U.S. Cross Country Ski Team

Chris Hecker and the Moment the Sun Came Out

Matthew VoisinFebruary 26, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. If you are a parent or coach and have been responsible for waxing skis for an important race — a state championship, a Junior National Qualifier — you know how stressful that can be. Now imagine it’s the morning of the Team Sprint at the Olympics, and you are...

Feature Olympics US Ski Team

Full Bellies for Fast Skiers: Inside Megan Chacosky’s Olympic Kitchen

Matthew VoisinFebruary 17, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped us put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Megan Chacosky had just finished cleaning up from dinner when she hopped on the Zoom from the US Olympic Cross-Country Ski Team’s pre-Olympic training camp in Livigno, Italy. “Yeah, that’s okay,” she said. “I appreciate...

Olympics

US Head Coach, Matt Whitcomb—Excited, Centered, Prepared

Matthew VoisinFebruary 6, 2026

This reporting costs money. Please support this coverage with a voluntary subscription (below) so FasterSkier can provide this level of access to the sport we all love year-round. On the eve of the opening event of the Olympic cross-country program, U.S. head coach Matt Whitcomb sounded equal parts energized and grounded. Speaking with FasterSkier’s Nat Herz in the mixed zone, Whitcomb touched on everything from ski exchanges and early-Games logistics to the long arc of...

Feature Olympics US Ski Team

Bernie Nelson and When Control Changes Hands

Matthew VoisinFebruary 4, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. At some point before every race, there is a moment when the conversation ends. The skis are ready. All the questions have been answered. The athlete has described, more than once, how the ski felt through the camber, how it released, and how it held when needed. Their part...

Feature Olympics US Ski Team

Eli Brown – The Ski Caddy

Matthew VoisinFebruary 3, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. On race mornings, when the athletes are still quiet, and the stadium hasn’t yet decided what kind of day it wants to be, Eli Brown is already working through choices that won’t appear anywhere in the results sheet. Brown is a technician for the U.S. Cross-Country Ski Team, a...

Feature Olympics US Ski Team

Paul Choudoir — “The Right-Brain Grinder”

Matthew VoisinFebruary 1, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. A Portfolio, Not a Resume Paul Choudoir did not set out to work at the Olympic Games. He did not study engineering. He did not grow up in a wax room, nor did he apprentice under a legendary grinder with a machine humming in the background. He went to school...

Feature World Cup

Matintalo First, Diggins Second: A Classic 20 K Test Before the Olympics

Matthew VoisinJanuary 25, 2026

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence 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 sky above the Goms Nordic Centre on Sunday morning had the washed-out look of winter at altitude — pale and reflective. Snow had fallen overnight —...

Feature World Cup

Svahn Returns to the Top as Olympic Stakes Sharpen in Goms Women’s Classic Sprint

Matthew VoisinJanuary 24, 2026

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence 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 the time the women clicked into their classic skis in the upper Rhône Valley on Saturday morning, the sprint course in Goms had already made its...

Feature World Cup

Nyenget Takes Oberhof 10 k Classic as Americans Build Momentum

Matthew VoisinJanuary 18, 2026

This 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 morning in Oberhof, the snow had the kind of sheen that tells the truth before the clock ever does. It glittered under a clean winter sun, polished by a freeze–thaw...

Feature World Cup

Where the Snow Hardens and Decisions Stick

Matthew VoisinJanuary 17, 2026

This 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. By the time the stadium lights fully took over in Oberhof, the snow had begun to change its mind. What started as a pliable winter surface—the kind that both softens and creates...

US Ski Team World Cup

US Ski Team Announces Period 3 Starts

Chris GroverJanuary 14, 2026

Dear Cross Country Community, We are pleased to announce the Team for Period 3 of the 2025-26 World Cup season: Oberhof Sprint F Men Zach Jayne Objective 25-26 Overall SuperTour Leader Ben Ogden Objective 4th 25-26 Sprint World Cup Jack Young Objective 21st 25-26 Sprint World Cup Gus Schumacher Objective 27th 25-26 Sprint World Cup JC Schoonmaker Objective 36th 25-26 Sprint World Cup Kevin Bolger Objective 40th 25-26 Sprint World Cup Zak Ketterson ...

Feature US Nationals

A Narrow Door, Held Open: The Men’s 20 k Freestyle at U.S. Nationals

Matthew VoisinJanuary 9, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. There are moments in endurance sport when the noise falls away—not because the stakes are small, but because they are too large to announce themselves loudly. The men who gathered on the start line at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Thursday afternoon understood that kind of quiet. The banners said...

Feature World Cup

Two Degrees, One Dream: How a Future Teacher Found Her Way to the World Cup

Matthew VoisinDecember 10, 2025

The Hill That Got Easier On an ordinary winter afternoon in Fairbanks, before NCAA titles and World Cup bibs and FIS profiles, there was just a loop—eight hundred meters of snow and one long, unforgiving hill. Middle-school Kendall Kramer skied it after class, day after day, with her dad. Birch Hill. Blue Loop. One big climb, same as yesterday, same as tomorrow. What changed was how it felt. “We would just go for, like, 30...

Feature US Ski Team

The U.S. Ski Team Star You Won’t See on Snow This Weekend

Matthew VoisinDecember 4, 2025

On Friday afternoon, as World Cup sprinters snap into their skis in Trondheim and the SuperTour fields gather in Fairbanks, one of the United States’ most electrifying young Nordic athletes will step onto an entirely different stage. Stanford University, the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament, is marching toward the College Cup—and at the center of it all is a player who, in just a matter of days, will also begin her...

News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

US Ski & Snowboard Announces 2022-23 U.S. Cross Country Team Nominations

FasterSkierMay 10, 2022

By Tom Horrocks May, 10 2022 U.S. Ski & Snowboard has announced the 22 athletes nominated to the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team for the 2022-23 season. Nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on the published selection criteria in the prior season. In addition to established veterans, including three-time Olympic medalist Jessie Diggins and two-time Olympians Rosie Brennan and Scott Patterson, the 2022-23 Team includes five new members. Moving up to the A Team and joining...

General News Team nominations US Ski Team

The Cross-Country Olympic Criteria, in the Context of U.S. Winter Sports

Chelsea LittleJune 29, 2017

Note: This is part of a series on the 2018 Winter Olympic selection criteria for the U.S. cross-country ski team. Read this cross-country athletes will be selected for the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, it’s useful to know some context about how selections are made in other sports. As described in a on the NBC Olympic site. That means that cross-country skiing was the very last set of 2018 U.S. Winter Olympic team criteria to...

Interviews News Podcasts US Ski Team

FS Podcast: Grover Talks Budget, Veterans and What Future Success Looks Like

Jason AlbertJune 13, 2016

At the helm of the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team since 2010, head coach Chris Grover sits down with FasterSkier to talk what success might look like in the future and the challenges he faces as a coach. The snow may be gone, but Grover and the team are in full preparation mode for the 2016/2017 World Cup season.