March 11, 2013 (Toronto, ON) – We are thrilled to announce the winners and final overall standings of the SkiTrax FIS Fantasy Fiemme Worlds 2013 Contest following the one week waiting period that recognizes the Doping De-Points rule.

Check out the contest standings after the Men’s 50km CL, the final event of the Val di Fiemme 2013 Worlds HERE and read about how Sweden’s Johan Olsson delivered an astounding historic win in the event after a 35km-solo effort HERE.

And now for the winners… Team Northug – antoine-briand was able to hang on to the lead with a total of 335 points to claim the fabulous grand prize a Salomon SLab package including skis, poles, boots, bindings (value $1,497).

The second place prize, a cool pair of Alpina ESK ski boots, goes to Team CATZ4LYFE with 280 points. And Team Rob in third place with 270 points receives an awesome pair of Fischer Carbonlite poles.

Congratulations to all winners and thanks again to all contestants and our great sponsors including Salomon, Alpina, Fischer, Bjorn Daehlie, One Way, 2XU, Ski*Go, Fresh Air Experience, High Peaks Cyclery, Auclair, and Buff Canada.

For the complete final FIS Fantasy Fiemme Worlds contest standings, please click HERE.

SkiTrax FIS Fantasy Fiemme Worlds 2013 Contest Winners

– Team Northug – antoine-briand – Antoine Briand – Sept-Iles, QC
1st Prize – Salomon SLab package skis, poles, boots, bindings (value $1,497)

– CATZ4LYFE – William Spiller  – Ketchum, ID
2nd Prize – Alpina ESK Ski Boots (value $419)

– Rob – Rob Ragotte – Toronto, ON
3rd Prize – Fischer Carbonlite Poles ($339)

– Redjacket – Connie Johnson – Calgary, AB
4th Prize – Bjorn Daehlie Exclusive US XC Ski Suit (value $300)

– peaches – Sebastien Townsend – Chelsea, QC
5th Prize – One Way Skate 7 Roller Skis (value $250)

– asterion – Elise Ruet – Montalieu, France
6th Prize – 2XU Long Sleeve Thermal Compression Top and Elite Socks (value $195)

– Max’s – Max Liles – Superior, CO
7th Prize –  Ski*go Large Wax Box with XC kickwaxes/cork/scraper (value $190)

– rgsnow – Guillaume Ruet – Fleurie, France
8th Prize – Fresh Air Experience or High Peaks Cyclery Gift Certificate (value $100)

– Redbird – Craig Cardinal – Northfield, MN
9th Prize – Auclair Micro Mountain Olympic Gloves + Earbags (value $65)

– beaujo – Rene Berrod – Fleurie, France
10th Prize – Buff Headware (value $23)

SkiTrax is North America’s leading Nordic skiing publication and the official magazine of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) and Cross Country Canada (CCC).

March 08, 2013 (Lahti, Finland) – Kris Freeman, Tad Elliott and I decided to ski on the great tourist trails here in Vierumäki this morning instead of driving the 35 minutes into Lahti. It was fun to have a low key session on some quiet trails. Here’s Tad:

When we started skiing it was nice and sunny.

Then it started dumping snow. It is a bit of a shock to be back in full winter after the temperatures in the 70s in Italy. Here’s Kris:

The bathrooms in our dorm rooms are very typical Finnish. They have no system to keep the water in the shower.

Instead they are equipped with a squeegee to dry with when you’re done.

The World Cup season is broken down into four periods. In each period a leader (one man and one woman) from each of the continental cup race series (lower level race series around the world) gets a paid World Cup start position for the entire next period. The continental cups are the Scandinavian Cup, the OPA cup, the SuperTour (USA), the NorAM Cup, the Far East Cup, the Slavic Cup, the Baltic Cup and the Australia-New Zealand Cup. (There may be others I’m missing. I’m not sure if there’s one in Russia.)

For World Cup period four (which includes the three weekends after World Championships), each continental cup gets to send three (instead of one) men and three women (only the top athlete gets funded and gets to go to World Cup Finals) to the World Cup.

The U.S. has chosen to define these three spots as the overall, sprint and distance leaders of the SuperTour. Because the overall and distance leaders are often one in the same, generally only two athletes of each gender from the U.S. come. The athletes with World Cup starts from the U.S. this period are Torin Koos (overall and distance leader), Dakota Blackhorse-von-Jess (Sprint leader), Rosie Brennan (overall and distance leader) and Sadie Bjornsen (sprint leader).

It is amazing (and a testament to her great skiing) that Sadie continues to lead the sprint standings considering that she hasn’t raced in the U.S. since U.S. Nationals in early January. She is a U.S. Ski Team athlete and has been racing World Cups since then. In addition to the SuperTour leaders and U.S. Ski Team members, Sophie Caldwell is here on invitation after her great results in previous World Cups and the World Championships. In total, there are fifteen athletes from the U.S. competing this weekend.

I am rooming with my former U.S. Ski Team teammate and World Cup veteran Torin Koos:

I have been to many Junior Olympics, camps, Junior Scandinavian Cup trips, and World Junior trips with Rosie (right) and Sophie.

I’m psyched to have some old friends around and some new faces on the team!

Lastly, I wrote an update about my season for The Aspen Times. In it I talk about where I stand with regards to my goals of qualifying for the Red Group and making World Cup Finals. You can find the article here.

March 08, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – I am just finishing up my week of Championships here in Val di Fiemme… looking back on all the great moments. At the same time, I am going through the process of reviewing my week and thinking about all the things that went very well, and the things to improve for next time. I must say, I didn’t have quite the Championships that I was hoping for, but in other ways- things were also very positive.

As a ski racer you can never look at anything as a failure. If you did, you wouldn’t make it very far beyond one year of racing on the World Cup- because this process is not very forgiving. The difference between an average day and an overly excellent day could be .15 seconds… one size larger boot. Or the difference between putting one too many layers of kick wax on your ski, or simply the difference between finding one more gear of energy for the last climb of the course. It is all so small, yet so important. So even though my two individual start races were less than my best, there were some very encouraging parts at the same time!

So in honor of moving forward in a positive manner; here are a few of the things about Val di Fiemme that I won’t be forgetting.

1. Fans! After having my first World Championships in Oslo, my standards of World Championships fans was set sort of high. To my surprise though, these Italian fans lived up to the challenge. Maybe 70% of them traveled all the way from Norway… but regardless they were out there in full force. It was also special to have so many US fans as well. World Masters took place somewhere near here, so there was an extra bunch of familiar voices and faces out there that made it special!

2. Hills- Holy hills! This venue knows how to test your fitness, test your mental strength, and test your hill climbing. I remember many of my teammates warning me of this after they raced the final stages of the tour here last year… but I didn’t experience the full feeling of it until racing. It was fun to test my hill climbing skills though.

3. Wax Crew- This week has been one of the most challenging weeks for waxing yet. With temperatures hanging around zero, and constantly changing… things get tricky and tough. The techs have been incredible at working hard and moving forward. The important thing to remember is just like an athlete, tech teams have tough days as well. Even if they are putting 100%, there will always be challenging days. So thanks techs for working your butts off and always staying positive.

4. Records- While the week started off with much less than our best, the following days were filled with records, bests, firsts and everything else. Kikkan and Jessie set the mood with winning the team sprint for US Nordics FIRST World Championship Gold. That was one of my more emotional moments of being a ski racer. As I watched the girls ski their hearts out and cross the line first, emotion struck. As tears rolled down the faces of all the US group… I may have spotted a tear rolling down the Norwegian coaches face too. Finally, US is a force to recon with. Over the years as Kikkan has set an example of believing that we can compete, the rest of our team has started following along!

5. Sunshine- It is hard to not absolutely love every second of the day when you are out ski racing hard in the sun. Black suits sometimes make that experience a little more miserable than it should… but for the most part, the sunshine always brings out the best in us! If there is one thing you can count on in Italia, that is sun!

6. Team Spirit- The team “spirit” has been great throughout the week. The success of the team just spreads through our group. I think this is one of the things that is bringing us to a higher level as a team. Because one person’s success is contagious, it helps us all believe!

7. Relay- Yesterday I got to participate in my first World Cup 4×5 relay. Since being a young girl, relay racing has always been my favorite. There is something about the different pressure, and your collective effort… it just gets me in a new level of energy… as with all the US ladies. Aside from being fun, the US Team managed to finish our best result ever in history. Although we were just off the podium, we were extremely stoked with a 4th place finish. This was a huge improvement from our last World Championship finish in 9th. With our goals set on a medal of course, we came away proud and pleased that we had reached 4th place! Everyone skied their hearts out, and our goal is certainly attainable in the near Olympic future!

All of these things have made this Championship week incredible and memorable. With two more races to go, the 30 and 50k, we will be back on World Cup soon. Next weekend we will be racing a 10k Classic and Team Sprint, so some more exciting racing in the near future!

Let’s say that the scene was the most beautiful and the American athlete of the relay this morning (yesterday, ed), shooting as he undressed. Sadie Bjørnsen has affected all of us photographers, the femininity and grace of gesture, of usual when it comes to the masculinity of athletes.

Thanks everyone for the cheers and nice emails this week. I really appreciate it!! A few more days here, and then off to Scandinavia!

March 07, 2013 (Sochi, RUS) – Matching his same result as one season ago in Sochi, Russia, American Tim Burke finished 5th at 51 seconds behind Martin Fourcade of France, today’s winner in the Men’s 20 km Individual. Burke, who has recorded 5 top-five finishes this season, suffered only one penalty and clocked a time of 50:31.6 at 51s behind the winner.

“This is clearly the toughest course that I have ever raced,” said Burke in a team release. “I was very happy to see today that I can be among the best on this course when I am in good shape. Not only are the uphills brutal here but the downhills feel like they belong on a GS course. It was great to have a chance to feel out the course today, now I know what I need to focus on for training. I feel like I am in my best shape of the year now, so I am really looking forward to the remaining races.”

Fourcade, who has won 21 world cup races in his career, finished in a time of 49:40.6 with one penalty to claim his 3rd victory of the season.  In second was the clean-shooting German, Andreas Birnbacher, at 6.9s while third place went to Serhiy Semenov of the Ukraine at 31.9s back with no penalties.  Fourcade told biathlonworld.com he questioned if he could chase down Birnbacher after the German shot clean while Fourcade suffered one penalty in the opening round of shooting.

