HomeTag

Vuokatti

American Teams Announced for 2021 World Juniors/U23s in Vuokatti

Last week, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced team nominations for 2021 FIS Nordic Junior and U23 World Ski Championships, which will be held in Vuokatti, Finland, in early February. The athletes selected were as follows: U23 World Championships Team Women: Hailey Swirbul (APU Nordic Ski Center/El Jebel, Colo.) Sophia Laukli (Middlebury College/Yarmouth, Maine) Alex Lawson (Middlebury College/West Burke, Vt.) Hannah Halvorsen (APU/Anchorage, Alaska) Renae Anderson (Loppet Nordic Racing/Golden Valley, Minn.) Alternate 1: Leah Lange (University...

Closing the Gap: Racing in the Dark

Editor’s Note: The following is part of a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. In August, he made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the entire winter. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. Previous posts: #2, #4, #6, and

Summer Training… All Over Finland with Krista Niiranen

A World Junior Championships and World U23 Championships skier for Finland who had racked up top-10 finishes in her country’s competitive national-championships field, Krista Niiranen moved to the American Southwest last year. “I had been studying law in the University of Lapland in Finland, but for the last season I transferred to the University of New Mexico and represented the UNM Ski Team,” she explained. Niiranen made a splash on the SuperTour and NCAA circuits,...

Masters World Cup: More Than Just The Races

You don't have to be a World Cup racer to ski similar distances on the world's best courses. While many masters focus on traditional ski marathons, the annual Masters World Cup presents an opportunity for skiers 30 and older to ski up to four races of regular World Cup distances in a week.

Oregon’s Downing Elected World Masters President

XC Oregon founder J.D. Downing was recently elected president of the World Masters Cross-Country Ski Association. While he'll continue to hold his post as a U.S. national director, Downing has big goals for the international organization, including an increase in participation and keeping skiers under 55 "in the game."