Zak Ketterson – FasterSkier

The Long Way In: Zak Ketterson and the Patience It Took to Reach the Olympics

Matthew VoisinFebruary 5, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. On Monday, a clear winter morning in northern Italy, Zak Ketterson skied intervals while his teammates enjoyed a point-to-point on an idyllic pre-Olympic winter day. The sun was out. The snow was good. He was working. “I did some hard intervals,” he said later. “So it was still nice...

Feature News US Ski Team

In Italy, four years after the COVID Games, Olympic teams are still isolating

Nathaniel HerzFebruary 4, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. PREDAZZO, ITALY — The Olympics have traditionally been known as a kind of sports melting pot, where competitors from different backgrounds and countries could share meals and trade pins at tight-knight athletes’ villages. For winter sports, though, those social traditions ground to a halt at the COVID Olympics in China in...

Feature World Cup

Schumacher! Two Days, Two Podiums

John TeafordJanuary 24, 2026

This 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. Maybe the Americans really are that good . . . With the Olympic Games just around the corner, American men (lots of them!) are surging toward the front of the World Cup...

Feature Tour de Ski

Klaebo Controls Toblach as Schumacher Anchors the Chase in Men’s 20 k Classic Pursuit

Matthew VoisinJanuary 1, 2026

This 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. By mid-morning in Toblach, the cold had settled into the valley in that particular Dolomite way—dry, bright, and unforgiving. The stadium clock read 10:30 a.m., the tracks were hard-packed, and the Tour...

Feature Tour de Ski

Schumacher Wins in Toblach as New Four-Heat 5K Format Turns the Race into a Clock-Chasing Puzzle

Matthew VoisinDecember 31, 2025

This 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. The Tour de Ski has always asked skiers to live with imperfect information. You race hard when you’re tired. You make decisions based on feelings and instincts, while coaches are screaming ‘splits.’...

Feature Tour de Ski

Stenshagen Sets the Pace in Toblach as the Men’s Tour Takes Shape

Matthew VoisinDecember 29, 2025

This 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. By the time the final seeded skier pushed through the finishing straight in Toblach, the race had already revealed what interval starts always do best: not who looks fastest, but who stays...

Feature The Devon Kershaw Show

The Devon Kershaw Show: Zak Ketterson moved to Norway. Now he’s having a breakout season.

Nathaniel HerzDecember 24, 2025

After growing up in the Twin Cities, Zak Ketterson embarked on an experiment this past year, moving to Oslo and training with a Norwegian team. The decision paid off with a top-10 on the World Cup. With Devon focused on family during the Christmas season, Nat caught up with Zak to hear about training, racing and how he covers his financial obligations as a non-U.S. Ski Team athlete. Speaking of financial obligations: We’re really trying...

The Devon Kershaw Show

The Devon Kershaw Show: Buckle Up for a Six-Race Ruka Recap

Nathaniel HerzDecember 1, 2025

It’s on — the 2026 Olympic season, that is. Devon and Nat break down six season-opening races from northern Finland, including a thriller in Sunday’s men’s race. Contact us with fan mail, hate mail and everything in between: devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com. We’re looking for title and other sponsors for our Olympic coverage; email matthew[at]fasterskier.com with inquiries.

World Cup

A Breakaway, a Broken Pole, and a Biathlete’s Bet: Amundsen Wins a Wild 20 k in Ruka

Matthew VoisinNovember 30, 2025

This 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. Sunday morning in Ruka had the look of a place holding its breath. The sun sat low over the trees, the air hovered just on the warm side of freezing, and the men’s...

World Cup

Nyenget Claims Ruka 10 k, But It’s Not Only Norway on the Podium

John TeafordNovember 28, 2025

This 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. Where skiing venues are concerned, winter arrives first in Kuusamo, Finland, site of the ski resort known as Ruka. It makes sense, then, that the 2025-2026 FIS World Cup season would begin in...

