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Scandinavian Cup

Closing the Gap: Racing in the Dark
Continental CupGeneralRacingTraining

Closing the Gap: Racing in the Dark

FasterSkierDecember 20, 2017

Editor’s Note: The following is part of a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. In August, he made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the entire winter. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. Previous posts: #2, #4, #6, and

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Closing the Gap: Brain Training
Continental CupDrylandGeneralJuniorsLifestyleRacingTechniqueTraining

Closing the Gap: Brain Training

FasterSkierOctober 31, 2017

Editor’s Note: The following is part of a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. In August, he recently made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the entire winter. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. Previous posts: #2, #4, #6....

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Closing the Gap: Meet Maks Zechel, A Canadian in Norway
Continental CupGeneralLifestyleTraining

Closing the Gap: Meet Maks Zechel, A Canadian in Norway

FasterSkierAugust 10, 2017

Editor’s Note: The following is the first post of a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 19-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. He recently made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the next nine months. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories, and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. ***...

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World CupXCFeeds

Minor Leagues

JoranSeptember 13, 2012

OPA Cup races (also known as Alpen Cup) and Scandinavian Cup races have acquired an informal reputation as a sort of “minor league” racing circuit, relative to the World Cup.  One question this leads me to ask is exactly how much movement is there between these two circuits? To answer this question I took data [...] Related posts:

  1. OPA Cup vs Scandinavian Cup: Quality
  2. Predicting FIS Points For World Cup Races
  3. Predicting World Cup FIS Points (con’t)

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Nishikawa Breaks Away to Finish Fifth in Scando Cup 30 k
Continental CupGeneralNewsRacingResults

Nishikawa Breaks Away to Finish Fifth in Scando Cup 30 k

Alex KochonFebruary 9, 20121

There’s something to be said about consistency. Canadians Graham Nishikawa and Michael Somppi might say it’s a little annoying. With repeat results, the two can’t be too upset with their performances in recent Alpen and Scandinavian Cup races. Both Senior Development Team skiers, Nishikawa and Somppi finished the same as they did in their previous races. At the Alpen Cup in Switzerland on Sunday, Nishikawa of the Alberta World Cup Academy was fifth in the...

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Widmer, Sinnott Trail Norwegians in Scando Cup Final
Continental CupGeneralNewsRacingResults

Widmer, Sinnott Trail Norwegians in Scando Cup Final

Alex KochonFebruary 8, 2012

Any high-level racer will tell you experience is key, but sometimes it’s just as important to take in the moment. Ask Mike Sinnott, a member of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team who recently competed in a couple of World Cups. Six days after placing 37th in the Moscow freestyle sprints for his second-best individual World Cup result, Sinnott made his first Scandinavian Cup start this year on Wednesday in Madona, Latvia. There,...

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Continental CupGeneralInterviewsLifestyleNewsRacing

Self-Described ‘Late Bloomer,’ Thomas Embarks on First OPA Trip

Alex KochonFebruary 1, 2012

When the phone rang and Alana Thomas answered to hear the voice of Tom Holland, Cross Country Canada’s high-performance director, she had a sense of what was coming. The 23-year-old Nakkertok racer, who lives and trains in Ottawa, had been waiting for a similar call since she started skiing competitively more than seven years ago. With a considerably better-than-average start to her season this year, Thomas knew this might be her best chance to earn...

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XCFeeds

OPA + Scandinavian Cup FIS Points Follow-Up

JoranOctober 12, 2011

I started writing an answer to a comment to Monday’s post, but it started getting long, so I thought I’d make it a short post, instead. Basically, the question was how can the points be so different between OPA and Scandinavian Cup races when the penalty calculation methods is exactly the same. Recall that these [...] Related posts:

  1. OPA Cup vs Scandinavian Cup: Quality
  2. How To Win The SkiTrax FIS Fantasy World Cup Contest
  3. Predicting FIS Points For World Cup Races

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XCFeeds

OPA + Scandinavian Cup FIS Points Follow-Up

JoranOctober 12, 2011

I started writing an answer to a comment to Monday’s post, but it started getting long, so I thought I’d make it a short post, instead. Basically, the question was how can the points be so different between OPA and Scandinavian Cup races when the penalty calculation methods is exactly the same. Recall that these [...] Related posts:

  1. OPA Cup vs Scandinavian Cup: Quality
  2. How To Win The SkiTrax FIS Fantasy World Cup Contest
  3. Predicting FIS Points For World Cup Races

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XCFeeds

Accuracy of FIS Points In OPA Cups vs Scandinavian Cups

JoranOctober 10, 2011

Some comments on a recent post got me curious about the FIS points awarded at OPA Cup races. Similarly to my commenters, I’d noticed that oftentimes the top skiers at an OPA Cup race would receive very low (i.e. good) points for that race, and that this often wouldn’t seem to match up well with [...] Related posts:

  1. A New Sprint Points Method
  2. OPA Cup vs Scandinavian Cup: Quality
  3. FIS Points Development Guide

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XCFeeds

Accuracy of FIS Points In OPA Cups vs Scandinavian Cups

JoranOctober 10, 2011

Some comments on a recent post got me curious about the FIS points awarded at OPA Cup races. Similarly to my commenters, I’d noticed that oftentimes the top skiers at an OPA Cup race would receive very low (i.e. good) points for that race, and that this often wouldn’t seem to match up well with [...] Related posts:

  1. A New Sprint Points Method
  2. OPA Cup vs Scandinavian Cup: Quality
  3. FIS Points Development Guide

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World CupXCFeeds

Predicting FIS Points For World Cup Races

JoranAugust 24, 2011

The title of this post has dramatically over-promised on the actual content.  Sorry. I’ve talked a little before about race penalties.  Since race penalties are specifically intended to adjust for the strength of the field, I thought it would interesting to think up some way to see how well they do that. Everything having to [...] Related posts:

  1. Variability In World Cup Ski Racers
  2. How Well Prepared Are World Cup Rookies? (Part 1a: Distance)
  3. OPA Cup vs Scandinavian Cup: Quality

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GeneralJuniorsNewsRacingResults

Scandinavian Cup relays: Norway wins both, U.S. in 6th and 8th

January 31, 2010

The top 5 teams in both men and women’s divisions of the team relays in Kuopio, Finland looked strikingly similar. In the women’s race it was, 1st-5th: Norway 1, Finland, Sweden, Sweden 2, and Norway 2.  In the men’s race it was, 1st-5th: Norway 1, Sweden 1, Norway 2, Finland, and Sweden 2. The format was a 3x3km for women and 3x5km for men, the first leg of each was classical and the last two...

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GeneralJuniorsNewsRacingResultsUncategorized

Liotta and Hanneman top U.S. finishers in Scandinavian Cup classic races

January 30, 2010

Today was the second of three races in the the Puijo, Finland Scandinavian Cup. Annie Liotta, in 15th place,  was the first U.S. finisher in the Women’s 5 km classic race.  Also in the top-30 was Kinsey Loan, in 25th place.  Stina Nilsson, of Sweden, was the race winner and her teammate Settlin Evelina placed second.  Norway’s Landheim Hilde Losgaard was third. Other U.S. Results:  Katie Gill, 31st; Kate Backstrum, 36th; Isabel Caldwell, 39th; Jessica...

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