Teammates on the U.S. Ski Team and Alaska Pacific University, Kikkan Randall and Sadie Bjornsen tallied the best distance results of their respective careers on Sunday at Holmenkollen, the ultimate distance race of the season. Randall worked her way up and attacked late to finish 12th, and Bjornsen skied consistently with a pack of Norwegians to place 14th.
The Weekend Roundup is back! Just because the Olympics are over doesn't mean the season is finished. Catch up with the renewed World Cup action in Lahti, Finland, the IBU Youth World Championships, and the Vasaloppet.
The first thing U.S. women's coach Matt Whitcomb tweeted after Saturday's freestyle sprint, the first World Cup since the Olympics: "We are back!" Randall had won another skate sprint to rise to the top of the World Cup sprint standings, and Sophie Caldwell joined her on the podium -- the first time two U.S. women have shared an individual World Cup podium.
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.
After qualifying in third out of a stacked semifinal, the U.S. women's team-sprint duo of Sophie Caldwell and Kikkan Randall went on to place eighth in the final of Wednesday's Olympic classic team sprint, two places back from their previous best of sixth at the 2010 Olympics.
Feeling under the weather, Andy Newell is no longer part of the American duo for Wednesday's team sprint. Instead, Erik Bjornsen will join Simi Hamilton. For the women, Kikkan Randall will keep her spot despite difficult races so far this Olympics, and Sophie Caldwell, who turned in the best U.S. women's performance ever in the individual sprint, will be her partner.
Medal hopefuls to start the day, the U.S. women had to reconcile with ninth place in Saturday's Olympic 4 x 5 k relay, a result they said didn't reflect their best day but one which indicated they were still very much a team, united in success as well as on off-days.
Sadie Bjornsen quickly realized that today's 10 k classic wasn't going to have any easy sections, as temperatures soared into the mid-50s and the snow softened and slowed down. She thought of the Eagle glacier and pushed through to 18th - just a few seconds from the top 15. Her teammates packed in from 32nd to 35th.
Sophie Caldwell's goal at the beginning of the season, said her father Sverre, wasn't to win the Olympics - it was to just get there. But Caldwell found herself in position to go for a medal when she made the women's sprint final in Sochi today. Felled by a ski tangle at the top of the course, Caldwell's result still topped the historic records for U.S. women's skiing.
Maiken Caspersen Falla and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg emerged with Norway's first gold and silver in the same event of the Olympics on Tuesday, topping the podium in the women's freestyle sprint. Slovenia's Vesna Fabjan captured third, and Sophie Caldwell emerged in sixth for the U.S.
All four U.S. women advanced to the rounds in Tuesday's Olympic 1.3 k freestyle sprint, along with Canada's Perianne Jones and Dasha Gaiazova. Andy Newell led three North American men who qualified in the 1.8 k sprint, with Alex Harvey and Simi Hamilton, respectively.
Of the 18 North Americans that competed in Sunday’s 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprints at the Toblach World Cup, nine made the rounds. Many of them chatted with FasterSkier about the day and final race before the Olympics.
The U.S. Cross-Country and Nordic Combined teams officially announced their athlete selections for the 2014 Winter Olympics, which start in just over two weeks in Sochi, Russia.
Sunday's 10 k classic mass start in Szklarska Poreba, Poland was another great day for the US women. Liz Stephen had a breakthrough performance, finishing sixth, a career best for her and a major milestone in her development as a classic skier. Ida Sargent too had an excellent day, placing ninth, her career best distance rac
The U.S. women took advantage of a weakened field to place five skiers in the top15. Perianne Jones led Canada in a tenth.
It was a spectacular weekend for sprinting as the World Cup continued in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic with both a individual and team sprint. FasterSkier was also on site at the 2014 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Midway, Ut., which concluded with a classic sprint on Friday.
Sunday's classic team sprint in Nove Mesto was destined to be a showdown between Finland and Norway. Saarinen led the race for Finland in the final lap until a burst of speed from Østberg on the final climb secured a Norwegian victory.
The story of the day for the Americans may have been Kikkan Randall, but Sophie Caldwell quietly turned in another strong performance, earning points in her fifth consecutive World Cup sprint.
Liz Stephen was the only American to crack the top-30 in the fourth stage of the Tour de Ski, placing 26th in the women's 10 k classic mass start. Noah Hoffman led the way in the men's 15 k, placing 55th.
Check out photos from Tuesday’s freestyle sprint in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, the third stage of the 2013/2014 Tour de Ski.