December 19, 2011 – Led by a silver medal by Chandra Crawford, North American skiers continued to shine on the World Cup in Rogla, Slovenia this past weekend. For the first time in three years Crawford, the 2006 Olympic champion, reached a podium in her specialty of skating sprints.

Chandra stayed out of trouble mid-pack in the final until the last uphill where she powered her way to second behind eventual winner Maiken Caspersen Falla of Norway. Crawford’s strong performance moved her up to 4th place in the overall Sprint standings with 168 pts. She trails the leader, Kikkan Randall who has 280.

Kikkan was a victim of bad luck in the final, tripping just after the start and breaking a pole. She finished in 6th place and that along with her 11th place in the 10km classic race on Saturday moved her into 4th place overall in the World Cup standings.

With Marit Bjoergen back home in Norway sick with a cold, the 10km classic distance race was wide open for someone else to win and with the tough, windy conditions it was no surprise that Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland skied away from the field in the mass start race to win by 22 seconds. Theresa Johaug in second and Vikebe Skjofterud in 3rd continued Norway’s domination of the women’s podiums.

Bjoergen’s lead in the overall World Cup is slightly smaller after this weekend, but I still think that she has it locked up if she is healthy for the Tour de Ski. She has 582 points to 479 points for Skjofterud in 2nd and 471 for Johaug in 3rd. Kowalczyk in 5th with 397 points is the one to watch, I think, with the Tour de Ski coming. She missed a great opportunity, however, in the sprints on Sunday by finishing 24th. Johaug in 50th and Skjofterud in 33rd also did not gain any points on Bjoergen. If Bjoergen has any weaknesses right now it’s in sprinting where she sits in 7th with only 86 points.

Even though Petter Northug from Norway did it again on Saturday in the men’s 15km mass start classic race by coming from way back in the pack to win the sprint finish he did lose points in the overall to Dario Cologna from Switzerland. Dario was 2nd in the 15km and won his first ever sprint race on Sunday to make it a two-man race for the overall World Cup. Northug, who did not race in the sprints, still leads with 600 points followed by Cologna in second with 508. The next best is Maurice Magnificat of France with only 266 points.

Alex Harvey had a 10th on Saturday and a 19th on Sunday and sits 9th overall with 215 points. Devon Kershaw was 16th and 15th and is in 13th overall. He also won some extra World Cup points by winning a mid-race sprint in the 15km.

There were also some other notable North American results this weekend. Simeon Hamilton had a great 10th place finish in the men’s sprints and Dasha Gaiazova also had a great result finishing 9th in the women’s sprints. North American had 4 skiers in the top 30 in the women’s sprints and 5 skiers in the top 30 in the men’s sprints on Sunday. Add that to the three American women in the top 30 on Saturday (Randall 11th, Holly Brooks 19th, and Liz Stephen 22nd ) and four North American men in the top 30 (Ivan Babikov was 22nd and Andy Newell was 24th). This was another great weekend for both programs and shows the depth for both teams.

Andy Newell’s 24th place was the first time that he has ever scored points in a distance race. This is something that he has been working very hard to do. In the past many sprinters would not do the endurance work necessary to be good in distance races but over the past couple of years both Kikkan Randall and Andy and many of the other North American sprinters have been working hard in this area. It shows with their improved results in distance races and I think that it also helps them in sprint races. Sprint races are getting longer, they are now near 3 minutes and with qualifying and three rounds of heats sprinters need endurance to keep their speed in the final rounds. Improved endurance will also help them to recover faster.

With Simi Hamilton breaking through in the sprints on Sunday it seems like the only North American who has skied in Europe before the holidays and has not had a good result is Kris Freeman. He was 42nd on Saturday in one of his favorite races – 15km classic and did not race in the sprint on Sunday.

There is not much of a break for the holidays before Kris and all of the other skiers have to ramp it up for the Tour de Ski which starts on December 29th  in Oberhof, Germany. Some of the North American skiers are coming home and some are staying in Europe to avoid jetlag and the fatigue and possible sickness that can come from travel. Travel fatigue and jetlag may be harder on a skier’s body than racing so I think that this is a very smart thing to do, but it is hard to be away from your family during the holidays.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone. Whether or not you are with your family I hope that you have lots of snow to ski on – we sure need some where we are in Southern Ontario.