This is the end. Of the 2023 racing season. Devon and Nat go without guests and are here to take you through the last three events of the winter in Lahti, Finland. And we cover a couple of retirement announcements from U.S. skiers. We’re taking a little break after this but, we promise: We won’t leave you hanging for the whole off-season. Stay tuned for more regular episodes over the course of the spring and...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Today marked the end: at the completion of today’s women’s 20 kilometer Classic mass start in Lahti, Finland, all unanswered questions would be resolved. There would not be any waiting until next...
If you’re reading this, you already know: Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern teamed up to deliver a bronze medal for the U.S. at the World Championships in Slovenia. We’ve got a full breakdown and oh yeah, there was a men’s race, too, and a standout Canadian result. The championships is rolling along; email your notes and questions to devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.
Devon and Nat return to recap the last three stages of this year’s Tour de Ski, including the climb up the Alpe Cermis and some epic American and Canadian performances. The World Cup circuit is taking a break, so we’ll try to have a mailbag episode in the next week. Email us questions and comments at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support Fasterskier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Stage 5 of the 2023 Tour de Ski was a sprint, but not a “normal” sprint. Typically, sprint races are won by pure sprinters, those who control the pace of...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support Fasterskier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. With starting positions based on individual finishes in yesterday’s racing, Wednesday’s 20 k Freestyle Pursuit appeared likely to confirm who the leader of the 2023 Tour de Ski truly was....
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support Fasterskier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. On Sunday, Val Mustair, Switzerland played host to Stage 2 of the 2023 Tour de Ski: a 10 k Classic Pursuit. The Pursuit isn’t just a distance race. It’s...
Just the other day, a guy walked into a local cross-country ski area where a women’s World Cup race broadcast was streaming. Another patron asked him who he thought would win? He didn’t know what the race was or who the favorite was. But without so much as the bat of an eye, he replied, “Weng”—The odds were in his favor. Weng family members involved in World Cup skiing are a combination of cousins, sisters,...
The FIS instituted an overhaul of the points system used to determine the best individual skier in the World. We’re already seeing the consequences. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo had won all three races of the World Cup’s opening weekend races in Ruka. Any offseason doubts spurred by reports of his injuries or independent training practices went away. He was still the best skier in the world. Then, the following Friday in Lillehammer, illness forced Klaebo to...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Lillehammer, Norway was the site of the latest event displaying new FIS Cross Country World Cup policies offering equal racing distances for both men and women with today’s 20 k...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Today is day two for the World Cup stop in the Nordic skiing playground of Lillehammer, Norway. But it was all work and no play, today, as skiers faced the...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. We’ve arrived at the final event of the 2021/22 World Cup Season and the second new event of the day. It was a fast and furious mixed team sprint in...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. The History: A survey of the last five Olympic cycles shows a clear trend in American women’s sprint results: upward. In the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, no Americans...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. By: Ben Theyerl For ski fans whose parents were smart enough to record the 1994 Winter Olympics on VHS tapes, Lillehammer will forever be a World Cup venue carrying...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. If you had any question about the strength and depth of the Swedish sprint team, look no further than the qualification list from today’s classic sprint in Falun. Led...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. It was a foggy morning for the women’s 4×5 k relay in Lahti, Finland. With temperatures above freezing and high humidity, the scene was less of a winter wonderland...
Times are what they are. Precautions are the name of the game. This year’s Blink Festival in Norway played to a reduced field and limited spectators due to COVID precautions. Some races, as will be noted, included modified race rules to limit close contact between athletes. Lysebotn Opp – 06/08 The Lysebotn Opp is perhaps the marquee event. It features lovely fjord views and a grueling 7.5-kilometer uphill skate switchbacking up a mountainside. In...
Sports fans talk a lot about home field advantage. Which team will play at home at Game 7 of the World Series? Or in the playoffs before the Stanley Cup? Home turf and the swells of a crowd whose numbers are skewed toward the home team has an undeniable effect. Yes, the Norwegian team of Tiril Udnes Weng, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Therese Johaug, and Heidi Weng won yet another 4×5-kilometer relay with a time of...
Day two of the Tour de Ski offered the American women the Sisyphean task of earning back time after a miss on ski and wax selection in Stage 1 prevented them from performing to their capability. This was particularly so for Jessie Diggins, a favorite for the overall tour podium who finished the first stage in 29th 1:20 behind Norway’s pace-setting Theresa Johaug. Her teammate Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, also a top all-arounder, was in the...
It was a weekend of sprinting in Lahti, Finland, with many World Cup athletes closing out Sunday having traversed the famed 1.4-kilometer 2016 World Championships sprint loop at top speed close to ten times. By the time Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist got on course for the final lap of the women’s classic Team Sprint, she had already tallied nine–in Saturday’s freestyle sprint she made it through the qualifier, quarterfinal, semifinal and final (placing third), and on...