November 26, 2009 (Beitostolen, Norway) – What an interesting first weekend on the World Cup circuit in Beitostolen, Norway on Nov. 21-22. Here’s my take on the first round of performances as the focus now turns to round at Kuusomo, Finland this weekend for the official FIS Nordic Opening with all disciplines on board.

Something Old – Norway’s Marit Bjoergen. At 29 years of age she really isn’t that old, but I think that most followers of cross-country skiing, if they were honest, would say that they’d written her off a couple of years ago from ever being a threat on the World Cup circuit again. After being the poster child for high intensity training in 2005 and 2006 she finally hit the overtraining wall at the end of 2006 and has been sick or hurt or both for most of the past 3 years. But Bjoergen has now gone back to the basics. She’s done a lot of long, slow distance training this summer and fall and feels rested and fit for the first time in a long time. Winning a 10km race by 30 seconds will give her a much needed confidence boost. Let’s hope that she has learned the lesson that you cannot do high intensity training at the same time as high volume training for very long before you crash. If she does, she has the talent and the drive to be a medal threat in February.

Something New – Matti Heikkinen – unless you are a diehard follower of the Finnish team this will be a new name for you. The Finnish men’s team have been rebuilding since the doping scandals of 2001 and they finally have another possible new star. Heikkinen was 3rd at the Nordic World Champs last year in the 15km classic race, but it was a waxing nightmare and it’s hard to put any stock in that kind of result. His previous best World Cup finish was 12th, so his 3rd place finish was a big improvement.

Something Borrowed – Ronny Andre Hafsaas. Who? Hafsaas is a 24-year-old Norwegian biathlete who lists Music, DVD’s and women as his interests. Now he has won a cross-country World Cup race! As a biathlete he is a bit of a skating specialist (he says that he cannot classic very well) and finished 2nd at the Norwegian XC champs last year in the 15km skate race so this result is not a total fluke. We’ve seen this happen before with Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Lars Berger, other biathletes from Norway who can skate with the best cross-country skiers in the world. I wonder if we are going to see him at the Olympics in February – and in which sport?

Something Blue – The Swedish women’s team led by Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag put on a very impressive show last weekend. They were 2nd and 3rd in the individual race and won the relay on Sunday. The Swedish women were 3rd in the relay last year at the Nordic World Championships and just lost a medal in 2006 in Torino in a sprint finish. They’ve been in the shadows of the other powers of xc skiing for women – the Russians, Norwegians and Finns, but they are getting stronger and stronger and are a definite gold medal threat for 2010.

So it’s off to Kuusamo, Finland this weekend, Nov. 28-29, for the next round of the XC World Cup. It’s still way too early to say who are the favorites for Vancouver and I’m sure that by the end of this weekend we will have someone new to talk about.