Over the dryland season, U.S. Ski Team sprinter Simi Hamilton has been working on improving his double poling and as always -- keeping the soul fed with adventure training. “I have been playing around with a much shorter range of motion on the climbs to keep my tempo much higher,” he explains.
During her short time on the U.S. Ski Team, Holly Brooks made the most of it. From the magic of the relay socks to a fifth place in a 5 k World Cup skate race, she put many exclamation points on an unconventional ski racing career. In this podcast, Brooks talks retirement and her new mission to educate female athletes.
On Sunday, the U.S. Ski Team released its 24-athlete roster for the upcoming Ski Tour Canada, with eight stages in 12 days starting Tuesday. (Note: this article has been updated as Caitlin Patterson will not be starting due to illness.)
Canada's Alex Harvey started seventh and finished ninth to maintain his place in the top 10 of the Tour de Ski after three stages, and American Noah Hoffman posted the 17th-fastest time of the day to finish in the top 25 for the second-straight day in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
If there's one word that sums up the recent performances of several members of the U.S. women's team, it's consistency. In Stage 2 of the Tour de Ski, the women’s 15 k classic mass start, Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen proved particularly consistent in their pacing, consistent in their technique, and consistent in their results.
Simi Hamilton was feeling his potential and his moment on Saturday. "It really comes down to what makes me super happy, and that’s skiing really fast on a sunny day and in beautiful places, with lots of great fans on a short course, skating especially," the U.S. sprinter said after notching his second World Cup podium in two years.
The Norwegians may have won the race, but the Americans stole the show in the women's 4 x 5 k relay on Sunday in Lillehammer, Norway. For the U.S. women, placing third marked their first time back on the World Cup relay podium since December 2013. (Updated)
US Ski Team Athlete Ida Sargent Joins Team Madshus Seattle, WA (Aug. 26, 2014) — Madshus, the world’s leading performance Nordic ski company, is pleased to announce that Olympian and US Nordic Ski Team Member, Ida Sargent has signed an exclusive deal with Madshus skis and boots. The deal is effective October 1st, 2015 and will see Sargent race on Madshus equipment for the upcoming World Cup season. “I tested Madshus skis and boots for the first time this...
This week, eight USST members returned to Lake Placid, N.Y., to kick off the fall with an intensity camp. They are joined by the SMST2 team, the Sun Valley Gold Team, the NTG and NEG, making for a large group of elite skiers. But because of the shortened camp, the USST will not participate in the Climb to the Castle.
The Toppidrettsveka race series wrapped up yesterday with an exciting pursuit in Trondheim, Norway. While some of the USST racers fell or broke a pole or two, the team as a whole had another successful day and is leaving the camp knowing what they need to do to improve before winter.
The Toppidrettsveka race series continued on Friday with a 15 kilometer skiathlon. The USST had more strong results, with Liz Stephen and Kikkan Randall finishing in 6th and 7th and Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton placing in the top 30.
The Toppidrettsveka race series opened Thursday with a grueling 5.3 k uphill run, which American climbing specialists Liz Stephen and Noah Hoffman placed third in, and continued with afternoon classic rollerski sprints, where another American Sophie Caldwell made the final and placed fifth.
Scott Patterson followed up his 13th place in the 15 k skate with a 15th place in the 30 k skiathlon at Under-23 World Championships - a solid showing, according to coaches, but by his own assessment missing the results goals he had set for himself. U.S. teammate Paddy Caldwell placed 20th, and Joanne Reid led the American women in 25th.
Liz Stephen found herself in fifth place in Saturday's 10 k classic mass start at the Tour de Ski, and she thought, why not? Why don't I belong here? She hung on to record her best-ever finish in the classic technique, and hopes to move from sixth up to fourth in the Tour's final stage on Sunday.
Sunday's 15 k classic pursuit proved to be rough for the American men on the Tour de Ski. Erik Bjornsen led the Americans in 60th, while Simi Hamilton, following a successful prologue, finished just behind in 61st. Andy Newell suffered a crash and finished in 88th.
By attacking Oberstdorf's long, hard climb on the second lap, Sadie Bjornsen, Liz Stephen, and Jessie Diggins chalked up their best results of the season: seventh, eighth, and fourteenth in the 3.3 k Tour de Ski prologue. Kikkan Randall joined them in the points and the U.S. women's team is confident.
USSA CEO Tiger Shaw admits he blew a chance to connect with the nordic community when he unintentionally failed to mention cross country in his Fall Quarterly Update. He regrets it - but having already befriended the national team, he wants to reach out to the rest of the nordic world too.
The following is a letter that Scott Johnston, the coach of the Methow Olympic Development squad that at some points included Sadie and Erik Bjornsen and Torin Koos, and who also coached Team Gregg, shared with FasterSkier. He addressed it to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association CEO Tiger Shaw after receiving Shaw’s Fall Quarterly Update, but says he has not received a reply. Some of Johnston’s concerns served as the basis of questions we asked...
During their recent trip to Bozeman, Mont., FasterSkier sat down with Sophie and Isabel Caldwell to reflect on Sophie's breakthrough season with the U.S. Ski Team, the sisters' future plans, and what it means to be a Caldwell.
Kikkan Randall's disappointing elimination, by a hair's breadth, from Wednesday's classic sprint final in Drammen, Norway, was more than made up for when she found out that she was crowned the world's best sprinter for the third consecutive year.