Charlotte Kalla is trying the Petter Northug model and will train outside of her country's national team this season, instead collaborating with her coach Magnus Ingesson at Piteå Elit. Meanwhile, after a year of focusing on Ski Classics, Johan Olsson and Daniel Richardsson are back to the national team.
The Norwegians may have won the race, but the Americans stole the show in the women's 4 x 5 k relay on Sunday in Lillehammer, Norway. For the U.S. women, placing third marked their first time back on the World Cup relay podium since December 2013. (Updated)
Ole Einar Bjørndalen swore that this would be his last season - and after missing six weeks of training due to illness, he had doubts whether he would make Norway's World Championships team. But the 41-year-old is back and won big on the World Cup, and now teammates and competitors are wondering if he has another Olympics in him.
Rosanna Crawford has been shooting for the World Cup podium for a long time now. And on the first day of the season, she got there, along with teammate Nathan Smith. "It feels amazing," she said. "I feel so lucky to share the podium with my teammate who I’ve trained with for so long."
With Canadians and Russians to contend with, American Andy Newell placed second overall in Saturday's FIS classic sprint in Gällivare, Sweden. “I think what you’ll see more from me more this year is I’ll be the one making attacks and not responding to other peoples’ [attacks],” Newell explained.
Whether it was Sadie Bjornsen leading the race at 5 k, Liz Stephen scoring the best result ever for a U.S. woman in a World Champs 30 k by finishing 11th, or Rosie Brennan outsprinting Justyna Kowalczyk for 16th, the American women ended World Championships on a high note.
A Russian racer skied over Sadie Bjornsen's tips 2.5 kilometers into the 4 x 5 k relay, but the Americans fought back strong to finish fourth. "We all skied the best we possibly could today," said Liz Stephen. "I’m already dreaming for the next chance at a podium.”
After a fifth-place in the 2014 Olympic relay, Norway came back with vengeance to take the 4 x 5 k relay at the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, Sweden. The Swedish team, featuring Charlotte Kalla and Stina Nilsson, overcame Finland to earn a silver medal in front of a home crowd.
The U.S. Ski Team finished Sunday's team sprint in the middle of the pack, as the defending world championship team of Sophie Caldwell and Jessie Diggins skied to eighth and the American men's team of Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton notched seventh.
Longtime friends and teammates Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Maiken Caspersen Falla, of Norway, were out for some redemption after their fourth-place finish in the 2013 World Championships team sprint, and they got it with a sizeable win over Sweden's Ida Ingemarsdotter and Stina Nilsson, while Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk and Sylwia Jaśkowiec were thrilled with bronze.
The start lists are out and it's official: Sophie Caldwell and Jessie Diggins will be representing the U.S. women in Sunday's freestyle team sprint at World Championships. While it was a tough decision to leave Kikkan Randall off the team, U.S. head coach Chris Grover explains the reasoning behind it.
Out of six U.S. Ski Team members who advanced to the heats in Thursday's World Championships classic sprint, Sophie Caldwell and Simi Hamilton went the farthest, making it to the semifinals before finishing 10th and 12th, respectively. Andy Newell placed 17th and rookie Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess led his quarterfinal at one point before ending up 30th overall. Sadie Bjornsen was 19th and Ida Sargent placed 29th.
Marit Bjørgen overcame the spectator roars for Sweden's Stina Nilsson to hold off the home-crowd favorite by 0.42 seconds in the women's classic-sprint final on the first official day of 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. Bjørgen captured her 13th World Championships gold, Nilsson notched silver and Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla took bronze.
Four North American women advanced to the heats on the first day of medal competition at the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, with American Sophie Caldwell leading the crew in 21st in Thursday’s classic-sprint qualifier. Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk won the qualifier by 0.24 seconds, and Kikkan Randall missed advancing by 3.22 seconds in 36th.
Charlotte Kalla dominated distance racing, while Hanna Falk claimed a sprint title and a place on the World Championships team. In the men's field, Marcus Hellner, Emil Joensson and Tobias Peterson made arguments that they are returning to form- but Calle Halfvarsson scored a big victory in the 15 k.
After individual racing was completed at their national championships - you can find the results inside - Norway named a 23-member team for World Championships in Falun, Sweden. It includes season-long favorites as well as Kristin Størmer Steira and Astrid Jacobsen, who only just returned to the World Cup.
Fredrik Lindström, a biathlon World Championships medalist, hadn't done a ski race in six years. But he beat out the Swedish national ski team in the Bruksvallarna 15 k, and had them joking about adding him to a relay team. In the women's 10 k, Charlotte Kalla skied to a 52-second win over Maria Rydqvist.
Alex Harvey and personal coach Louis Bouchard were the first from the Canadian World Cup Team to arrive in Gällivare, Sweden, last Thursday. They spent the earlier part of the month acclimating to altitude in Davos, Switzerland.
A former top World Junior Championships competitor from Vermont, Kevin Cutts now coaches a ski gymnasium in Sweden. He chatted with FasterSkier about how he sees U.S. skiing, now that he's living abroad - and concludes that North America isn't as far behind as we think we are.
Despite being diagnosed as a diabetic when he was a kid, Robin Bryntesson is still one of the top skiers in the world. And one of the busiest: in the summer he runs a camp for children with diabetes, he's constantly producing funny videos, and his downloadable technique app just went live.