“I had the one penalty and saw that Andi had shot clean, so I knew it would be hard to win. Even on the last lap, I was not so sure, [and] then my coach said that I could win … and my mind turned, I was able to handle that positive pain,” added Fourcade.

Other North American results include USA’s Lowell Bailey in a tie for 47th, Canadian Scott Perras in 61st followed by American Leif Nordgren in 62nd & Canadians Scott Gow and Jean Philippe Leguellec  in 63rd and 80th place respectively.

Domracheva Claims Come from Behind Win in Sochi Women’s Individual
Sunny skies, hard-packed snow, and a light breeze out of the NW made for ideal conditions for the Women’s 15km Individual in Sochi, Russia.  American Susan Dunklee, started with bib #8, and finished with a season’s best result of 7th with a time of 47:47.2 and one penalty at 2:02 behind.

“The Olympic course is a tough one with lots of climbing,” said Dunklee in a team release. “Luckily it plays to our team’s strengths, and Annelies and myself had our best results of the year. We are psyched! My strategy going into today was to hold back a little bit on the first loops to give myself a chance to shoot well in the early stages and to save my legs for the second half of the race.”

American Annelies Cook had a career-best finish in 14th position with a time of 49:23.3 (back 3:38.1) with three penalties, besting her 18th place finish earlier this season in the Antholz-Anterselva Sprint.

“I’m really excited about the result and the skiing today,” Cook said in a team release. “I was uncertain about how this day would go but I was very pleased to shoot clean for three stages and that meant a lot to me. The course here is really hard with big steep uphills, twisty downhills, and altitude. I tried to stay really relaxed the first loop and even then, I wasn’t totally sure I could keep going that way. My skis were super awesome and they have been for the past ten races and that helped me a lot, especially mentally.

“Our coaches were all over the course with positive messages. In the last standing, I hit the first shot and thought, ‘Oh good- at least I won’t dirty this last stage. Maybe I can clean,’ and then I missed. Not the right way to think, but that’s what makes biathlon such a challenge.”

Thursday’s winner, Darya Domracheva of Belarus claimed the victory in a time of 45:45.2 despite suffering two penalties, both coming in the final round of shooting.  Thirty four seconds back was the clean shooting Olga Zaitseva of Russia with a time of 46:19.8 with 3rd going to Norway’s Tora Berger at 46.8s back with one penalty.

“It was good for me to have the three clean shooting stages today…It has not been an easy season for me, I have had an up and down season,” Domracheva told biathlonworld.com.  “It was an important race for me today, because I realized that it is possible to shoot clean… it was not so windy which is the best shooting conditions for me.”

Fellow American Sara Studebaker finished in 42nd place, while Canadian’s Megan Imrie and Zina Kocher placed 57th and 73rd respectively, a Rosanna Crawford did not finish.

“This course is a spicy one,” Imrie said in a team release. “There were many crashes, but I actually found it quite fun. I’m glad we practiced slalom races at Norquay [Banff] this fall because those downhills are alpine style. It is grueling and lactate is a constant companion, but I love the stadium, the setting and the rolling parts of the course.”

Women’s results here.
Men’s results here.

March 07, 2013 (Devil’s Thumb Ranch, CO) – Karhu is back in the U.S. after a few years of absence from the market. The brand, which is best known for its line of ski touring equipment, has a huge range of gear for the 2013/14 season, including cross-country skis and boots. The company has now partnered with Craft, known for endurance sport clothing, and is now introducing a new line of eyewear to complete the comprehensive Nordic and back country ski touring equipment line-up.

March 06, 2013 (Truckee, Calif.) – Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski Center, located in Truckee, Calif., is proud announce that it has been chosen to be one of the host venues for the United States Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA) SuperTour Finals, a Nordic Olympic qualifying cross country race series on Saturday, April 4 through Thursday, April 11.

The United States Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA) SuperTour Finals and U.S. Distance Nationals are the premier cross country ski races in the United States. The event is held annually each spring and features over 200 of the most talented cross country skiers in the world. Among the featured elite athletes scheduled to make an appearance is Kikkan Randall of the U.S. Ski Team, currently ranked second on the FIS World Cup tour.

“The SuperTour Finals is extremely prestigious. This is the most exciting race event to hit the local Nordic scene since the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley,” says Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski Center manager Sally Jones. “I encourage everyone to come out to watch how talented and fast these professional and amateur athletes can ski,” Jones says, adding that the race course will be spectator-friendly and is easily accessible on skis, on snowshoes, or on foot.

Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski Center will be the main venue for the Tahoe SuperTour Finals, hosting an array of daily events including a welcome reception, an athlete speaker series, live music, BBQs, and specialized clinics such as the Fast and Female event, which gives local girls a unique opportunity to hang out with and be inspired by world-class athletes from the U.S. Women’s Cross Country ski team.

Tahoe Donner Cross Country Center will host the Prologue on Thursday, April 4; the Classic 10- and 15-kilometer on Friday, April 5; the women’s Classic 15- and 30-kilometer on Wednesday, April 10 and the men’s Classic 20- and 50-kilometer on Thursday, April 11.

Without sponsors, the SuperTour event would not happen, and officials are actively seeking sponsors to help offset operational costs. This high-profile elite competition series will put Tahoe-Truckee businesses and the community directly in the eyes of winter sport enthusiasts, with media coverage internationally, nationally, and regionally. Those interested in sponsorship opportunities can click HERE or call the Far West Nordic Ski Education Foundation at (530) 852-0879.

Volunteers are needed to help with event operations. Those who volunteer will have a unique opportunity to work alongside some of the best athletes in the world and will earn event souvenirs and swag.

For more information click HERE or call Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski Center at (530) 587-9484.

March 03, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Sweden’s Johan Olsson delivered an astounding historic win on Sunday in the men’s 50km CL, the final race of the Nordic World Championships in Val di Fiemme.

Olsson soloed across the line after doing the unthinkable – he skied alone for a good 35km staying ahead of the chasing pack to claim the final title of these championships. Dario Cologna (SUI) came in 12.9s later for the silver while Alexey Poltoranin landed on the final step of the podium.

The top North Americans were Noah Hoffman (USA) in 27th followed by Canada’s Alex Harvey in 28th. The USA’s Kris Freeman finished 37th and teammate Tad Elliott was 40th. Canada’s Graham Nishikawa placed 48th while Ivan Babikov did not finish. Canadian stud Devon Kershaw was not on the start line today suffering from fatigue.

Olsson and Cologna escaped at the 12km mark while the pack seems uncertain how to react. As the speed picked up Cologna crashed suddenly on a twisty downhill and was soon absorbed leaving Olsson on his own.

The veteran Swede was already committed to the task at hand and kept the pressure on as the Russians came to the front of the chasers to push the pace. Defending champ Petter Northug (NOR) floated surprisingly around 15-20th for most of the race and was not a factor in the outcome which shocked most on-lookers.

Olsson’s teammates in pack behind, Daniel Richardsson and Anders Soedergren, did their part to slow the pack and thereby give Olsson more time to maintain or advance his lead, as the big guns chasing lacked collective will to reel in the Swedish escapee.

A final bid by Cologna netted him the silver as Olsson was unstoppable taking home one of the biggest wins of his career, and leaving fans with a memorable victory as the championships came to close – full report and more photos to follow.

This is old news – but if you somehow missed the 50km today – you missed the best men’s xc ski race ever. Johan Olsson? He’s the man. – Devon Kershaw

There’s a new definition of bad ass in the dictionary and it’s Johan Olsson – AndyNewellskier

Full results HERE.
Full results detail HERE.

March 02, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Warm temperatures made for tough waxing conditions again in Val di Fiemme as Norway’s Marit Bjoergen countered Justyna Kowalczyk’s (POL) attack on the final climb up Zorzi in the women’s 30km CL (6x5km) while the duo dropped Therese Johaug (NOR).

Then Bjoergen delivered her own knock-out punch accelerating over the final roller passing Kowalczyk to finish with a three second-margin and the gold medal. Johaug, the defending champ having won in Oslo (30km FR), settled for 3rd. It was Bjoergen’s first 30km world title since 2005 in Obertsdorf.

The USA’s Liz Stephens had another strong race in Val di Fiemme finishing 16th, tying her best-ever international result in a 30km (she was 16th in the 30km FR at the Worlds in Oslo). Despite the tough slow conditions Ida Sargent (USA) also had her best result in a 30km finishing 25th, up from 51st in Olso a year ago. Jessie Diggins (USA) had an unfortunate fall on the first lap and pulled out of the race soon after starting the second lap.

Emily Nishikawa (CAN), at her first senior World Championships and competing in her first 30km at this level, proved she has what it takes to compete in a strong field finishing 38th, having been lapped on the last leg.

Full results HERE.
Full results detail HERE.

March 01, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Like their female counterparts the Norwegian men, took the gold in the 4x10km relay event at the FIS Nordic Worlds in Val di Fiemme, Italy on Friday and once again defended their title. But spectators were on the edge of their seats as a late race bid by Sweden’s Calle Halvarsson threatened the four final contenders including the famed Petter Northug (NOR).

Northug responded on the final Zorzi climb as he and Halvarsson shook off Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov and Italy’s David Hofer making it a two-horse race. Halvarsson was still leading over the final bridge to the finish but Northug quickly caught his rival and took over the lead down the finishing lanes for the win by a 1.2s margin.

The battle for bronze was won by Ustiugov who sprinted fiercely for third over Hofer denying the host nation spot on the final podium. It was a close finish in the 40km event as the top five all crossed the line within 12s of one another. Teams USA and Canada finished 10th and 12th, respectively.

Waxing played a large role as race day dawned at a balmy 10°C. The pack stuck close together on the first two laps of the race as Sweden’s Daniel Richardsson and Russia’s Evgeniy Belov set the pace. Germany’s Hannes Dotzler was also high up in the fray, animating the action with an attack on the final lap, which was marked by Norway’s Torde Asle Gjerdalen. The USA’s Andy Newell was well positioned near the front throughout the race and was a strong 5th at the exchange. Canada’s Len Valjas skied well over the first two laps as well but dropped to 11th as the 10km-leg ended.

Leg #2 saw Germany’s Tobias Angerer leading a seven-man group, including Norway, Sweden and USA. However, a motivated chase group soon caught back on to double the size of the lead group, that included the USA’s Kris Freeman who was well-positioned near the front as Russia’s Maxim Vylegzhanin assumed control at the front. Canada’s Devon Kershaw in 12th tried to bridge to the leaders.

