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World Cup Descends on Gällivare; Athletes to Be Tested on Unrelentingly Technical Courses (With Photo Gallery)

Chelsea LittleNovember 23, 2012

Any number of Swedish men seem capable of topping the podium on home turf. Here, Marcus Hellner leads teammates on some pickups. Otherwise, the heavy hitters come at the end: Dario Cologna and Marit Bjørgen hold the honors of being last season’s World Cup winners, and so will kick off this season wearing their yellow bibs and starting last (that puts the Norwegian as bib 78 and the Swiss star as bib 97). The last...

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Canadian National Ski TeamGeneralNewsRacing

Harvey, Crawford Break Up Swedish Sweep in Bruksvallarna

Alex KochonNovember 16, 2012

In and around Scandinavia on Friday morning, several nordic races kicked off the season. While the International Ski Federation (FIS) events in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, were among some of the shortest, few likely complained about a 5- and 10-kilometer classic race at this point in the year. It’s November. The World Cup races start in a week. Let’s just get the kinks out. Several skiers across Europe tweeted about their legs feeling a little syrupy, which...

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Just Before Leaving for Sweden, Valjas Breaks Hand Bone
Canadian National Ski TeamGeneralInterviewsNews

Just Before Leaving for Sweden, Valjas Breaks Hand Bone

Alex KochonNovember 8, 20122

One of the first things Lenny Valjas did upon arriving in Östersund, Sweden, on Thursday was put a pole strap on. His Canadian World Cup teammate Alex Harvey went out for a ski shortly after arriving in Europe early that evening, but not Valjas. He stood in his hotel room testing out the strap on his left hand. Valjas, 23, is going to be paying a lot of attention to that hand and more specifically,...

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“Doping is Such a Shame Here”: Why Skiing’s Next Positive Test Won’t Come from Scandinavia
GeneralHealthInterviews

“Doping is Such a Shame Here”: Why Skiing’s Next Positive Test Won’t Come from Scandinavia

Chelsea LittleNovember 7, 2012

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Imagine if Charlotte Kalla or Marcus Hellner were caught this season with a positive test for EPO, or maybe a bag of blood in a hotel room. Or what if Ole Einar Bjørndalen showed up with HGH, or Petter Northug with steroids? If you can’t imagine any of these things, it’s because of a cultural change in Scandinavia in the last two or three decades that is the result largely of the...

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World CupXCFeeds

Swedish Women By Individual

JoranSeptember 6, 2012

Following up from last time, we’ll look a little more closely at the individual trends among some of the top Swedish women in distance and sprint events. First the distance skiers (click through for a larger version): Not surprisingly, Charlotte Kalla is generally the top performer here. But notice that there’s a bit of a [...] Related posts:

  1. Most Improved: Women’s Distance
  2. Most Improved: Women’s Distance
  3. Most Un-Improved: Women’s Distance

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World CupXCFeeds

Swedish Women

JoranSeptember 4, 2012

Reading the recent interview with Rikard Grip, the Swedish women’s coach got me thinking about how they’ve fared recently. From a very broad perspective for the whole team, we have the following in distance events: Clearly their depth has greatly improved, as evidenced by the dramatic rise in the number of top 30 results per [...] Related posts:

  1. Most Improved: Women’s Sprint
  2. Comparing Variability In Men’s & Women’s Sprinting
  3. European Mid-Season Review

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Halfway Through Joint Camp, North Americans Discuss Sweden
CampsDrylandGeneralNewsRacingTrainingUS Ski Team

Halfway Through Joint Camp, North Americans Discuss Sweden

Alex KochonAugust 10, 2012

Just over a week ago, five U.S. Ski Team women and one Canadian packed their bags in various parts of the world and set off to meet in Sweden. Usually faced with the task of preparing for months of overseas travel, some might have scratched their heads. What do you bring for just two weeks? Americans Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephen had already been in Europe for nearly a month, first competing in the Blink...

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Crawford on Joining the Americans in Sweden
Canadian National Ski TeamDrylandGeneralInterviewsNewsRacingUS Ski Team

Crawford on Joining the Americans in Sweden

Alex KochonAugust 6, 2012

The first North American to arrive in Sweden last week, Canadian Chandra Crawford came two days earlier than everyone else, starting her journey Wednesday in Östersund near the Norwegian border. There, she visited Canadian national-team technician Micke Book and his family, and rollerskied before making her way 460 kilometers north on Friday. Up in Torsby, the home of Sweden’s famous ski tunnel, she worked out alongside U.S. Ski Team members Kikkan Randall, Liz Stephen, Holly Brooks, Jessie Diggins and...

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World CupXCFeeds

Fredrik Karlsson

JoranApril 27, 2012

Hopefully there won’t be any more posts like this for a long while. Fredrik Karlsson died recently, I guess in a snowmobile accident. I didn’t know much about him, but I guess he was on Sweden’s development team. As you might expect for someone on Sweden’s development team, he hadn’t quite made a huge splash [...] Related posts:

  1. NOW Is It Panic Time For The Norwegian Men’s Distance Team?
  2. Drammen 10/15km Classic Recap
  3. Lahti Pursuit Recap

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World CupXCFeeds

Jenny Olsson

JoranApril 25, 2012

    Unfortunately, we have a distinct theme for this week’s posts. Jenny Olsson also passed away recently, apparently from breast cancer. She raced, quite successfully, for Sweden for much of the mid-00′s: These are just her WC level distance results (she didn’t sprint much). As you can see, 2002-2003 was her best effort, but [...] Related posts:

  1. Career Retrospective: Anna Olsson
  2. Most Un-Improved: Distance 2011
  3. Career Retrospective: Petra Majdic

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World CupXCFeeds

Inge Braten

JoranApril 23, 2012

In some very sad news, we learned recently that Inge Braten passed away rather suddenly. It is difficult (and probably slightly foolish) to try to quantify a coach’s impact on skiing results, so let’s consider this post a rememberance, rather than an analysis. Perhaps most famously, Braten coached the Norwegian men during their “Golden Era”: (My [...] Related posts:

  1. Is It Panic Time For The Norwegian Men’s Distance Skiers?
  2. NOW Is It Panic Time For The Norwegian Men’s Distance Team?
  3. Sweden’s Men’s Sprinting

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Doherty Claims Second Title at Swedish Championships
BiathlonJuniors

Doherty Claims Second Title at Swedish Championships

Chelsea LittleApril 4, 2012

The biathlon season may have ended in North America a few weeks ago, but that hasn’t stopped a group of U.S. juniors from racing their way from to the top. Sean Doherty (Saratoga Biathlon), Tara Geraghty-Moats (Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club/Ethan Allen Biathlon Club), and Casey Smith (Methow Valley Biathlon) flew to Solefteå, Sweden as part of an exchange organized by U.S. Head Coach Per Nilsson. While the main focus on the stay was more to...

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