November 18, 2009 – We received the following exciting note from reader Mike Balduf regarding same day video coverage of the XC World Cup races at Gallivare, Sweden, this weekend at universalsports.com, courtesy of Universal Sports (formerly WCSN) now owned by NBC Sports. We checked with renowned sports announcer and new SkiTrax writer, Peter Graves, who is doing the show for Universal, and he confirmed the video coverage is free.

I’ll be watching same-day video coverage of the XC World Cup races at
Gallivare, Sweden, this weekend, and you can too. Tune in to Universal Sports (formerly WCSN) on the internet at www.universalsports.com. Universal Sports is run by NBC Sports, and is no longer charging a registration fee…this means you can view XC World Cup (and nearly every other sport) live/same-day and free of charge.

Here is this weekend’s broadcast schedule:

Sat, Nov 22 1 PM ET
– FIS Cross Country World Cup – Gallivare, SWE
– FIS Cross Country World Cup – Women’s 10km

Sat, Nov 22 3 PM ET
– FIS Cross Country World Cup – Gallivare, SWE
– FIS Cross Country World Cup – Men’s 15km

Sun, Nov 23 1 PM ET
– FIS Cross Country World Cup – Gallivare, SWE
– FIS Cross Country World Cup – Women’s 4x5km

Sun, Nov 23 3 PM ET
– FIS Cross Country World Cup – Gallivare, SWE
– FIS Cross Country World Cup – Men’s 4x10km


WCSN aired most of the XC World Cup races last year, and I’m hoping that Universal Sports will do the same in the 2008-2009 season.

In addition, you can view all Biathlon World Cup races live and free of charge at www.biathlonworld.com, official web site of the International Biathlon Union. It just means you will have to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning for some of them (if you live in Michigan, as I do). If this isn’t hog heaven for Nordic ski fans in the U.S. (where much of the European internet coverage is blacked out), then I don’t know what is.