Feature News Racing

Three Wins for Klaebo—and Counting

John TeafordMarch 4, 2025

FasterSkier’s coverage of this week’s FIS World Championships stands as a proud tribute to an icon of American Skiing, Marty Hall who has generously supported our coverage of international cross country ski events. To learn more about Marty and Kathy Hall’s A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, please contact info@fasterskier.com. We’ll miss you, Marty. Trondheim’s changeable weather changed again as skiers awoke to snow swirling in the morning sky, filling the tracks of the 10 kilometer...

Fast Tracks Multimedia News Podcasts Racing US Ski Team World Cup

2025 World Championships—Zak Ketterson Felt Really Supported on His Way to a Great Race

Nathaniel HerzMarch 4, 2025

This reporting costs money. Please support this coverage with a voluntary subscription (below) so FasterSkier can provide this level of access to the sport we all love year-round.

Fast Tracks Multimedia News Podcasts Racing World Cup

Fast Tracks: World Champs—Zak Ketterson on His Skiathlon and the Complication with Russian Skiers Returning

Stuart HardenMarch 2, 2025

This reporting costs money. Please support this coverage with a voluntary subscription (below) so FasterSkier can provide this level of access to the sport we all love year-round.

Feature News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

Zak Ketterson: His New Training Philosophy and the Road to Ruka

Luke DykowskiNovember 28, 2024

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Despite a challenging start to the 2023-2024 season, Zak Ketterson (entering his third year on the U.S. B-Team), narrowly qualified for the Minneapolis World Cup—fulfilling his goal of racing, not merely in the United States, but in his own hometown. The Minnesota native has...

Feature News World Cup

Norway Reigns Over Close-Fought Relay

Ben TheyerlJanuary 21, 2024

This 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. This weekend in Oberhof framed the Men’s World Cup’s hierarchy in stark terms. Coming into Sunday’s 4 x 7.5 k Men’s Relay, five different Norwegian skiers had combined to sweep both Friday’s classic...

Feature News World Cup

Norwegian Sweep—Minus Klaebo—in Oberhof Classic Sprint

Ben TheyerlJanuary 19, 2024

This 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. It was a rare day on the World Cup, but patterns, established and emerging, were apparent too. The rare part: Friday in Oberhof marked the first time in six years that Johannes...

Community Feature News

The Coach with the Voice: Conversations with Chad Salmela

Ben TheyerlJune 2, 2023

Chad Salmela has a gift for pinpointing the critical characteristics of a moment and building something special from it. See “Here Comes Diggins,” the emphatically shouted announcement of an historic performance in American skiing, one that defined the careers of Olympic champions Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall, and of Salmela, himself. When it comes to Nordic skiing, Salmela knows what to say, how to put analysis into a context that audiences will understand, how to...

Feature News World Cup

Diggins, Ketterson, and Loppet Foundation Promote Minneapolis World Cup, “We are here to do this with joy.”

Ben TheyerlMay 8, 2023

What are European World Cup skiers asking ahead of the circuit’s first-ever visit to Minneapolis next February? According to Jessie Diggins, “They’re like, have you heard of the Mall of America?” In a recent media event held at Theodore Wirth Park, Diggins—with fellow Minnesotan US Ski Team member Zak Ketterson—highlighted plans to make the first FIS World Cup held in the United States in 22 years an even bigger Twin Cities attraction than a mall...

Feature News World Cup

World Champions Dominate Team Sprints as Crystal Globe Race Looms

Ben TheyerlMarch 24, 2023

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. World Cup Finals began under overcast Finnish skies Friday, as the circuit looks to settle the questions of a long season over the next three days. Who was—and who wasn’t—racing in Friday’s...

Feature News US Ski Team World Cup

Ben Ogden Intrepid, Antoine Cyr Impressive, as North Americans Add Flair to TDS Sprint

Ben TheyerlJanuary 6, 2023

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. Ben Ogden was going to risk it . . . This season, the young American skier has made a rapid push in World Cup sprints, twice racing to the verge...

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