OBERHOF, Germany – Kris Freeman had a good day, notching the 20th-fastest standalone time of the race and moving into 30th place. His thoughts on the race: “I wanted to move up into the points, and I got a point, so I’m pretty satisfied on the day. It’s only the second time I’ve taken points this year, so it feels good to know I can still race. I’ve come back from a lot of stuff,...
OBERHOF, Germany – Of all the Tour de Ski stages, none matters less than the prologue. Runner-up Dario Cologna didn’t hesitate to say exactly that, and American Andy Newell concurred. “I don’t really care about today,” he told FasterSkier. “I don’t mind being flat today. You can make up four times tomorrow any time you lose today,” he said in reference to Friday’s pursuit. Newell wasn’t merely covering for an off day as his sentiments...
While Kikkan Randall fell in the sprint final (see our Full results
When a starter of the men’s sprint final in Davos, Switzerland asked Devon Kershaw (CAN) what lane he’d like to take, he didn’t think the official was serious. “I was like, ‘Are you sure I get to pick second?’” said Kershaw. He didn’t know he’d won his semi-final, and had to double check the starter had the right guy. After deciding on a start lane, Kershaw finished 4th, which is one of the best World...
For North American ski fans, here’s a look at who to watch for this weekend in Davos, Switzerland. Saturday’s 15/30 k—long awaited as it is one of only two such distances on the entire World Cup schedule—begins at 6:15 am EST with the women’s 15 k. The men’s start follows at 8:00 am EST. Women It says quite a bit about U.S. skiing these days that Kikkan Randall also featured prominently in our raw Swiss...
From the start, the U.S. men appeared ready to roll with the best of their World Cup competition at the 4×10 k relays in Sjusjøen, Norway, on Sunday. It wasn’t looks so much as action. Andy Newell jumped out to a first quick lap on the 2.5-k loop, working outside the icy track to position himself in fifth. As he found out, he wasn’t the only one working hard — most of the men he...
With the Norwegian women taking the top two spots earlier in the day in the 4×5 k, the Norwegian men had the bar for success set high for their four-man relay effort. As always, Petter Northug Jr. was anchoring Norway I, supported to Eldar Roenning and Finn Haagan Krogh on classic skis, while Lars Berger, biathlete, brother of Tora Berger, and occasionally cross-country relay selection skied third in the 4×10 k race in Sjusjøen, Norway,...
The men of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) got off to a rocky start Saturday morning in Sjusjøen, Norway; Kris Freeman led the way in 55th in the 15 k freestyle, +1:55.0 back from Johan Olsson (SWE), who handily bested the men’s field by 31 seconds. “It went really bad, but that’s the way it goes sometimes,” said Freeman on Saturday afternoon. “Overall the energy levels weren’t where they should have been. I’m not trying...
With the biggest squad in recent memory, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) looks to continue building on last season’s results on the World Cup this year, starting with the salvaged opener on November 19. Mild weather put the Americans’ travel plans in limbo last week, delaying their arrival to Europe. With their planned tune-up race in Beitostølen, Norway canceled, Saturday’s race in Sjusjøen will be the first time most of the U.S. contingent puts on...
Two rounds of cuts have hit the U.S. Ski Team’s already-reduced budget this spring and summer, increasing demands on athletes, coaches, and administrators alike. According to U.S. Ski Team (USST) Head Coach Chris Grover, the program was directed in late June to trim nearly $60,000 from its 2012 operating budget—in addition to a $30,000 reduction that came in the spring, during the annual budgeting process. The impact of the cuts will mostly fall on the...
Today’s Sprint Interview is with Simi Hamilton. A graduate of Middlebury College, Simi has been on the U.S. Ski Team for two years, putting up two podium finishes in U.S. Championship competitions and finishing first in a 3.5k Freestyle SuperTour Finals in 2011. FasterSkier: What are your goals for this camp? Simi Hamilton: This time of year I like to get that good ski feeling back and really work on technique as well as focusing...
MarweRollerSkis.com 2011 Team Marwe Kikkan Randall-#1 ranked skier in the US; World Cup Winner! Andy Newell-#1 ranked skier in the US; #5 ranked Sprinter in the World! Sadie Bjornsen-2011 World Championships 9th Place, 2011 US Nationals 10k Classic Champion Jessie Diggins-2011 World Championships Team, 2011 US Nationals Skate Sprint Champion Simi Hamilton-2011 World Championships Team, 2010 Olympian Liz Stephen-2011 World Championship Team, 2011 US Nationals 20k Skate Champion Tim Burke-2-Time Olympian, 2010 Biathlon World...
The following is the USSA’s list of nominations for the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Ski Team. The nominations include those athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria. The USSA will announce the actual team roster later this spring, naming those athletes who accept the responsibilities of being a part of the U.S. Ski Team and who are planning to compete in the 2012 season. Athletes nominated to the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Ski Team...
Kris Freeman (USST) had one last chance to nail it. A type 1 diabetic, Freeman had had two straight races in Sun Valley in which his efforts had been stymied by the disease. Saturday’s freestyle hill climb up Dollar Mountain, the final race in the four-stage SuperTour Finals, was his last shot to get it right. He did, which allowed him to leave behind three other athletes on the toughest section of the four-kilometer course,...
At the top of the results sheet for Friday’s classic sprint qualifier in Sun Valley, there weren’t any surprises: Kikkan Randall, Ida Sargent, and Chandra Crawford were the top three women, and Andy Newell, Simi Hamilton, and Skyler Davis were the top three men. But scanning down and looking through the rest of the top 30, one name was conspicuously absent: that of Kris Freeman, who was the overall leader of the SuperTour Finals mini-tour...
Off days are good for any number of things: big breakfasts, easy ski sessions, and watching NASCAR on TV. (Yeah, it’s been a slow afternoon at the FasterSkier regional headquarters). But they’re also good for catching up on all the things we missed from the last few days. Below is a brief selection. –Simi Hamilton’s dominating performance in the men’s prologue on Tuesday was a demonstration of what a well-trained athlete can do in a...
In Tuesday’s 3.3 k prologue in Sun Valley, the top-seeded men started last. So it wasn’t that much of a surprise when Simi Hamilton finished his race with a big lead—there were 42 of the continent’s strongest skiers still to come. The surprising thing was what happened next. One by one, each of those 42 men came to the finish line and failed to touch Hamilton’s time. Andy Newell: 18 seconds down. Leif Zimmermann and...
The OPA Cup series is supposedly to be skiing’s equivalent of baseball’s minor leagues. But last weekend’s racing in Ramsau was about as far from a dingy Southern ballpark as you can get. Surrounded by jagged, snowy peaks on a plateau in the Austrian Alps, Ramsau was the last stop on this year’s OPA circuit, which a contingent of U.S. athletes has been following for the last two weeks. Nearly a dozen Americans took part...
The U.S.’s Kikkan Randall wasn’t the only North American to see her World Championships skate sprint hopes go down the drain in a collision. Canada’s Alex Harvey met with the same fate in his semifinal heat on Thursday when he tangled with a Swiss skier, Martin Jaeger, to fall out of contention. On the back side of the Oslo sprint course, before the men re-entered the stadium, Harvey said he was skiing at the head...
The North American men may not have a gold-medal favorite among their ranks for Thursday’s men’s World Championship freestyle sprint in Oslo. But if they lack a reliable podium candidate, they make up for it in their numbers: no fewer than seven U.S. and Canadian skiers have a shot at cracking the heats. In Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey, the Canadians have two men with freestyle sprints podiums already this season—Harvey’s a second place last...