A predictor for the winter ski season ahead? Could be. Either way, Norway’s Blink Ski Festival, or as it’s called in Norway, Blinkfestivalen, remains the ultimate in rollerski racing and returned for the 12th year in a row on Wednesday. The festival opened with elite men’s and women’s distance rollerski races, known as the currently training with the British national team in Norway. Following the Blink Classics on Wednesday, the Blink Ski Festival will turn to the...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Dresden, Germany): Freestyle sprints Men’s report For her second-straight World Cup sprint, Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. Ski Team reached the podium in the women’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint on Saturday in Dresden, Germany. Caldwell placed third in the final behind Sweden’s Hanna Falk, who won it in 2:11.02 minutes, and Maja Dahlqvist, also of Sweden, who placed second (+0.23). Caldwell and Dahlqvist both lunged in a photo finish for second,...
FIS Cross-Country World Cup Finals (Quebec City): 10/15 k classic mass starts During Saturday’s 15-kilometer classic mass start at World Cup Finals, Canada’s Alex Harvey was in it until the end. But so were Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Niklas Dyrhaug, and Russia’s Alexander Bessmertnykh, to name a few. Sitting in second with a few hundred meters to go, Harvey was primed to make his move on Dyrhaug, who was leading at the time. But then...
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Men’s 50 k freestyle mass start After a week of missing out on the medals at 2017 Nordic World Championships, Canada’s Alex Harvey, a four-time World Championships medalist from 2011, 2013 and 2015, achieved his first individual gold medal in the final race of this year’s World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Harvey, 28, won the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start in a drag race to the finish. Entering the...
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Falun, Sweden): 15 / 30 k classic mass start Men’s report In the women’s 15-kilometer classic mass start on Sunday, Norway swept the podium with Marit Bjørgen taking the win in a time of 41:28.8 in Falun, Sweden. Crossing just half a second behind her was her teammate, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg in second place. Rounding out the podium was Heidi Weng in third (+8.1). American Jessie Diggins was the first to cross the line...
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Toblach, Italy): Freestyle sprints Men | Race report Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen posts a 22-second win for her first victory of the season and first time shooting without a miss in an individual race since the Ruhpolding sprint almost exactly a year ago. Dunklee leads North Americans in 33rd and qualifies for the pursuit, along with Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (55th), Megan Tandy (56th) and Julia Ransom (60th). Ski Classics press release. “It...
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers. *** U.S. SuperTour opener in West Yellowstone: Freestyle sprints [UPDATE] The U.S. domestic season opened in West Yellowstone, Mont., with 1.3-kilometer freestyles on...
Norway's Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Didrik Tønseth opened their seasons with a bang at home in Beitostølen on Friday, beating out large fields in the women's and men's 10 and 15 k classic races. Several Canadian juniors and developing skiers raced, too, as well as American and recent MSU grad Cambria McDermott, who's living and training in Norway.
The 2016 Ski Classics kicks off this weekend with a doubleheader in Livigno, Italy, and the marathon regulars are chomping at the bit to get started with the long-distance race series.
For all the international-racing junkies out there, the Swedish and Norwegian Ski Associations recently announced the nominations to their 2014/2015 national teams: a couple new names, a few departures, but both are back again with depth in numbers.
Petter Northug played a main role in what turned out to be a nail-biting final leg of Friday's 4x10 k relay, which didn't get interesting until the last kilometer. The Norwegian attacked and proved too strong for his contenders, beating Sweden, Russia and Italy in a sprint finish.
Coming off a disappointing team sprint, Petter Northug decided to start Wednesday's 15 k freestyle at World Championships to see what could happen. The Norwegian ended up winning the individual start, not usually his best event, to capture his eighth world title.
Blue skies, some uncountable number of ski fans estimated in excess of 105,000, the most prestigious individual ski race in the world, and all of it in Oslo, the self-anointed ski capital of the world. Such a day could end only one way: with Petter Northug once again accelerating away from his competition in the last 400 meters of the World Championship 50 k freestyle on his home turf. A World Cup men’s 50 k...
Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Eldar Roenning, the first two skiers for Norway’s 4x10km relay team sat in the Photo Press Center, eyes glued to one of the many television screens, watching the race unfold. The tension was high – no laughing or joking, not even a smile. Tord Asle Gjerdalen was on track for Norway, and he, along with Sweden’s Anders Soedergren, had just been reeled in by the chase pack. The race was now...
Norway fields one hot medal contender for the 30K pursuit: defending world champion Petter Northug, as well as three proven distance racers. But more surprisingly, sprinter Eirik Brandsdal rounds out the 5-person squad.
Norway Nations Cup Ranking: 1st (9899 pts) Men: 1st (5249 pts) Women: 1st (4650 pts) 2010/2011 A Team Men Tord Asle Gjerdalen Petter Northug Eldar Roenning Martin Johnsrud Sundby Kristian Tettli Rennemo Petter Eliassen Simen Oestensen Ola Vigen Hattestad Johan Kjoelstad Eirik Brandsdal Oeystein Pettersen Anders Gloersen John Kristian Dahl Women Marit Bjoergen Astrid Uhrenholt Jacobsen Therese Johaug Marthe Kristoffersen Kristin Stoermer Steira Vibeke Skofterud Celine Brun-Lie Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg Maiken Caspersen Falla Karianne Bjellanes...