Local fans cheered loudly as veteran Giorgio Di Centa (ITA), at his 9th Nordic Worlds, seized the opportunity to attack on the Velena climb on final lap. But Swiss superstar Dario Cologna jumped on his tail, followed by Vylegzhanin, Angerer, Johan Olsson (SWE), and Eldar Roenning (NOR) to create a lead group of six. Freeman and Kershaw did not make the selection, with the American skier handing off to Noah Hoffman in 9th at 1:14 back with Kershaw tagging Ivan Babikov in 12th.

The start of the third leg saw the top six nations stay together with Norway, Russia and Sweden exchanging the lead. Japan’s Nobu Naruse, whose squad was putting together a brilliant race, chased in seventh, followed by the Czech Republic in eighth. USA’s Noah Hoffman had a strong leg with the 5th fastest time but the team remained in 10th as Babikov fought in vain as well. On the final lap Sweden’s Marcus Hellner attacked as Russia’s Alexander Legkov responded along with Sjur Roethe (NOR) as four leaders charged to the final transition as Germany and Switzerland suffered behind.

The final leg of the race started slowly as the strategizing began at a training pace. Suddenly Germany’s Axel Teichmann was able to regain contact with the lead group, while the other trailing skiers also gained back time including the USA’s Tad Elliott. On the second lap of the leg, Elliot was positioned in seventh as Finland’s Matti Heikkinen put in a surge and bridged to the front group putting his team back into contention. Canada’s anchor, Alex Harvey, was too far back to fight for contention.

As the finish approached, the lead group – now six strong – picked up the pace forcing the chasers to dig even deeper. Sweden’s  Halfvarsson finally initiated the attack before the on the last climb up Zorzi and the only skier able to respond was Northug. But the Norwegian veteran was on to Halfvarsson like bees to honey and suddenly they emerged at the front of the race alone contesting the gold. The storming Northug gave Norwegian fans what they were hoping for and defended Norway’s relay title yet again. The USA finished in 10th and Canada ended up 12th.

Full results HERE.
Full results detail HERE.

February 28, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – The powerhouse Norwegian squad led by Marit Bjoergen charged to victory today in the women’s 4x5km CL + FR at the 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, while Team USA’s Sadie Bjornsen, Kikkan Randall , Liz Stephen and Jessie Diggins, scored a best-ever fourth place. The Canadian women did not finish.

Leg #1 of the race kicked off with the classic mass start as Canada’s Dasha Gaiazova skied strong near the front of a pack that included Norway, Finland, and Russia. The USA’s Bjornsen was also positioned in the top 10. During the second lap, Norway’s Heidi Weng chose the inside track vs the slicker centre lanes to take the lead.

Chasing Finnish skier, Anne Kyllönen crashed and got caught up in the fencing to lose 15s. Weng attacked on the climb gained her a massive 20s gap, which second place, France’s Aurore Jean, and third place, Russia’s Julia Ivanova, fought to earn back. Meanwhile, American Bjornsen had moved into sixth spot, while Gaiazova appeared to run out of steam and fell back through the pack. At the end of the first leg, Weng tagged off to her teammate Therese Johaug with a healthy 20s lead, followed by Finland and Russia in second and third, USA sixth, and Canada 11th.

Leg #2 saw Norway way ahead, while the scrap for silver and bronze continued with Russia moving into second spot and Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk jumping up to third, while USA’s Kikkan Randall maintained her sixth place spot. Farther into the leg, the Polish ringer threw down a gutsy attack to assume second place and gain time on Norway’s Johaug.

Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen also put in a big dig to bring her crew back into contention, moving up to third. Meanwhile, Kowalczyk heroically caught and passed Norway’s Johaug, leaving Sweden and Finland behind to fight over the bronze medal position. Still in sixth, Randall tagged off to teammate Stephen, with Canada’s Perianne Jones coming through in 12th to tag Emily Nishikawa.

The start of Leg #3 saw Norway’s Kristin Stoermer Stiera quickly pass Poland’s Paulina Maciuszek for the lead, while the battle for bronze heated up, with Finland’s Riitta Liisa Roponen fighting Sweden’s Anna Haag tooth and nail in a back-and-forth nailbiter. Their efforts allowed them to overtake the flagging Polish skier, as they trailed Norway by a massive 35s.

Farther back, USA’s Stephen looked strong and smooth as she cruised up the field to take over fourth place. Back in the medal fight, Haag delivered a big attack the final time up the Zorzi climb to put a gap into Roponen, while Stephen continued to gain time with Russia’s Mariya Guschina in tow.

At the end of the leg, Stiera tagged off to Marit Bjoergen maintaining a 25s lead over Sweden, with Finland crossing in third at 30s. Stephen delivered a 4th place hand-off to US anchor Diggins at 55s in arrears with Russia fifth at 1:03. Nishikawa handed off to Brittany Webster at 3:27 behind.

With such a large advantage going into the final leg, Bjoergen proved unstoppable on her uncontested charge to win the gold medal by 26s over Poland. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla quickly dropped Finland’s Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja for second spot, while Diggins battled fiercely with Russia’s Yulia Tchekaleva.

The bronze medal was far from sewn up as Sarasoja was obviously struggling. Tchekaleva overtook Diggins and then caught Sarasoja to assume third, while Diggins continued to advance. In the end, the Russian skier was too quick for Diggins, but the young American hunted down the fading Finn to claim fourth for Team USA at 1:12 – the team’s best ever result in that event. It was a tough day for the Canadians as their anchor Webster did not finish.

Full results HERE.
Full results detail HERE.

February 25, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – SkiTrax caught up with newly crowned Team Sprint world champions Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins for their take on their historic victory in Val di Fiemme, Italy at the 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships.

Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins

February 25, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Canada’s Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw, the defending Team Sprint world champs, put on a valiant display of come-back prowess following a broken pole suffered Kershaw. But the boot of Kazakstan’s Alexey Poltoranin was first across the line in a classic photo-finish lunge over Harvey that left the Canucks off the final podium at the 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships in Val di Fiemme.

The day belonged to the powerful Russian duo of Alexey Petukhov and Nikita Kriukov who claimed the gold over Sweden as Kriukov’s kick over the final 50 meters was untouchable by Sweden’s speed king, Emil Joensson, who was paired with Marcus Hellner for the silver.

“We were fourth at the Olympics, and now fourth here at World Championships and that is hard to take,” said Harvey. Kershaw who broke a pole on his second leg set back the Canadians to 9th, but Kershaw kept his cool and got a new pole from head coach Justin Wadsworth.

“I had to ski quite a while with one pole, but I was still calm and didn’t panic,” said Kershaw. “Our strategy was to stay out front today, but that obviously didn’t happen. We were calm where we were. I knew we had lots of time and everything was still fine.”

On his final leg Kershaw tagged Harvey in 5th and the savvy Quebec skier had gotten back into a medal vying position before the final descent, but needed to break the explosive Kriukov before the decisive sprint. Instead, he hesitated slightly, and then tried to go head to head with Kriukov, Joensson, and Poltoranin on the final stretch.

“I tried to make a move on that final climb, and I had it, but I just wasn’t aggressive enough,” reflected Harvey. “I should have moved in front of Kriukov. We wanted a podium today and didn’t get it. That is disappointing.”

Coach Justin Wadsworth remains optimistic, and ready to move forward. “Good day, but no medal. The guys did all they could and now our focus is a medal in the relay.”

The US team of Erik Bjornsen and Andy Newell didn’t fare as well as hoped, and didn’t make it past the semis ending up in 14th place despite Newell clocking in the third fastest time on his third lap. Surprisingly, the Norwegian pairing of Paal Goldberg and Petter Northug also failed to advance to the final, finishing 8 seconds back in the semi.

Full results HERE.
Full results with splits HERE.

February 22, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Park City’s Sarah Hendrickson found it hard to describe her feelings right after becoming only the third woman in history to win a ski jumping World Championship on Friday, so she did it simply saying, “The. Best. Feeling. Ever.”

The Park City teenager out-jumped World Cup overall title winner Sara Takanashi, of Japan, to win the 2013 World Championship in Val di Fiemme, Italy — the hometown of Coach Paolo Bernardi.

“I can’t even put it into words right now,” Hendrickson told reporters. “Standing at the top before the first round my heart was beating and everything was shaking and I didn’t know if I could pull it off.”

Hendrickson’s two jumps of 106 and 103 meters combined with near-perfect style points were more than enough to take the title. Teammate Jessica Jerome had a big first jump, 100 meters, placing her in 6th, which matches her finish from the 2009 World Championships. Austria’s Jacqueline Seifriedsberger was 3rd.

Lindsey Van had a short first jump of 89 meters but bounced back in the second round to jump 93.5 meters to capture 16th. Abby Hughes, battling some nerves, finished 33rd.

“I had no idea how far she (Takanashi) went (in the second round). I could hear the crowd roar, but you never know with that. I just knew I had to do my jump and just forgot about the other stuff,” Hendrickson said.

Strength in Team
Americans now have won two of the three World Ski Jumping Championships ever to allow women to compete. Van won the inaugural event in 2009.

Jerome is peaking this season at the right time and woke up Friday “feeling awesome” after a shaky Thursday due to a nagging stiff and sore neck.

“Our physical therapist Valerie worked wonders on me,” Jerome said. “Yesterday wasn’t as good in training and so when I jumped 100 meters today, I was relieved and thrilled to do it in the competition.”

Despite being an individual sport, “team” sometimes matters more, Jerome said.

“When we all went out to celebrate with Sarah, we were pretty much all crying,” she said. “I think that as a team we do really, really well together. Today just reinforces that we are a great team and we have been through a lot and we can still get it done.”

Hendrickson started out this World Cup season in a deficit. She had been off her skis for five months due to a knee surgery and had lost weight, which meant she had to jump on skis 6 cm shorter this season — a rule set by the International Ski Federation (FIS). Six centimeters doesn’t sound like much, but to an elite ski jumper, it might as well have been 2 feet.

After winning the inaugural World Cup overall title in 2012, she came into this season as the hunted. For four months she’s fought for the top podium spot with Takanashi — a rivalry the media has termed “The Battle of the Sara(h)s.”

Takanashi secured the overall World Cup title this year, but on Friday Hendrickson became a World Champion.

