Sophie Caldwell (USA) © Nancie Battaglia

February 11, 2014 (Krasnaya Polyana, Russia) – A total of nine North Americans made the cut to the heats as the Sochi 2014 Olympic Sprints FR are underway with hopes for Olympic hardware on the line. Sophie Caldwell lead the American women as all advanced posting the 9th fastest time in the 1.3km qualifications. She was followed by Jessie Diggins in 12th, Kikkan Randall in 18th with Ida Sargent in 26th.

Sophie Caldwell ©

They were joined by two Canadians as Perianne Jones finished 23rd and Dasha Gaiazova, of Russian descent, was 27th. First time Olympian Heidi Widmer placed 43rd with Chandra Crawford, the former Olympic gold sprint medalist in Torino 2006, finishing 44th. Norway’s Maiken Caspersen set the fastest time in 2:32.07. We caught up with Widmer and Crawford for their take on their qualifications and the Games…

Heidi Widmer (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Heidi Widmer (CAN) – 43rd
I felt super prepared and ready at the start line but it was tough out there. I gave it everything I had… I’m feeling good and in great shape and hope to start again. The whole experience of being an Olympian has been incredible.

Chandra Crawford (CAN) – 44th
Coming into it I was feeling about half of the form and confidence I was hoping for and planning for. I resolved to be as positive as I could especially in the last couple of weeks as there wasn’t time to completely overhaul my fitness and get the confidence with that. I stayed positive, got excited and it turned out to be a great day – a two and a half-minute race in awesome conditions, yeah.

Chandra Crawford (CAN) © Nordic Focus

In the men’s 1.8km Sprint qualifications American Andy Newell led the charge in 17th with Canadian Alex Harvey in 19th and the USA’s Simi Hamilton in 21st. Not advancing to the heats were Canada’s Len Valjas in 36th, the USA’s Torin Koos in 37th (tie) and Erik Bjornsen in 39th, along with Canada’s Jesse Cockney in 53rd and veteran Devon Kershaw (CAN) in 56th. The top skier in the qualifications was Norwegian Ola Vigen Hattestad with a time of 3:28.35.

Alex Harvey (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Following the men’s qualifications we caught with Valjas, Koos, Bjornsen, Cockney and Kershaw who did not advance to the heats in the Sprint for their take on their race today and the Games overall…

Lenny Valjas (CAN) – 36th
Considering everything, I am happy with today. I am congested and sound like crap, but I felt good thus morning and my knee was a non- factor. My fitness is really coming and I love this course. I’m not great in soft snow but I gave it everything I had. Hopefly I can show my fitness to the coaches in training over the next couple of days and get a start in the 4×10 relay.

Lenny Valjas (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Torin Koos (USA) – 37th
I don’t know when it’s going to finish up but when I left I was in 35th so maybe I’ll have four years in a row finishing in 36th place or something. The course was definitely really soft, and soupy, especially as more people went through it. I don’t think it was advantageous to be a late starter cause it was really getting chopped up. I tried to pace it more because of that… there’s only so much time you can make up on the last hill especially with it being so soft.

I was satisfied with the last few weeks of training and preparation and feeling optimistic and ready to go. You get an opportunity and obviously I didn’t get all that I wanted, but you can only do what you can.

I don’t think there’s a harder course out there. It wasn’t super technical but you could have a really big crash with just a little bit of a mental lapse out there. So you had stay on it for the whole race.

Devon Kershaw (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Erik Bjornsen (USA) – 39th
I was happy with my qualifier today. I have not been satisfied with the way I have been sprinting this year as I’ve been struggling with getting up into top gear. Today seemed like my best sprint qualifier so far so I guess that’s good timing and I have to be happy with that. I felt really strong in my cool down and think I could have been good in the heats. I tend to be a lot better doing head-to-head skiing.

The conditions were very tricky, it was warm and sloppy. Luckily I have had a lot of practice skiing in those conditions back in Alaska on Eagle Glacier. Now I’m just trying to recover and prepare for the next races. I definitely have two more individual races and hopefully at least one relay. Lots of racing left here in Sochi, I’m not even half way and I still have my favorite race to come. I would love to see my name down in the lower 30’s on that result sheet. It’s been so awesome to feel all the support from back home in Anchorage, you guys ROCK!

Jesse Cockney (CAN) – 53rd
Today heading into it I thought it was a really good one…I felt strong, especially on the first climb, and starting from the bottom of the course I think I was strong enough for the second climb. I think I was relatively in it for most of the race, but from the middle to the end of that last lap really kicked my butt so I wasn’t strong enough. It’s been amazing here so far. I’ve never been this disappointed in my life so right now this sucks but the rest of the week has been amazing so I’ll just keep going off that.

Devon Kershaw (CAN) – 56th
I had no speed today, it was complete crap today – sorry for my language, but that’s the way it is. My legs had no speed at all, and the conditions were really tough for me, for some reason, I don’t know. Usually I’m okay with soft conditions like these but, I don’t know. Today there was no power, no speed. I’m really disappointed but there are four other races left, so I’ll hope for the best and try to focus.

The USA’s Kikkan Randall is poised for the podium in the women’s race while Canada’s Alex Harvey is focused on the men’s top step as both hope to make history as the first woman and man respectively to medal for their countries in xc skiing at the Games.

Women’s Q here
Men’s Q here.