was basically a mass start. I had six girls in my second. I feel like my shape is turning around and hopefully I can qualify tomorrow. I don’t mind the back to...
Sara Renner is still trying to find her true racing form since taking time off to have her baby daughter in the winter of 2007. After a rough week of travel led to blasé results in Kuusamo, Renner was able to stay positive and by placing 25th in the 10km skate she showed a spark of the racing form she is capable of. With your 25th place finish on Saturday it looks as though you are on the right track as...
CANMORE, Alta.—Olympic and World Cup medallists, Sara Renner and Thomas Grandi, are encouraging Canadians young and old to join them in a one-day journey to stem the climate crisis, October 24, 2009 in Canmore, Alta., as part of International Day of Climate Action. With people around the world taking action in their respective communities, the Olympic couple are hoping to rally a group of 350 people concerned about the climate to participate in a symbolic...
Allan Maki of “The Globe and Mail” checks in with the Canadian Ski Team’s Sara Renner. Ironically, on the very morning Sara Renner is discussing her sport and the evils within, a certified drug tester appears and politely asks for a moment of her time, along with a sample, of course. The Olympic silver medalist obliges without annoyance because she believes in the purity of cross-country skiing and because she no longer frets the changeups...