‘We made it. She did it.’
Just four years ago in Liberec, Czech Republic, at the age of 14, Hendrickson became one of the youngest Americans to ever compete in a Nordic World Ski Championship. She was with teammates five and 10 years older, showing her the way on the jump hill — and in life.

Back then, women ski jumpers were still lobbying to compete in their sport in the Olympic Winter Games. Teammates Van and Jerome were shouldering the weight of expectation, politics, and the media spotlight that so often comes when boundaries get pushed.

She placed 29th.

In Oslo in 2011, Hendrickson and her teammates were jumping for their Olympic lives — tasked with the job of proving they belonged on the world’s biggest stage in sports. The conditions couldn’t have been worse — pea soup fog and unpredictable winds.

She finished 14th.

This time around, armed with a 2012 World Cup title and a historic Olympic Winter Games debut in her sights, Hendrickson set out to simply “jump as far as she could.”

She did and she won.

“My entire family is here today – mom, dad, and brother. No words can really express the happiness as I gave them a big hug after I won,” she said. “It’s an amazing feeling to accomplish this and be with my teammates.”

For Coach Bernardi, having one of his jumpers win in his hometown — a place where his father literally helped build the ski jumps — was almost too emotional for him to bear. He lost his father more than 10 years ago — he’d always nagged Paolo, a former Nordic Combined athlete, to stay in the game after retiring and coach. And just a few weeks ago, Bernardi lost his beloved mother to a long-term illness.

Today, after the competition, his thoughts turned to his family.

“I have so much inside me right now. This is such an emotional day for me,” he said. “All of my friends and family were here. It’s a special day.

“Sarah did. We did it.”

February 22, 2013 (Devil’s Thumb Ranch, CO) – Check out these videos of Alpina’s latest offerings for the 2013/14 season, including Alpina Action and ASK skis and boots, Alpina ESK Pro Skate boot, and Yoko’s 7100 HS Carbon Skate Pole. With its bold graphics and affordable price points, Alpina’s Action skis and ASK line of boots are aimed at a younger market of skiers that Alpina feels has been overlooked in the past. The brand’s newly redesigned ESK Pro skate boot is a top-of-the-line race boot based on a Rottefella sole and features the stiffness, fit, and performance that top level skiers expect.

New 2013/2014 Yoko 7100 HS Carbon Skate Pole.mov

February 21, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Canada’s Alex Harvey led the way for North America in the opening event of the 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships with a historic bronze medal. The 24 year-old St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que. skier became the first Canadian male to win an individual medal at the Nordic World Ski Championships. This is the third Nordic Worlds medal in the history of the Canadian program.

Russian Nikita Kruikov added World Champion to his Olympic title he earned three years ago. Kriukov outsprinted Norweigen stud, Petter Northug, for gold in quite the same fashion as he did in Kuusamo earlier this season, demonstrating incredible speed, and taking the crown as the new best finisher in the sport.

Harvey started off the day with a modest performance in the qualification, cutting it a bit close for comfort in 26th place. In his quarterfinal heat he came back from what looked like an almost certain knockout to power through on the flats to win the heat.

“I was a little rusty after not sprinting in a while, and I simply didn’t remember the pace that I was supposed to take in the qualification,” said Harvey post-race. He battled difficult waxing conditions, but seemed to take advantage of less kick than most skiers.

“I usually prefer to have less kick, and we have been really focused on the final turn and last downhill into the stadium here in Val di Fiemme, and it’s really important to have fast skis there onto the flat.

“It was even more of an advantage on the flats actually, because when you are double poling that hard you’re really putting a lot of pressure on the pocket through your toes, so I was really fast there with less grip.”

The only disasters of the day came from two of the top-3 qualifiers. Anssi Pentsinen of Finland went down when Northug made contact with him in the quarterfinal, and Kazak Alexey Poltoranin broke his pole on the support of the timing wand out of the start, ending his medal hopes in the semis.

The Americans were led by Andy Newell in 21st place. While the Vermonter had a strong 7th place qualification, he failed to advance though the quarterfinals. Difficult waxing conditions plagued the American team in the later part of the day.

“Today was kind of a bummer. I felt strong, and had lots of kick during the qualification, but conditions continued to change throughout the day. We did some good testing before the heats and thought we had it pretty dialed, but once I was racing the skis were definitely slick.

“I think I still had a shot going into the stadium but did not slingshot Strandval very well. I kind of hesitated and tucked back in behind him instead of really going for it and that sure killed my speed. “

Simi Hamilton, who has been showing good form lately showed promise, almost qualifying in 34th despite battling a chest cold. He hopes to be back to full strength in time for the team sprint.

Erik Bjornsen at his World Championship debut, who finished 51st for the United States, also had similar waxing challenges. “The conditions were so tricky to wax for, it was hard to decide whether I wanted to go for the good kick or the good glide, I may have made the wrong decision and I think that showed in my finishing result.”

With the exception of the historic result of Harvey, the rest of the news from the Canadian camp was not as bright as hope. Lenny Valjas and Devon Kershaw shockingly failed to qualify and finished 40th and 46th respectively, with Kershaw shaking his head crossing the finish line indicating waxing problems.

Final podium (l-r) Northug 2nd, Kriukov 1st, Harvey 3rd. [P] Nordic Focus

The cross-country skiers have the day off tomorrow, as the crowd’s attention moves to ski jumping and Nordic Combined. The men start back up on Saturday with a 15/15km Skiathlon.

Full results HERE.

February 21, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Patience was on Marit Bjoergen’s side today as the Norwegian claimed gold in the women’s 1.5km CL sprint, the first title event of the 2103 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme. Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter put in a strong showing taking the silver but she was no match for Bjoergen, who was caught behind her teammate Maiken Casperson Falla early on, but then asserted herself passing all rivals for the victory as Falla took home the bronze.

In a post-race interview Bjoergen modestly stated that she was ‘satisfied’ with her race. Her smile gave it away that she was more than happy with her first-place finish having lost to her long-standing rival, Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland, in the same event only two weeks earlier in Davos, Switzerland.

Kowalczyk suffered an unfortunate crash early in the final, in an unforced error (perhaps getting her ski tangled with another skier) in the tight quarters up the first climb. She got up quickly and managed to pull herself back into the race, but she was not able to contend for a medal.

For North American fans the contest ended early as only two American skiers, Kikkan Randall (28th) and Sophia Caldwell (30th), made it through to the quarter finals, while no Canadians raced in the heats. With all of the recent fanfare surrounding both teams expectations were high but it was not their day.

“Our team did the best we could but it was kind of a gamble today,” said Randall in a post-race interview with SkiTrax. “The course was pretty tough.”

Randall had a good start, however her quarter final heat was noticeably slower than previous heats. But Randall dropped to the back of the pack on the first hill and from that point was in catch-up mode. She rallyed making a smart race move grabbing the inside lane around a tight corner and was suddenly in 3rd but the chasers fought back and Finland’s Lahteenmaki got by her as she ended up fourth and 19th on the day.

“My initial strategy had been to ski up in the top three and be ready to make a good sprint in the last 150m.  But when I found myself at the back I knew I couldn’t wait.  When we went around the fast downhill turn I felt everyone drifting left I stayed right and was able to get a better line to the corner.

“I am satisfied that I gave my best effort out there today.  The skis weren’t perfect and I’m not a perfect technician in classic.  I was aiming for a better result today and I know that if some things had gone a little different I could have skied closer to my goals. Regardless, today will be a great warm up for the team sprint,” said Randall.

For Vermont’s Sophia Caldwell it was an exciting experience racing at her first senior World Champs telling us the support of the team makes it easy to get excited for the race and forget about some of the nerves.

Caldwell raced the first quarter final, which was lead by German racer Denise Hermann, who was a tough one to beat as she raced a technically sound race. Caldwell skied strong and smart moving into third at one point but as in Randall’s q-final the pace picked up at the end and she finished 4th at 1.9 seconds down, having to wait and see if that was enough to proceed into the semifinals.

She described her move as she worked her way into 3rd during the quarter final. “I tried to stay relaxed in my quarter and not panic if I wasn’t in an ideal position. There were a couple places that I was able to move into a good position due to a combination of good tactics and luck!

“I took the 180 degree turn wide and was able to ski by some people who took it too sharp so I moved myself into 3rd place. Long double pole finishes generally aren’t my strength so I just put my head down and went as hard as possible in my finish stretch and got passed by one person.” Caldwell ended up 20th on the day.

“I’m very happy with my result! It was the first time I’ve qualified in the top 30 in a classic sprint and I was excited to be able to improve on my qualifying position in the heats,” she added.

Canadian skiers in the classic sprints were “Dasha” Daria Gaiazova finishing in 42nd, Perianne Jones in 48th, followed by Andrea Dupont in 49th and Emily Nishikawa in 57th.

Jones, felt the tough conditions were working against her today. “The conditions were tough today, my body wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, I just didn’t feel like I had the extra jam that I needed. The course was good and I thought it suited me well, but I guess without my usual snap my effort in the qualifier just wasn’t enough.

“It was a great day for our team, Alex skied so well, and our entire support staff did an amazing job supporting the entire team today. The championships are long, I was looking forward to this race for a long time, but now I can look ahead to Sunday [team sprints],” she added.

American Sadie Bjornsen echoed Jones’ sentiment for the race behind her. “Today was a challenge. Conditions were hard, making kick hard, and in a World Championships… there is no room for any mistakes. I finished very close to qualifying again…it is sort of becoming a habit with this classic sprinting. Today there were a few things that could have been improved though, but most importantly, I know the fitness is there. Fortunately it is a long week, so there are more chances to come!”

Sadie Bjornsen finished 32nd, followed by Ida Sargent of the U.S. in 33rd.

The disappointment felt in the morning by the Canadian women not making it into the final rounds soon diminished; spirits were uplifted in the Canuck camp with a bronze medal win by Alex Harvey as Jones concluded, “It was a tough day out there for me for sure, but my spirits were lifted when Alex won a medal!”

Full results HERE.

February 21, 2013 – The National Nordic Foundation will be funding up to $10,000 of expenses for the 8 unfunded Cross-Country athletes at World Nordic Championships; Erik Bjornsen, Holly Brooks, Ida Sargent, Kris Freeman, Noah Hoffman, Sadie Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell, and Tad Elliott.

