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U.S. Ski Team

Rosie Brennan isn’t a sparkle chipmunk. But “every human” can still relate to her hard-fought career.

PLANICA, SLOVENIA — Anyone who knows Rosie Brennan, and the ups and downs of her professional cross-country ski racing career, can relate to her mother’s experience at the World Championships here. Walking among the crowds in U.S.-themed clothing, Wiggy Brennan heard the same thing, over and over, from European fans: “We love Jessie Diggins!” — a reference to Rosie Brennan’s gold-medal winning teammate. “And I say, ‘Okay. But what about Rosie?’” Wiggy said. That question...

Jessie Diggins won gold. Now, she and all adjacent Americans are basking in European adulation.

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.  PLANICA, SLOVENIA — Rita White, Oumar Cherif and Anna Dehler arrived in Slovenia from Minnesota on Monday. The next day, they headed up to the World Ski Championships competition venue at Planica,...

Women’s Relay:  Norway Takes Gold, USA Fifth

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 the mounting success of the American women’s cross-country program, the one prize continuing to elude it has been a major championship relay medal. In some ways, it has become an obsession...

2022-23 U.S. Cross Country Team Announced

By Tom Horrocks October, 17 2022   (Left to right) Cross Country Program Director Chris Grover, Kevin Bolger, Scott Patterson, Gus Schumacher, Luke Jager, and head coach Matt Whitcomb all return to the 2022-23 U.S. Cross Country Team to kick off the season next month in Ruka, Finland. U.S. Ski & Snowboard is proud to name 22 athletes to the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team for the 2022-23 season. The 2022-23 team includes those active athletes...

Trail to Gold Fellowship Wants to Put More Female Coaches on the World Cup

While it’s difficult to get exact numbers, the general distribution of coaches and service staff on the World Cup level is largely male dominated. The recently announced Trail to Gold Fellowship aims to help change that. Following the publication of the Trail to Gold book in November of 2021, members of the book committee began discussing how to use the net proceeds generated by book sales. After bouncing around various proposals, they settled on the...

Nordic Nation: Rebounding From Setbacks and Gaining Momentum with Julia Kern

At 24-years-old, Julia Kern is quickly becoming a seasoned veteran in her 7th year on the U.S. Ski Team. However, her career trajectory has been stepwise, not exponential.  After making breakthroughs during the 2019-20 season, including her first World Cup podium in a skate sprint in Planica, Slovenia, she faced injuries and setbacks heading into the following season in 2020-2021, leaving her walking away from that season feeling disappointed in both her World Cup and...

Q&A with New Faces on the U.S. Ski Team: Walker Hall

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed...

Q & A with New Faces on the US Ski Team: Michael Earnhart

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed to development,...

Q & A with New Faces on the U.S. Ski Team: Finn O’Connell

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed to development,...

Nordic Nation: Greta Anderson’s 2021-2022 U.S. Ski & Snowboard Development Program Year in Review

Last June, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced the hiring of Greta Anderson as Development Team Coach, supporting Cross Country Program Manager Bryan Fish in “all aspects of leadership and logistics surrounding the U.S. Development Pathway, including National Training Group camps, U.S. Nationals and Junior/U23 World Championships, Europa Cup, select SuperTour and other national-level competitions, as well as working on Coaches’ Education and Certification.” (Read an in-depth interview with Anderson following the announcement here.) As she...

New Faces on the U.S. Ski Team: A Q&A with Zak Ketterson

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed...

Nordic Nation: Cross-Country Program Director Chris Grover on Looking Back and Planning Ahead 

I think we can all agree that the last two years have been a wild ride. For those at the helm of the cross-country program at U.S. Ski & Snowboard, added layers of COVID safety precautions and expensive testing have increased the otherwise mounting demands of preparing for an Olympic Games. There have been numerous domestic and international competitions canceled, including a full season of SuperTour racing in 2020/2021, numerous World Cups canceled, and three...

Spring skiing: Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center hosts annual U.S. Ski Team camp

Believe it or not, it is mid-May. For those following a traditional cross-country calendar, this means the start of a new training year, building toward the 2022/2023 competition season. And, for many of the top American athletes, this means it’s time to make an annual pilgrimage to Bend, Oregon for the on-snow camp of the season at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center. The weather gods were kind to the camp attendees, with nearly a foot...

David Norris: Missing out on 2022 Olympic Team selection, “making the best of it”, and what’s to come.

It’s hard not to root for David Norris.  Often affectionately described by Devon Kershaw as a “grinder”, the humble 31-year-old Fairbanks, AK native has been an eternal underdog, despite consistently performing among the best American distance racers of his generation on the World Cup. Highlighting his career, Norris has finished in the top-20 three times during his appearances in the 2019 and 2021 World Championships. His best result arrived in last year’s Championships in Oberstdorf,...

The Nationally Shared Workout: A Look at the U.S. Pace Project

Last year, in an effort to create a standardized workout that could be easily replicated and repeated, national team coaches presented the concept of the “U.S. Pace Project.” The concept is straightforward: a shift away from time-based intervals to distance-based, centered around repeated laps of a 5-kilometer course. This familiar distance is key. In a call in July, Matt Whitcomb, U.S. Ski Team Head Coach, and one of the creators of the project explained that:...

A Data Driven  Search for What Matters in Skiing: An Interview with Gus Kaeding

How many medals will the U.S. Ski Team win in the future? What, really, is perfect ski technique? Gus Kaeding — the one man team behind the US Ski Team’s analytics department — aims to provide data-driven answers to these questions. From his office in the Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah, he delves into the data that may help illuminate a path to success for both individual athletes and the greater cross country...

Coach Greta Anderson and the USST D-Team Try to Take Over the World

This summer, the U.S. Ski Team announced that it had hired Greta Anderson as the new Development Team Coach. FasterSkier caught up with Anderson on the afternoon of the official announcement to delve deeper into her coaching philosophy, precise job description, and only sort of tongue-in-cheek plans for world domination. Anderson’s hire was widely praised by both current and former athletes. Here’s Luke Jager, who’s known Anderson for nearly a decade starting in Alaska junior...

Anderson, Heimdal Join Davis U.S. Cross Country Team Staff (Press Release)

  Press Release The Davis U.S. Cross Country Team welcomes two new staff members, including Greta Anderson as Development Team Coach, and Bjørn Heimdal a member of the World Cup Service staff, for the 2021-22 season. Heimdal joins the World Cup Service staff, replacing fellow Norweigen Per-Erik Bjørnstad. He has been running ski/wax service for Norweigan regional Team Elon Nord-Norge since 2017, and has experience as both a coach and competitor. “He came highly recommended...

Supporting Norris Strengthens the Ski Racing Community

  I have been racing against David Norris for the past 10 years. We have battled head to head trying to crush each other. The end game was to earn valuable points on the domestic SuperTour circuit to qualify for World Cups. There have been many times we have swapped podium places at U.S. National Championships and U.S. SuperTours. As a one-time peer of David’s, I understand the need for funding and support to compete...