Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle had three of her nine supplements - recommended by an experienced nutritionist - tested for banned substances. She read the ingredient labels carefully and googled their names with the phrase "doping". But the IBU rejected the idea of accidental ingestion and slapped her with the same 2-year ban that a Russian using EPO received on the same day. Is that fair?
At age 21, Brian Olsen worried that coming out as gay would negatively affect his performance as a biathlete. Years later, he's using his position as an athlete rep to advocate for governing bodies in Olympic sports to think more carefully about the environment they're creating for gay and lesbian athletes. That might start here in the nordic community.
Russia's organizing committee reported a $261 million dollar surplus on Thursday, more than any other Olympic Games. While the numbers are higher than expected, and initially projected, they're indicative of a $2 billion operations budget, rather than the total cost of the Sochi Games, which topped out around $51 billion.
Justyna Kowalczyk announced at a recent Polish press conference that she's going to continue racing at the highest level for another season, but with some changes to her training. "Sixteen years of training left marks on my body and I need a rest," she said. "The training will be aimed for the World Championships in Falun.”
The U.S. Paralympic Nordic skiing team closed out the 2014 Paralympics on a high on Sunday as Oksana Masters won bronze in the women’s 5 k sit ski cross-country race at the Laura Cross-Country Ski Center. “I am in complete shock and amazement,” says Masters, the most successful U.S. Paralympic cross-country female.
Chris Klebl earned his first Paralympic medal in impressive fashion, winning gold in Sunday's cross-country 10 k sit-ski race on the last day of the Sochi Games. Brian McKeever took his third gold of the week, 10th total, the most of any winter athlete in Paralympic history.
It's not every day you bump into the Estonian prime minister, especially on the ski trails in Sochi, Russia. Yet FasterSkier Olympic reporter Nat Herz did just that, and asked the ski aficionado a few questions about his take on the sport.
Canadian Brian McKeever skied to his eighth gold medal and first of the 2014 Winter Paralympics on Monday, winning the visually impaired 20 k classic with the help of two guides, Erik Carleton and Graham Nishikawa -- a first for the 34-year-old Paralympic champion.
It would be easy to relax now that the Olympics are over - but the U.S. men's biathlon team is doing anything but. Lowell Bailey placed 10th and Tim Burke 13th in today's pursuit, while Leif Nordgren scored his first World Cup points of the season. "They still give the same amount of World Cup points for a win, and the prize money is still the same," Burke laughed.
At the 2014 Winter Paralympics from March 7 to 16 in Sochi, Russia, nordic skiing and biathlon will account for more that half of the available medals. How will the United States fare in the medal chase? The team's high-performance director, John Farra weighs in.
Austrian cross country skier Johannes Dürr says that he began taking EPO in June, after pressure to support his family became too much to bear. He says he acquired it from the former Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, the Austrian Ski Federation is considering kicking cross-country skiing out of the snow sports conglomerate after two scandals in three Olympics.
Last season, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was down and out. Little by little she has built back her fitness and self-confidence, with a secret ingredient: fun. After winning silver in the Olympic 4 x 5 k relay with her teammates from Finland, Saarinen thanked the U.S. women for inviting her to train with them in 2012 and said she had learned that you can't be so serious all the time.
When Alex Harvey tripped over a pole broken by U.S. skier Noah Hoffman, it summed up the whole Olympics for the Canadian team: if one piece was there, the rest was unlucky. Harvey, Ivan Babikov, and Graeme Killick finished 19th, 20th, and 28th, while Jesse Cockney was "just thrilled to have the start."
With the leaders through 48 k, U.S. skier Noah Hoffman ended up 26th in the Olympic 50 k. He was far from happy with his result - it's "not what I’m looking for" - but said he feels more and more comfortable skiing at the front. Brian Gregg finished 51st and Kris Freeman 57th in the last race of the Olympics.
Russian anchor Anton Shipulin using perfect shooting and blistering skiing to emerge as the fastest of a four-man lead pack in the waning minutes of a scintallating men's biathlon relay race, capitalizing on a stunning collapse by Norwegian anchor Emil Hegle Svendsen.
It's not every day that you find yourself sprinting for all you're worth down the finishing stretch of the Olympics against Martin Fourcade. But that's just what happened to Canada's Nathan Smith, who not only dueled with Fourcade to the end, but beat him. "I thought I had good chances,” Smith said. “I’m usually pretty good at sprint finishes.”
A strategic decision to switch to new skis at the 10-kilometer mark let the pack get away from Liz Stephen, and she never caught up. The story was the same for Holly Brooks and Kikkan Randall, all of whom had been advised to make the exchange by the U.S. coaching staff.
Seraina Boner, the best female marathon skier in the world, was focusing on the Vasaloppet. But then she realized she could go to the Olympics. This week she found herself holding her own in the team sprint, and then notched 9th place in the 30k skate, the best Olympic result for a Swiss woman in nearly two decades. "I can always do the Vasaloppet next year," she said.
The Ukrainian women's biathlon team was careful not to learn too much about what is happening in Kiev, so that they could focus on their relay race and deliver something that might cheer the country up: a gold medal, Ukraine's first in a winter Olympics since 1992. The women called for a moment of silence in their press conference to honor the 77 dead in Kiev uprisings.
German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, 33, has tested positive for the use of a prohibited substance, according the German news agency DPA.