Here is what a few of the athletes had to say:

“This is the first winter I’ve had the flexibility to spend a significant period of time racing and traveling in Europe and while it is very exciting and important for development as an international competitor, it is also very expensive. We worked hard to raise money for our seasons through SMS T2 and I am grateful to all the individuals and organizations who have supported me, but it is not enough to cover all expenses, so I am very appreciative of the support from NNF. Thank you for reducing the costs of these trips and making them possible, we plan to make you proud at World Champs!” – Sophie Caldwell

“Thanks to the NNF for keeping team USA focused on getting the best results possible at the biggest championship events!” – Kris Freeman

“I am so thankful to hear that NNF will be able to support me for World Championships this year. The 2013 World Championships have been a huge goal of mine as I have worked through the summer and winter. Every Championship Event I get the chance to participate in is great practice for the coming 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  It is incredible the amount of support and energy that has been gathered under the roof of the National Nordic Foundation. I couldn’t be more thankful and happy to be part of a Nation that is working to support and push its athletes forward. Thank you NNF for leading the force and helping US Skiing move forward!” – Sadie Bjornsen

It is our belief that when an athlete is representing the USA at the pinnacle of the sport they should not get a bill for doing so.

For more information click HERE.

February 19, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Following the Davos World Cup all teams made a fast exit to head to Italy and get settled in before the 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships that kick off on Feb. 20 with the first official title race, the Classic Sprints, on Feb. 21.

We caught with a few skiers including Jessie Diggins, Holly Brooks, Noah Hoffman and Kris Freeman for their take on the tough Davos course, their form heading into Worlds, and before wishing them arivaderci… what their favourite Italian food is ?

Jessie Diggins (USA) – 14th Women’s 10km FR
My body was feeling much better today, I guess due to finally resting and letting all the training sink in as we prep for the World Champs! I was trying to pace it smart because the course is a really, really hard one – there are almost no steep climbs but there is also no real rest, either, because you need to really work the gradual down sections and then on the steeper downhills there were two different 180 degree corners! So I was trying hard to ski smart, not just all-out.

But my second lap the wheels definitely started to come off, and I lost some valuable time crashing on the corner about 1km from the finish. Oops! But overall, I was happy to have my body feeling strong and like it’s coming into good racing shape for Val di Fiemme!

The stoke level for Italy is SOOO HIGH! I am excited about being here with a great team, having a fun experience, and racing our hardest. I also happen to have a full jar of glitter and facepaint ready for the occasion.

Also, my favorite Italian food? Hmmm, I don’t know yet….I mean, the pizza here is fantastic but what I’m really in love with is the mushrooms on the pasta. Yum!

Holly Brooks (USA) – 20th Women’s 10km FR
We traveled right after the race yesterday and I had meetings and a massage last night – sorry to not get back to you sooner. Anyways, yes – I felt much, much better in yesterday’s race than I have in a while so I think my body & energy might be coming around just in time! Historically I love the Davos course because I was 13th there last year.  That said, turning in a result of 20th is solid, but not quite as good as last year.

But, I’ve been in a different place, coming off high levels of fatigue and it’s a step in the right direction.  I wasn’t ecstatic with the result but I’m not allowing myself to be disappointed either.  It’s amazing to think that having three girls in the top 20 is just a “solid day” for the USST now.  Boy how expectations and standards have changed!  I am sure that had Kikkan raced, she would have been up there as well so I think that speaks for the depth of the team.

Fun story…. Ben Husaby was in Davos accompanying Dakota for the classic sprint. He made a little impromptu speech Sunday night before his departure and he talked about how far the team has come since his days as an athlete. He has the perspective of racing the World Cup with the USST in the 90’s and it was a different ball game. He definitely had some emotion in his voice and it was really cool to see how proud he is of us and have a gentle reminder that not that long ago it was a big deal for AN ATHLETE to score A WC POINT. Now no one is celebrating 14th, 15th & 20th, interesting.

The course is a lot of gradual uphill and gradual downhill, lots of “grinding” at one of the highest elevation courses that we race on the World Cup.  Smart pacing is a must and my goal was to go out and ski the first 5k lap with good technique, conserving energy and gliding as much as possible. Then, the second lap you just see what you have left 🙂  I felt solid, yet un-spectacular which leaves me hoping that another level of fitness and energy is right around the corner! Overall, I’m happy with my weekend, scoring points in both sprint and distance. This way, I can go into the Championships with some confidence that I can access good energy and that my resting the past couple of weeks has paid off.

I’m excited to be in Italy and it’s fun to arrive at our hotel which we’ll share with Nordic Combined and women’s ski jumping!  The suns out today and the Dolomites are gorgeous. Plus, there is more natural snow in teh valley than we’re used to seeing so that’s a bonus!

And Brooks’ favourite Italian cuisine…? Espresso :). They have free machines at the venue!!!!!

Noah Hoffman (USA) – 34th Men’s 15km FR
The race on Sunday was a little disappointing for me. I started fairly well, but I didn’t maintain my focus well. I think my energy is good, but I was missing that top gear. The conditions on Sunday were perfect, cold snow with sun. The course in Davos is always a challenge for me because there aren’t big V1 climbs.

Instead there is a lot of gradual terrain. I believe I’ve improved my technique for a course like Davos, but it is still not my strength. I will continue to focus on improving this area of my skiing. My skis were good. The wax techs did a great job.

We arrived yesterday in Val di Fiemme and I am really happy to be here. I am fit and healthy and psyched to race on these challenging courses. I am greatly looking forward to all four distance races here at the championships.

My favorite food of any food group is spaghetti. I love the food and I love spending time in Italy. I couldn’t be happier to be here for the next two weeks.

Kris Freeman (USA) – 50th Men’s 15km FR
How was the course, conditions and your skis in Davos…?
The course is the same as it has been for the last five years – 3km gradual up, 2km gradual down. Almost no recovery. I either ski great or badly on it.

How’s your health, fitness and form on the cusp of the Fiemme Worlds ?
My health is good and my fitness and form is as well. The poor performance in Davos has rattled me a little though.

What’s your focus at Fiemme 2013…?
I am most excited for the 50k classic, followed by the pursuit.

How many World Championships have you competed in during your career – Senior and U23…?
I competed in the 1998, 1999, and 2000 World Champs, The first U-23 WC in 2003, and the 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 WCs.  I think that makes 10.

Would you say that this is the strongest US Team ever coming into the Worlds?
This is the strongest US team by far.  Kikkan is the #1 sprinter in the world, Newell is ranked #2 and every woman here is capable of a top ten finish. Simi was coming into his best form the last two weeks and Noah has made fast and steady progress over the last two seasons. He will be tough.

What’s your favourite Italian food…?
I like lasagna, but I like it better in the US than Italy…Italian pizza is my favorite over here.

2013 U.S. World Championship Cross Country Team

Men
– Erik Bjornsen, Winthrop, WA, 7/14/91, U.S. Ski Team/Alaska Pacific University
– Tad Elliott, Durango, CO, 7/2/88, U.S. Ski Team/Ski and Snowboard Club Vail (2011)
– Kris Freeman, Andover, NH, 10/14/80, Maine Winter Sports Club (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011)
– Simi Hamilton, Aspen, CO, 5/14/87, U.S. Ski Team/Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (2011)
– Noah Hoffman, Aspen, CO, 8/1/89, U.S. Ski Team/Ski and Snowboard Club Vail (2011)
– Andy Newell, Shaftsbury, VT, 11/30/83, U.S. Ski Team/SMST2 (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011)

Women
– Sadie Bjornsen, Winthrop, WA, 11/21/89, U.S. Ski Team/APU Nordic (2011)
– Holly Brooks, Anchorage, 4/17/82, U.S. Ski Team/APU Nordic (2011)
– Sophie Caldwell, Peru, VT, 3/22/90, SMST2
– Jessie Diggins, Afton, MN, 8/26/91, U.S. Ski Team/SMST2, (2011)
– Kikkan Randall, Anchorage 12/31/82, U.S. Ski Team/APU Nordic (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011)
– Ida Sargent, Orleans, VT, 1/25/88, U.S. Ski Team/Craftsbury Nordic (2011)
– Liz Stephen, E. Montpelier, VT, 1/12/87, U.S. Ski Team/Burke Mountain Academy (2009, 2011)

February 18, 2013 (Gatineau, Quebec) – Last year was a rough one to have heroes in cycling. It was a reminder that all too often the attributes that make successful athletes need not be those that make holistically praiseworthy people.

So it was refreshing to sit down with Tara Whitten at this year’s 35th Gatineau Loppet for a wide ranging interview. Not just an Olympic bronze medallist, multiple world champion and PhD candidate in neuroscience, Whitten is also a genuinely nice person, discussed topics from; ski racing, to track development, to her own athletic plans for the future.

She went as far as to apologize for being “wishy-washy” about her future in the sport, but then again, after a decade of international competition, first as a skier, and then as a cyclist, Whitten has earned herself a break.

Whitten was this year’s Honorary Gatineau Loppet President, and while the Edmontonian had won this 50km skate event here in 2004, she hadn’t done a proper ski race since Nationals in Quebec in 2007, by which point her heart was no longer in the sport. It was at that point that she began to shift her attention to track cycling – a sport in which she had first dabbled back in 2005.

Whitten did admit to having done the Edmonton Birkie last week, and said she felt much less beat up than after this weekend – joking that maybe she was already making a training adaptation. For an athlete that Cycling Canada’s HP Director, Jaques Landry, once called “a freak of nature” such an adaptation isn’t entirely unlikely.

So right upfront what are you plans right now for your own sporting future?
Tara Whitten: To be honest I’m a little uncertain. On one hand I’m excited about the prospect of the 4 person four-kilometer women’s team pursuit. It’s an interesting change, and would be neat to be a part of as our whole team just keeps on getting stronger. It’s tempting to think about being part of. I’m also excited about maybe focusing more on time trialing.

So the Omnium has no part in your plans?
TW: For the Omnium we’d have to wait and see, I think its future as an Olympic event is a bit more uncertain. I also think its future might be more with the sprinter – not pure sprinters, but riders with real speed. I actually think Gillian [Carleton] has a chance to combine that pure speed I don’t have with the endurance needed for the event. But we’ll have to see how it all develops in the next few years.

Team pursuit with four women. Good or bad for Canada?
TW: There are two ways to look at that, it can be good or bad. There are some countries with more depth and a deeper pool than us for sure. But at the same time after what we accomplished in London, I think that will help attract younger athlete into being interested in the track. I think we will find some strong new team pursuiters in the next four years to compliment the ones we already have.

