Click here to read an account of physical therapist Ned Dowling’s first stint overseas with the US Ski Team in March, 2020. Holmenkollen, Norway. March 8, 2020 – Men’s 50k Classic World Cup. 33 degrees and raining. The ski jump was engulfed in clouds. Spectators were forbidden from attending the Super Bowl of cross country skiing due to the impending COVID pandemic. My first stint as a physical therapist traveling with the US Ski Team...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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 pleasecontact info@fasterskier.com. While it was perhaps not the final event originally planned for the season, today’s 4 x 5-kilometer freestyle mixed relay in Falun, Sweden shaped up to be quite a way to...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. There wasn’t much to be decided, only facts to reaffirmed. In the last individual race of the World Cup season on Saturday, a 10-kilometer individual start freestyle in...
ZHANGJIAKOU, CHN — International Ski Federation officials say they’re exploring backup options for season-ending races in Russia amid fears of a war between that country and Ukraine, though they’re still planning on holding the event as scheduled next month unless circumstances change. The final races of the top-level World Cup are scheduled to be held in Tyumen, Russia, in an oil-rich area in Siberia — about 1,000 miles away from the border with Ukraine, where American...
Road Trip Day 1 (Tuesday) It all started at home, grinding out quality training hours in spectacularly good ski conditions. The plan was simple: A skiing road trip with three World Cup events, followed by Nationals/SuperTour finals at home, culminating in a 50km against the best skiers in North America. Start Wednesday March 11th, arrive home on the 24th, and closing out the racing season on April 2nd. With restricted training opportunities during the trip,...
Amidst overcast skies and spectators bearing signs for the local cross-country favorite, Canadian Alex Harvey, World Cup Finals resumed on Saturday in Québec City, Québec with a men’s 15-kilometer classic mass start race. Thanks to his win in Friday’s freestyle sprint, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo lead Saturday’s 78 starters out of the gate, his yellow bib also indicative of his first place rank in the 2019 Overall World Cup Standings. With Saturday and Sunday being...
Here are the basic rules for this week’s World Cup finals in Québec. It’s a three race series: a sprint, a classic mass start, and freestyle pursuit for the final stage. We’ll get to the import of the World Cup points on offer in a moment and why they add some tension to the weekend. This much is clear: the final standings for the men’s and women’s overall World Cup remain close as does...
FALUN, Sweden — NOR. USA. USA. Looking at the results monitor, those were the tri-letter country codes that popped into the top three at the end of the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle pursuit at World Cup Finals on Sunday. The “NOR” belonged to Marit Bjørgen of Norway, who ended her 2017/2018 World Cup season with yet another win. In Sunday’s pursuit, the 37 year old led from start to finish and ended where she started, in...
FALUN, Sweden — To those watching, even to those racing, the winner was the woman who had led most of Saturday’s 10-kilometer classic mass start: Norway’s Marit Bjørgen. “Marit and Tiril [Udnes Weng], another Norwegian young girl, they were skiing really fast and I thought that they would be first and second,” Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg told FasterSkier after the race. Seven minutes after the start gun, Bjørgen had moved to the apex of the...
FALUN, Sweden — Even the sky had predictions for Sweden. Without a cloud in sight, cerulean blue and a golden sun served as Falun’s backdrop for the opening race of the 2017/2018 World Cup Finals on Friday: the 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint. Exactly nine weeks ago in the city sprint held in Dresden, Germany, Sweden’s Hanna Falk was showing shades of greatness. In the first race of the new year, the 28-year-old Swede claimed the Dresden...
FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): Freestyle sprints Men’s report In the last sprint of the season and the first race of the three-day World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden’s Hanna Falk and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won their respective 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint finals, while Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Klæbo claimed the season-long Sprint Crystal Globes and Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. placed third in the Sprint World Cup. Falk started Friday...
This week’s featured articles are made possible thanks to the generous support of Masters World Cup 2018.
With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding Canadian skiers competing primarily, but not exclusively, at the Continental Cup level. *** Katherine Stewart-Jones, U25 National team/NTDC Thunder Bay/Nakkertok...
After the 2017 World Cup Finals mini tour drew Men | Women | Men |
QUEBEC CITY — Generally speaking, most European-based World Cup skiers wouldn’t have picked Canada as their ideal place to end the season. It’s too far across the pond, too far from the beaches, too far from home. The other option had been Tyumen in Siberia, so that probably wasn’t a top pick, either, but team press release. “Jessie also had a measure of redemption leading a train of women and moving up four places in the...
Canada’s Alex Harvey has had one heck of a season. In January, he reached the top of a World Cup podium for the first time in three years. The following weekend, he helped Canada to its first-ever relay podium and two weeks before that, won the men’s team sprint in Toblach, Italy, with his teammate Len Valjas. A little more than a month later, he earned his first individual World Championships gold. The 28-year-old Harvey kept the ball rolling...
Still craving more of the World Cup? Here are some comments from a few of the U.S. skiers who closed their international-racing seasons at World Cup Finals last Sunday in Falun, Sweden. (And don't fear, Spring Series is almost here!)
Therese Johaug took a 15-second lead and literally ran with it, beating Norwegian teammate Marit Bjørgen by nearly 30 seconds in Sunday's 10 k freestyle pursuit to win the World Cup Finals and her first overall World Cup title.
Liz Stephen led the U.S. in 15th to get closer to her overall World Cup and distance-ranking goals, and Noah Hoffman tried to ski more conservatively than usual to secure points in 18th. Kikkan Randall placed 20th and Sadie Bjornsen was right behind in 21st in Saturday's skiathlon at World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden.
Reese Hanneman came within 0.45 seconds of becoming the third American man to make the World Cup heats this season, and Jessie Diggins was just over a second shy of qualifying in her first race back since getting sick post-Sochi. The two logged top-40 results again on Saturday, along with Ida Sargent, in the World Cup Finals skiathlons.