Sophie Caldwell mainly had one tactic on Tuesday, and it put her in prime position for the best race of her career: “Push it over the tops, stick on Ingvild on the ups, and have a strong finish," she explained. The American ended up beating Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and another Norwegian, Heidi Weng, to achieve her first World Cup victory.
U.S. Ski Team veteran Kikkan Randall reacts to teammate Sophie Caldwell's first-career podium. "You could tell she was ready to make this happen," Randall said on the phone Tuesday. Randall's husband, Jeff Ellis, also talks about his experience interviewing Caldwell after the race.
Sophie Caldwell beat two Norwegians en route to her first career World Cup victory on Tuesday -- winning the women's classic sprint at the Tour de Ski Stage 4 and becoming the only other U.S. woman besides Kikkan Randall to win a World Cup race.
With both Noah Hoffman (in 23rd) and Erik Bjornsen (in 30th) notching their best World Cup results of the season, the American men's team was happy at the finish line -- and now only needs one more man to score a World Cup distance point to increase its start quota next season.
Simi Hamilton, 28, notched the second World Cup podium of his career on Saturday, finishing second to Italy's Federico Pellegrino by less than half a second in the freestyle sprint in Toblach, Italy. Two U.S. women finished in the top 10, with Sophie Caldwell in seventh and Sadie Bjornsen in ninth.
Sweden's Stina Nilsson pulled off a last-minute move from third to first in the women's freestyle sprint in Davos to win her first World Cup, and Sophie Caldwell advanced as a two-time lucky loser to ultimately place sixth in the final. Her U.S. teammate, Jessie Diggins placed ninth overall, and two other U.S. women made the heats.
After qualifying in 10th and 21st, Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell saw their sprint days end in the quarterfinals, where they placed sixth and fifth for the U.S., respectively. Hamilton busted a pole, and Canada missed out on the heats with Len Valjas coming closest to qualifying in 31st.
Devon Kershaw is onto something so far this season, and on Saturday, the 32-year-old Canadian World Cup Team member rolled to his best individual result of the season. Teammate Alex Harvey finished 2 seconds behind him in 22nd.
Just days after WADA released a comprehensive report on its findings regarding systematic doping in Russia, FasterSkier sought out the opinions of Marty Hall, a former coach of both the U.S. and Canadian ski teams. As expected, he didn't sugarcoat his reaction.
Of the five U.S. women that started Saturday's skiathlon, four of them finished in the top 30 and one was just outside in 37th. "It’s nice that everyone is starting to feel like themselves," said Sadie Bjornsen, who led the team in 20th after skiing in the top 20 throughout the race.
Regardless of when winter officially starts, it's here as far as the ski world is concerned, and there's a lot to be excited about in North American racing. Canadian biathletes Rosanna Crawford and Nathan Smith jumped out to a relay podium in the first IBU World Cup race, and Canadian cross-country skier Alex Harvey took second in the men's 10 k skate in Kuusamo, Finland, for his first early season podium.
In their first race of the season, Jessie Diggins and Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. Ski Team finished first and second, respectively, in the FIS classic sprint in Gällivare, Sweden. “It’s the best I’ve seen Jessie classic sprint ever,” coach Matt Whitcomb said. “It gives us a big boost as we move into the World Cup season next week.”
With more than half of the World Cup races being stages this season, the U.S. Ski Team has decided to incorporate the mini-tour format into its training and is ending its annual Park City camp with a three-day rollerski series.
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The day after Kikkan Randall announced she was pregnant with her first child, FasterSkier caught up with the four-time U.S. Olympian and 2013 world champion on the phone. Listen to the full-length interview here.
Kikkan Randall and her husband Jeff Ellis recently announced that they are expecting their first child in April 2016. While Randall, 32, will sit out the upcoming race season, she remains focused on the 2017 World Championships and 2018 Olympics.
With at least a dozen workouts in six days, including back-to-back interval sessions one grueling day, the U.S. Ski Team completed its annual dryland camp in Lake Placid, N.Y, and shared a collection of photos from last week.
Kikkan Randall is known for her speed. But even though her forte is in races under three minutes long, one of her favorite workouts from the fall of 2011 was a 50 k rollerski double-pole session.
On Thursday, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) announced it named Robert Lazzaroni, a former Rossignol nordic division manager who most recently managed the Utah Olympic Park nordic programs, as its new nordic domestic program director.
For its first on-snow camp of the summer, the U.S. Ski Team traveled to New Zealand to train at the Snow Farm in Wanaka. With a full 15 days of skiing, the team was able to make some mid-summer improvements to technique while logging some serious distance on skis.