How is the situation in Canada now compared to when you first started five years ago?
TW: There is so much more depth now. I really believe that team events have a huge impact on development. They give so many more opportunities for women to get involved, and from there they can branch out into the individual events as well. In 2007 when I started I was the only women in Canada pursuiting under 3:45. Now every girl in the pool can do that – that is four women if you don’t count me.

Have you spent much time in the Ottawa area before?
TW: A couple times for the Keski, and for my first ski nationals in this region in 1995. As well I’ve come out twice in the summer for the Women’s GP – so I’ve spent a bit of time here.

There is a group in Ottawa working to build a velodrome in the National capital region- how important it to have development opportunities like this in Canada?
TW: The importance of facilities like that is hard to overestimate. You need kids to have the chance to do a sport to get excited about it – especially a sport like track that you don’t even see on TV except for the Olympics. There is no chance for a development system without these facilities. The more opportunities there are for kids to try different sports the better. And some of those sports will cross over – like  cycling and skiing did for me. We can’t just be building hockey arenas.

How long were you a ski racer before you became a cyclist?
TW: I spent 13 years as a ski racer before cycling. Cross country skiing has a GREAT development system. When you go to a ski race you see the whole family, with two year age categories for boys and girls aged 7 and up. The kids are just out there having fun and racing Jackrabbit. It’s very different from most bike races you go to which is made up mainly of masters and men. They are guys that love the sport, but it’s not development.

Cross-country skiing also seems to be far more co-ed.
TW: Fore sure, hugely so. I’m not sure if cycling has an intimidation factor that keeps girls out or what, but the numbers of girls competing is so much smaller. There was definitely a tendency for the girls to drop out of the skiing more than the guys as they got a little older, but they are there in the younger ages.

How important was Richard Wooles’ decision to move the Canadian track program to L.A.?
TW: I don’t think there is any way we could have done what we did without a world class facility as a training base. Los Angeles isn’t necessarily ideal- the road riding around there isn’t great for example. But having access to that facility and training as a team were so  important to Team Canada’s success.

It would have been nicer to have been able to be in Canada. A lot of people felt really disconnected from home and the people in their lives. It was definitely a bit of a sacrifice to be based there. It wasn’t even like significant others could get visas and relocate there.

Do you think the new velodrome in Milton will be a big change?
TW: For sure! Just being able to be in Canada, I can’t explain how exciting that is. I imagine the endurance riders will have to do some road  camps in the winter. And it’s not just great for the elites, but for young athletes to be able to see high level track cycling in their own  backyard will be a huge step forwards for the next generation.

Just for the record, what exactly is your PhD in?
TW: Neuroscience, my thesis in high frequency rhythms in the hippocampus in sleep-like states. It is an area of the brain that is involved with memory, which we’ve known about since the 1950’s because of the case of Henry Molaison.

At this point Whitten was whisked off to hand out medals to the podiums in the skate races. In a funny twist the first winner Whitten presented a medal to was former national cycling team teammate Veronique Fortin, who had won the 27km freestyle event.

February 18, 2013 (Haverhill, MA) – When Swix launched the Triac 1.0 in 2011, a new standard was set for weight and stiffness in World Class nordic ski poles. At the 2013 Tour de Ski, every stage winner used the Triac. It has won gold at every major championship since its introduction and been adopted at all levels as the most advanced pole in ski racing.

Now Swix is raising the level of performance on poles again with the Triac 2.0. Boasting 5% reductions in weight, 18% increases in stiffness and greater resistance at the tip to breakage, an increasingly crucial performance mark in the age of head to head racing, the Triac 2.0 outpaces every ski pole on the market. Finally, pushing beyond the age of torches and glue, the Triac 2.0 continues to employ the widely successful Swix Triac Basket System (TBS) which offers quick basket changes to fit varying conditions.

“These are the most outstanding poles the world has ever seen,” explains Swix Sales Manager Bjørn Håkenrud. “We’ve lent out poles for testing to some of the best skiers in the world and we can’t get them back! That’s when you know you have a great product.”   Swix athletes, Petter Northug and Kikkan Randall have been working with an unpainted new Triac since this year’s Tour de Ski, drawing interest from keen-eyed fans of Swix.

Limited releases of the Triac 2.0 will be available for demos at the American Birkebeiner and Swix Sport US is giving away a pair through their Facebook Channel as a part of their #extrablueday photo contest:  http://tinyurl.com/xtrablueday.

February 17, 2013 (Davos, Switzerland) – Johan Olsson laid down a stellar run to claim the Men’s Individual 15km FR in Davos, the final race before the 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships only days away in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Local fans were hoping Dario Cologna (SUI) would eclipse him at the finish but the Swiss star, who won Olympic gold in this event at Vancouver 2010, was +11.8s short winning the silver. Russian strongman, Alexander Legkov, claimed the final step on the podium.

It was a suprisingly lacklustre day for many stars including Petter Northug (NOR) in 14th, Lukas Bauer (CZE) in 15th and Marcus Hellner (SWE) in 18th. Meanwhile Axel Teichmann showed some mettle taking 4th while Finland’s Matti Heikkinen was 5th and  Maurice Manificat (FRA) also had a good run in 6th.

The top North American was the USA’s Noah Hoffman in 33rd with his teammate Kris Freeman in 50th, now back in the mix following training at home.

Canada’s Alex Harvey was 56th as he rejoins the World Cup as his should was injured while training with Tad Elliott (USA) in 59th and Torin Koos (USA) in 80th. Canada’s Graham Nishikawa is still not well and did not start while Ivan Babikov, who’s had a great season so far did not finish.

Is this cause for worry… ? Not according to Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth who noted in a team release, “The guys are coming off of altitude so their bodies are not quite responding during this transition time.

“Today wasn’t great result-wise but it was good for them to have one final race before next week’s World Championships where I have no doubt they will be ready to go. This is the event we have been focused on all year.”

Qualifications HERE.
Final HERE.

February 17, 2013 (Nove Mesto, CZE) – The USA’s Lowell Bailey put on a powerful display of biathlon prowess shooting clean in the first three rounds and skiing with the leaders in the 15m Men’s Mass Start event for a thrilling finish to the final event of the IBU World Championships. Sunday for the  with the temperature hovering around zero, little wind, and hard pack snow as in a time of 36:15.8.

But the final standing stage was Bailey’s undoing as he missed two targets ending up 13th as Tarjei Boe of Norway, 24, was hot cleaning again for a perfect day on the range, taking advantage as well of fast skiing, to claim his first individual gold of these championships. It was Boe’s second gold in Nove Mesto as he was on Norway’s winning Men’s Relay team as well.

Blasting into second was Anton Shipulin of Russia at 3.7 seconds behind with one penalty as he attacked and overtook a tiring Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) with about 500m to go as the Norwegian settled for the bronze also suffering one penalty on the day.

Svendsen and Martin Fourcade (Fra) were the early leaders but following the first prone session a group 14-strong shot clean but the second time thru Svendsen and Fourcade suffered penalties. As Boe, Bailey, Canada’s JP Le Guellec, Andreas Birnbacher (GER), Bjorn Ferry (SWE) and fiver others forged ahead.

Fourcade pushed to catch back on as Svendsen also made up ground and following the first standing session a handful shot clean including Boe, Fourade, Bailey, Birnbacher who formed a lead group as Erik Lesser (GER) and Ferry also cleaned and were close behind including Svendsen.

All were contenders and in the final round, Boe shot clean while Fourcade missed one and Bailey missed two, dropping them out of contention for a medal. Meanwhile Svendsen, Shipulin cleaned the final round and began chasing down Boe as Lesser tried to keep pace.

Behind a feisty local star Ondrej Moravec (CZE) skied with passion and took over fourth as Boe roared in for the gold and Shipulin saved something for the end to claim silver with Svendsen winning the bronze.

It was a phenomenal day for Bailey despite the ending. “More than ever, I realize that at this level, a podium result requires perfection,” said Bailey in a team release. “That’s what I’ve strived for in training and that’s what I will continue to strive for looking forward to the final three World Cups and beyond.

“I felt great today. My skis were great, I felt good physically, and I was relaxed and confident in the range. Of course I would like to have cleaned that last stage, but other than that, I had the race I wanted to have. I’ve never been more hungry for the podium at any point in my career than right now!”

Canadian Jean Phillippe Le Guellec who also had a strong day with clean shooting and looked good for a top-10 placement also faltered on the final standing session with two penalties dropping to 22nd place with at time of 38:17.5 (0+0+1+2).

The other North American in the field today was USA’s Tim Burke but the recent silver medalist did not fair well, as he was caught in an early crash with several other skiers on a high speed downhill, went completely off of the course and was unable to recover.

“I was really motivated for this race today and I thought I definitely had a chance to fight for another podium,” said Burke. “Unfortunately, I was involved in a bad crash on the first loop where I ended up off of the course. During the crash I rolled on my rifle and it ended up totally jamming with snow.

“From that point, my race was essentially over as it took me a few minutes to get the rifle functioning once I got in the range. I was pretty disappointed to end the World Champs like this but that’s the way biathlon goes sometimes.”

Burke eventually finished 30th with five penalties (2+3+0+0). The E.ON IBU World Cup resumes with Round 7 at the Holmenkollen, in Oslo, Norway on Feb. 27th.

Full results here.

February 17, 2013 (Gatineau, QC) – The new 55km and 38km linear courses starting at Lac Philippe were inaugurated under outstanding conditions, to the great delight of all of the skiers, 1,000 of whom turned out on Saturday for the four different classic style races. Once again, athletes from Chelsea, Quebec, lit up the podiums.

The greatest challenge, bar none, faced by the organizers was the logistics involved in the new linear courses starting from Lac Philippe. This first round was unanimously hailed a success. According to the many skiers in the 55 and 38 km classic style races, the volunteers in the field did phenomenal work all along this “enchanting” course.

55 and 38 km classic style
The first two classic style races to hit the trails of Gatineau Park on Saturday were the 55 and 38km starting at Lac Philippe. It was a radiant sun that shone on Nathan Underwood (Chelsea, CAN), the very first skier in the Gatineau Loppet 2013 to cross the finish line for the 38 km, just ahead of Oleg Terentiev (Russia). Robert Underwood (Kandalaksha Bay, USA) finished in third place. Among the women, the winner was Michelle Workun-Hill (Chelsea, CAN), who finished more than 18 minutes ahead of her closest rival, Christiane Clavel (Terrebonne, CAN). Sonia Magny (Trois-Rivières, CAN) took third place, 4 minutes later.

