In a season of lackluster results thus far, Simi Hamilton's performance in the team sprint in Sochi, Russia, on Sunday is especially notable. Andy Newell's fall in the last lap left the Americans disappointed, yes, but Hamilton was "stoked" to ski the second-fastest third round of the entire field.
In a continued demonstration of the depth on the American women's squad, Ida Sargent and Sadie Bjornsen improved upon their team sprint from Liberec with a fifth place showing in Sochi, Russia, on Friday. They were three seconds off the podium and will leave the Olympic venue on a high note.
Has a team sprint ever been won by a difference of 18 seconds? If so, Dmitriy Japarov and Maxim Vylegzhanin erased all memory of it on Sunday in taking the Sochi team sprint win by exactly that much. The field was stunned — Sweden took second and Germany was third.
Liz Stephen was eighth in the 15 k skiathlon in Sochi, Russia, on Saturday. It was the best regular-season result of her life, but she wasn't quite happy with it. She wants a World Cup podium, and at 25 seconds out of third on the grueling Olympic course she's getting oh-so-close.
Despite a fall in the exchange zone Canada's Ivan Babikov led the North Americans in the 30 k skiathlon in Sochi, Russian, on Saturday in snowy, challenging conditions. American Noah Hoffman had a tangle of his own but managed to claw his way back to the top 26.
Be grateful it wasn’t you weren’t crouched on top of the ski jump in Sochi, Russia, on Saturday fighting for a starting place in the 10 kilometer skate race to follow. Chances are, your nerve would have abandoned you. Brothers Bryan and Taylor Fletcher have no such reservations. Although even they admit the conditions for jumping today were rather unnerving. “The jumping today was really foggy,” Bryan Fletcher said. “Its was definitely a challenge to...
Seven Americans landed in the heats in the freestyle sprint in Sochi, Russia, on Friday. Kikkan Randall calmly won her third sprint of the season and Ida Sargent was sixth in her first appearance in a World Cup final. La Clusaz is but a distant memory.
Devon Kershaw skied to his best result of the 2013 season, placing 8th in the freestyle sprint. On the Canadian women's side, Dasha Gaiazova placed 12th, a season-best in a skate sprint.
Petter Northug got down to business Friday at the Sochi Olympic venue's first World Cup, winning the 1.8 k freestyle sprint ahead of Dario Cologna, Italian David Hofer and best of all to him, three Russians.
After a bad crash while training in Sochi, Alex Harvey dislocated his shoulder and will not be competing in the upcoming World Cups Friday through Sunday. The Canadian national team member will take four to five days off, but should be OK for World Championships.
After a short break in the calendar, World Cup action begins again on Friday in Sochi, Russia, with a triple-header. More than the usual amount of intrigue surrounds the upcoming events; in addition to being the first World Cup in almost two weeks, this will be the first international cross-country event to take place at the Olympic venue for the 2014 Games.
Despite an Olympic bronze medal and World Championships gold, Jakov Fak hadn't won a regular World Cup competition until this season. How things change. After four podiums, the Croatian-turned-Slovenian is ranked eighth overall. He talked to FasterSkier about the ups and downs of his sport, and how he still returns to his roots in Croatia to train and to "find peace."
Soldier Hollow, the Utah venue that played host to the nordic events at the 2002 Olympics, is no stranger to big-name athletes. Just a few weeks ago, World Cup sprint champ Kikkan Randall was there training with the cross-country national team. The medal-winning nordic combined team skis there regularly. But last week, Utah had a visit from another of the nordic world’s most recognizable athletes: Germany’s Andrea Henkel, who joined the U.S. biathlon team for...
For the third time this year, the U.S. Ski Team ran into their counterparts on the biathlon squad earlier this week when both groups were in Utah for their respective training camps. “The biathletes were at Soldier Hollow yesterday as was the entire U.S. Ski Team,” skier Noah Hoffman wrote in an e-mail to FasterSkier on Tuesday. “Cross country was doing a speed (10-15 seconds) session classic. I’m not sure what was involved in the...
If the ski arenas currently under construction in Sochi, Russia, remain at their current size, the International Ski Federation is going to be unhappy with spectator capacity for Olympic ski competitions come 2014. International Ski Federation President and International Olympic Committee member Gian Franco Kasper criticized the venues for being unprepared for the Games based on his observations from last week’s site visit. At a Tuesday press conference in Cavalese, Italy, for the Val di...
At the biggest international competition of the summer, hardly anyone could blame the Americans if their heads weren’t totally in it. It’s not that they weren’t focusing on nordic combined’s International Ski Federation (FIS) Summer Grand Prix. They just had a lot of other things to absorb during their first visit to Sochi, Russia. For veteran competitors like Todd Lodwick, Johnny Spillane and Billy Demong, the new venue was a welcome change to their routine...
Just over two weeks ago, the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team set foot in France and immediately hopped on their road bikes. From there, they embarked on a weeklong cycling camp and watched two stages of the Tour de France along the way. In all, they rode more than 600 kilometers and tallied some 14,500 meters of climbing, including a team time trial up L’Alpe d’ Huez. The team’s youngest A-team member, 22-year-old Taylor Fletcher...
It’s easy to get caught up in busy work. Torin Koos has plenty between taking two summer courses toward his master’s at Westminster College, fitting in workouts and writing features for a ski website he and seven others took over June 1. The three-time Olympian has website-usability tests to prepare for, professional and technical writing work to do. His site, his blog, Koos reflected on two notable races at Norwegian nationals in March. First, he...
As the 2014 Sochi Olympics draw near, the U.S. Biathlon Association is focusing all of its resources on the national team. President Max Cobb discussed subtle changes in strategy: a smaller men's team, a bigger women's team, and lots of careful planning.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) recently reached a decision which could drastically change the competitive landscape at the Sochi Olympics. “I can not describe in words how happy I will be able to defend the honor of Russia in Sochi,” Russian skier Natalia Matveeva told skisport.ru. Matveeva has stood on the World Cup podium ten times, and recently finished a two-year doping ban after testing positive for EPO. But even though she had...