It was a heated contest in the 55 km classic, with several well-known athletes. In the end, Benoit Chauvet (Aviernoz, FR), winner of last week´s Transjurassienne (France), took the honours. Stefan Lloyd (Chelsea, CAN) and Karl Saidla (Chelsea, CAN) took second and third place. Among the women, Megan McTavish (Chelsea, CAN) came in first, followed by a familiar face at the Gatineau Loppet and on the podium, Sheila Kealey (Ottawa, CAN) in second place, and Martina Stursova (CZE) in third.

 
20 and 5 km Metro News style classic
The 20 and 5 km Metro News both took place in the afternoon. For the 20 km, among the men, Dominique Moncion-Groulx (Gatineau, CAN), Cameron Raynor (Huntsville, CAN) and Benjamin Osorio (Orillia, CAN) reached the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rungs on the podium, respectively. In the women’s races, the winning trio consisted of Katherine Stewart-Jones (Chelsea, CAN), Maria Allen (Ripton, USA) and Sarah-Claudie Dortie-Menard (Gatineau, CAN).

In the 5 km, Maks Zechel (Kingston, CAN), Devin Martin (Orangeville, CAN) and Maxime Plater (Ottawa, CAN) won the men´s race, whereas Emma Underwood (Kattskill Bay, USA), Jasmine Workun-Hill (Chelsea, CAN) and Roxanna Kemp (Carleton Place, CAN) led the women’s.

“We would like to congratulate all of the winners, and thank every skier who participated in this first day of competition,” noted Gatineau Loppet President Yan Michaud. We would like to remind you that tomorrow’s freestyle races will start at 9 a.m. at École secondaire Mont-Bleu. As well, there will be entertainment all day long, provided, among others, by the Carnaval Soleil Polaire, the Ski Show and Chez Lili’s Espace détente.

Full results HERE – for additional information, consult the Gatineau Loppet Web site here.

February 17, 2013 (Davos, Switzerland) – The final women’s event before the 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships, the 10km FR individual start in Davos, is in the books and Therese Johaug (NOR) claimed the top prize with Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) in second and Kristin Stoermer Steira (NOR) in third.

It was another strong showing by the Americans landing their three starters in the top 20 with Jessie Diggins finishing 14th, Liz Stephen 15th, and Holly Brooks taking 20th.

Kikkan Randall elected not to race and will prepare for the upcoming Nordic World Championships Classic sprint on Feb. 21 writing in her Training Rap “Will skip tomorrow’s 10km FR to rest up for World Champs sprint on Thursday.” Marit Bjoergen also decided to rest up for the Worlds…

The lone Canadian on the start line was none other than two-time Olympic biathlete, Zina Kocher, of Biathlon Canada fame who finished her run at the IBU World Championships in Nova Mesto. Kocher, of Red Deer, Alta., took advantage of the unique race opportunity and with Cross Country Canada’s blessings, finished 36h with a time of 28:20.7.

“It was a fun experience, and was sweet to not be lugging around 4 kilograms on my back, but was even more awesome to not have any negative emotions of skiing extra penalty laps for missed targets,” said Kocher in a CCC release. “Davos is a difficult course, and pacing is important. I got lots of tips from Justin during the warm-up and skied as hard as I could. Having the mentality to push hard skiing is important, and will be a big benefit for me in biathlon. I’m very thankful to Biathlon Canada and Cross Country Canada for allowing me this unique opportunity.”

Emily Nishikawa was slated to race but has had cough/tightness in the chest… “She warmed up, but pulled the plug,” said head coach Justin Wadsworth. Also racing at the Worlds for Canada is Brittany Webster and we wondered about her status but she too has been sidelined with sickness. “Brittany was sick in Canada and we had the plan for her to go straight to VdF the whole time,” Wadsworth added.

This was the last chance for skiers to make their respective nation’s Worlds team, get one last race in their legs, or check out their form leading into the biggest event on this year’s calendar, the Fiemme 2013 Nordic World Championships from Feb. 20-March 3 in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Final results HERE.

February 16, 2013 (Davos, Switzerland) – Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk dominated the women’s 1.5km CL Sprint on a tough course in Davos on Saturday, as Norway’s Marit Bjoergen claimed the silver and Finland’s Anne Kylloenen took home the bronze.

Sprint Cup leader, Kikkan Randall, skied well and smart winning her quarte final but slipping skis in her semi put her 4th in her heat and strong 8th overall, while Dasha Gaiazova, 29, the lone Canadian woman to advance through to the semis, finished a solid 12th.

“It was a good day for me. I always want to be in the final in every sprint and today I was darn close. I was mostly happy with how my body felt today. It’s been a couple weeks since we raced and we’ve been getting ready to peak for World Championships,” Randall shared with Trax. “So I have been very anxious to put my training to the test.  I felt really strong in the qualifier and the quarterfinal today.

“I felt strong in the semifinal also but my skis were a little slick and I wasn’t able to keep my momentum up the hill like I had in the previous rounds.  I am confident that if my skis had been a little better I could have challenged for the final.  Today was a good confidence booster coming into the World Championships.”

Here’s what Randall had to say about the challenging uphill and demanding S-turn descent course in Davos… “Yes, it was a challenging course for sure. A long grind to the top and then a technical descent and then doing it a second time. The course actually skied better than I thought. You get a good rest off the downhill and can recharge enough for the next section.  I really liked having the technical downhill in there. I am usually confident on the downhills and it was definitely a favorable element of the course for me today. I think I got a shout-out from the announcer for taking the turn like Ted Ligety, quite the compliment after this week!”

Vermont’s Ida Sargent also made the heats but struggled in her quarterfinal and was eliminated ending up 18th. “It was a hard 2-lap sprint course with not much rest. I had great skis today but didn’t ski my quarterfinal very well tactically,” said Sargent. “Striding is my strength so I need to find room to go on the hills rather than waiting for the double-pole finishing stretches which is an area I still need to improve on. Still it was a fun day, my energy was good, and I’m excited getting ready for Italy.”

Meanwhile Brooks, who finished 23rd overall, was all smiles having checked off one of her season goals …read on. “I’m happy whenever I score World Cup points! That said, I always have goals of doing better. However, today’s result allowed me to check off one of my goals for the season and that was to score points in all WC disciplines, skate distance, classic distance, skate sprint and today, classic sprint,” explained Brooks post-race.

“The course today was super hard, averaging 4 minutes for the women. There was a killer climb and an icy, “s-turn” descent. There were a number of crashes and close calls out there. My quarterfinal went out hard and the pace was difficult from the beginning. Justyna was in my heat so it strung out pretty fast. Tomorrow’s skate individual start is my favorite race of the entire year. Last year it was my best result so I’m hoping that I can have a good showing,” concluded Brooks.

The USA’s Sophie Caldwell and Sadie Bjornsen we just out of the running tied for 32nd while Canada’s Perianne Jones fell on the downhill during her qualification finishing 41st and teammate Andrea Dupont was 53rd.

“Today’s result is definitely bittersweet for me. I’m happy because it’s the best I’ve ever done in a World Cup classic sprint, so I feel like I’m heading in the right direction, but obviously I’d be happier if I had been able to ski the heats,” Caldwell told Trax. “I didn’t feel quite as snappy as I’ve felt the past few days…

“I got my wax dialed really well before going into the race but I think I underestimated how much kick you need when your legs get tired. The course was really long and technical with a lot of hills. My fitness feels really good right now and I’ve done a lot of racing in the past ten days so I’m looking forward to taking a few days easy and getting ready to go again,” added the Dartmouth skier.

Qualifications HERE.
Final HERE.

February 15, 2013 (Toronto, ON) – The SkiTrax FIS Fantasy Fiemme Worlds 2013 Contest is now open for contestants to make selections for the biggest event on the Nordic ski calendar this winter.

Register and enter the contest to be eligible to win lots of great prizes including the Grand Prize – a Salomon SLab package including skis, poles, boots and bindings valued at $1,497.

Select the top three podium positions for men and women for each of the 12 Nordic Worlds title events – and score points as you battle with other contestants from around the world for lots of great prizes.

Earn bonus points for multi-podiums, overall nation medals, top Canadian and US skiers etc. The 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships take place from Feb. 20-March 3 in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

You can enter or revise your selection up until 12 midnight EST on Feb. 19. Pls note that our menus list all skiers we believe are competing. Preliminary lists are not published by FIS – 24hrs after the last World Cup race before the World Championships the final names are given to the Organizing Committee and we will update our menus at that time.

Enter the Contest HERE.

Don’t miss this chance to follow the worlds best xc skiers and test your knowledge of the sport for bragging rights and great prizes.

SkiTrax FIS Fantasy Fiemme Worlds 2013 Contest Prizes

* 1st Prize – Salomon SLab package skis, poles, boots, bindings (value $1,497)
* 2nd Prize – Alpina ESK Ski Boots (value $419)
* 3rd Prize – Fischer Carbonlite Poles ($339)
* 4th Prize – Bjorn Daehlie Exclusive US XC Ski Suit (value $300)
* 5th Prize – One Way Skate 7 Roller Skis (value $250)
* 6th Prize – 2XU Long Sleeve Thermal Compression Top and Elite Socks (value $195)
* 7th Prize –  Ski*go Large Wax Box with XC kickwaxes/cork/scraper (value $190)
* 8th Prize – Fresh Air Experience or High Peaks Cyclery Gift Certificate (value $100)
* 9th Prize – Auclair Micro Mountain Olympic Gloves + Earbags (value $65)
* 10th Prize – Buff Headware (value $23)

Good luck to all contestants and thanks to FIS, Fiemme 2011 and all of our great sponsors including Salomon, Alpina, Fischer, One Way, Bjorn Daehlie, Fresh Air Experience, High Peaks Cyclery, Auclair, and Buff Canada.

SkiTrax is North America’s leading Nordic skiing publication and the official magazine of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) and Cross Country Canada (CCC).

February 15, 2013 (Nove Mesto, CZE) – The USA’s Tim Burke put his race face on and made US Biathlon history on Thursday claiming silver in the men’s 20km individual event at the 2013 IBU World Championships in Nove Mesto, CZE. Burke is no stranger to the World Cup podium recently placing third at Pokljuka, Slovenia, but this was the first World Championship of his career. This marks the second IBU Worlds medal for the USA as Josh Thompson won silver in the same event at the 1987 IBU World Championships in Lake Placid, NY.

“I’m so proud. It’s been such a big effort by our entire team and organization, and it feels great to help finally make that come together,” said Burke post-race. “It was one of those races where I ended up being by myself for most of it, so I wasn’t able to judge where I was from the others, but my shooting went really well so I knew I was going to be up there.”

Winner Martin Fourcade (FRA), the World Cup leader, earned his first gold of these championships with a time of 49:43.0 and one penalty while Burke was 23.5 seconds back suffering two penalties. Taking home the bronze was Fredrick Lindstrom (SWE) with one penalty.

It was a strong day for the North Americans as Canada’s Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, 27, celebrated a career-best World Championship result finishing 10th. The Shannon, Que. native missed just one target in his final round of shooting to clock a time of 51:31.4.

“I didn’t feel great skiing, but I had to be a bit more controlled than usual given a very hard course profile, and slow conditions to ski in,” said Le Guellec. “My tactic quickly shifted to shooting clean and fast. Top-10 is great all things considered, and it stamps my ticket for Sunday’s mass start race which I am very stoked about.”

“I think being in the top-15 on any day is a good day. Today was a great day for us as a whole with solid shooting and skiing.” added the two-time Olympian who became the first Canadian male ever to ski onto a World Cup biathlon podium by winning a sprint competition in Oestersund, Sweden.

Burke’s had up and down start to the season and to the competitions in Nove Mesto but was able to set it all aside and focus on getting the job done. We asked him how important his recent podium was in building to his silver.

“For sure the recent podium in Pokljuka helped re-affirm my abilities and build confidence. It had been awhile since I’d been on the podium [2010] and it showed me that everything is possible,” shared Burke, from Paul Smiths, NY, in a phone interview with Trax. Pokljuka was his first podium since his incredible 2009-10 campaign when he scored three podiums and became the first American to wear the World Cup leader’s bib.

“I had a disappointing start to these World Championships in the first two races, so today I just wanted to be aggressive and not over-think things, and bottom line just go for it. I knew heading into the last lap that I was in second place, but in an individual race you can never tell how people are doing behind you, so I wasn’t ready to start celebrating until after the finish,” said Burke.

Adding to the strong North American performances were the USA’s Leif Nordgren in 22nd with two penalties, Canada’s Scott Perras 29, in 26th (0+0+1+1), Lowell Bailey (USA) was 29th posting a time of 53:09.3 with three penalties, Canadian Scott Gow, 22, matched Le Guellec’s stellar shooting performance (0+0+0+1) to finish 31st, just outside the elite group of 30, the USA’s Russell Currier from Stockholm, ME finished 60th with five penalties, and Calgary’s Nathan Smith placed 63rd with three misses (0+1+1+1).

“We had a strong team day today as well. Thanks to the fans back home for all their support. I got a lot of encouraging messages over the last few days from people telling me to keep my head up and to keep at it, and it worked,” added Burke.

“It’s just so exciting and a phenomenal performance by Tim today,” said Max Cobb, US Biathlon CEO in a team release. “All the evidence that Tim could do this has been there for a long time, but he put it together on the most important day of the year. The whole high performance staff has done an outstanding job, not just here but over the last six years that we’ve been working towards this. I couldn’t be prouder of all of them. The whole group really helped Tim get this done today. It’s a phenomenal milestone for Tim and biathlon in America.”

Full results HERE.

February 14, 2013 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – University of Utah senior Miles Havlick was named the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Men’s Nordic MVP Thursday, announced by the league.  The honor is based on the total accumulation of NCAA Qualification points in the four regular season meets, counting both classical and freestyle races.

Havlick also won the honor last year, and becomes the second straight men’s Nordic skier to repeat as MVP, joining New Mexico’s Martin Kaas, who accomplished the feat in 2010 and ’11.

Havlick actually had a solid chance to win MVP honors as a sophomore in 2010 but missed two races in the middle of the season.  If his results had projected out in those two races, he would’ve also won MVP that season.

“Being named MVP during my senior season is a huge honor especially in an RMISA field as competitive as this one,” Havlick said. “This award really belongs to all my teammates as well. We have been feeding off each other’s successes all season and it’s very motivating to go 1-2 in the MVP ranking with my fellow Ute Einar Ulsund. I want to thank all the Utah supporters and my coaches for all their work, which has allowed us all to ski to our greatest abilities every weekend. I’m looking forward to carrying our team success into Regionals and the NCAA Championships.”

Havlick scored 388 points out of a possible 400 and earned the MVP honor on the strength of winning the last four races of the season, sweeping both the New Mexico and Utah Invitationals.  He won by just three points over Ulsund and nine points over Colorado’s Rune Oedegaard.  At the midpoint of the season, he was 10 points down to Oedegaard and five points behind Ulsund.

Ulsund didn’t make things easy on Havlick, as Ulsund had a 1-point lead for the MVP headed into the Utes home meet, the final meet of the season.  Havlick won both races and Ulsud took third for the final three-point  difference.

“I am ecstatic for Miles to receive this award and recognition,” Utah Director of Skiing Kevin Sweeney said. “I think what it really came down to this year was Miles just trying to do his best for the team at every single race. We have several new skiers on the team and Miles just provided excellent leadership and camaraderie on and off the race course. As a role model this meant training well, resting when tired and knowing how to put on the game face on race days.”

“I could not be happier, or more proud, for Miles,” added Utah Nordic coach Abi Holt.  “After winning the MVP award last year, and graduating the rest of the men’s team, I wondered if Miles would lose a little of his focus and drive in his senior year.  That was a wasted thought.  Once again, Miles has turned out a season marked by amazing consistency, fast racing, and top-notch class and leadership both on and off the ski course.  Miles keeps the bar set high, and I think the entire RMISA has benefitted from his presence.  It will be hard on Utah to lose Miles next year, but is nice to send him off with this well-deserved honor.  He has earned it.”

Havlick led one of the most dominant men’s Nordic teams in RMISA history.  Although it’s impossible to rank from year to year, the Utes racked up 995 team points on the season for men’s Nordic, the most of any team, alpine or Nordic, men’s or women’s, under the current scoring system.  If a team goes 1-2-3 in every race, which has only happened once in the last four years in any race, the max points awarded is 141 and thus a regular season for a team would be 1,128, so Utah scored at the 88.2 percent mark of maximum points and averaged 124.4 points per race.

“I think Miles is very much responsible for the tight, close-knit group and success of the men’s Nordic team,” Sweeney said. “His teammates respect him immensely and I think this really paid off for all of us when you see someone acting for the team first. I know that this has motivated, and built confidence with the women’s team too. It’s also great to see Miles shake off a bad race, or enjoy a powder day on a day off from training, knowing that a new day brings new experiences. Miles loves racing, is a true competitor and he relishes the opportunity to ski fast and represent the U.”

Overall on the season, Havlick won five of the eight races, finished second in another and also had fifth and eighth place finishes, both at the Denver Invitational.  He won three of four classical races, at the Colorado, New Mexico and Utah Invitational’s, and won freestyle races at the latter two.  The defending NCAA Champion in the classical, he has won four of the last five classic races in NCAA action.

In 40 career races, he has finished outside the top 10 just five times with 31 top 5 finishes, 25 podium appearances and 11 race victories.   On top of being the NCAA Individual Champion last year, he is already a five-time All-American, including three first-team honors.

Havlick, the Utes and the rest of the RMISA will get the 2013 postseason underway next week in Montana (Feb. 22-24; Bozeman), before all the teams will head east for the NCAA Championships, set for March 6-9 in Vermont, hosted by Middlebury.

Joanne Reid Wins RMISA Women’s Nordic MVP

(Boulder, CO) – On the strength of seven wins in eight races, University of Colorado senior Joanne Reid was named the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Women’s Nordic MVP Wednesday.  The award is based on a combination of all NCAA qualification points earned throughout the season in both classical and freestyle races.

With the seven wins and one second place showing, Reid earned a combined 399 out of a possible 400 points to beat out Alaska Anchorage’s Marine Dusser by 18 points.  Equally good in both disciplines, the only race she didn’t win was the second race of the season when she was a runner-up to her teammate Maria Nordstrom.

“I’m just happy that I could get out there, have an awesome time and give back to the team and coaches I love so much,” Reid said. “It’s really a team victory any time a Buff gets to win an MVP.”

She earned RMISA Skier of the Week honors that first week and then went on a tear and won six straight races, the third longest streak for a CU skier since skiing went co-ed in 1983.  With four races left in the postseason, her seven wins ranks tied for third at CU in that same timeframe.

The last time an RMISA skier won MVP honors scoring all but one possible point was in 2008 when the Buffs Maria Grevsgaard has a similar regular season, winning all but one race and finishing second in the other.  Point totals being different, she scored 629 out of a possible 630 points that season.

Reid was never in contention for MVP honors in her first three seasons at CU.  Her first two seasons, she missed races while competing at the World Junior Cross Country Championships and last season she missed both races as part of the Denver Invitational, thus thwarting her chances.  She was the top finisher who missed two races last year.

Reid and the Buffs along with the rest of the RMISA get back to action at the RMISA Championship, set for Feb. 22-24 in Bozeman, Mont.  Nordic races will take place on Friday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, Feb. 23, while alpine teams will be in action Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 23-24.

February 12, 2013 (Salt Lake City, CO) – SkiTrax caught up with Peter Ashley, Vice President at the Nordic Division of Fischer Sports USA, during the Outdoor Retailer Winter Trade Show in Salt Lake City. Fischer has unveiled their revolutionary ski, SpeedMax, available in the fall of 2013. SpeedMax introduces some new construction methods to the Nordic world, plus their top-of-the-line Carbonlite boots have also been improved for next year… check out our videos with Ashley at the Fischer booth.

Fischer SpeedMax Skis

Fischer’s Carbonlite Boots

February 08, 2013 (Italy) – Arriving late at night Sochi, Russia looked a lot like my other Russian experiences. The roads were still bumpy, the air still had that taste of pollution masked as progress and the view out the window could be defined as “a tad grim.”

Waking up the next morning in Krasnaya Polyana (the valley bottom “town” they are in the middle of creating), I was bowled over by the sheer amount of construction that was going on around me – cranes a plenty, heavy machinery everywhere (even a couple in the river!), gondolas being built – everything was just humming and the outfit of choice seemed to be muddy coveralls (we were told there were upwards of 60,000 construction workers in the valley).

It’s been both a busy and slow last few weeks. Having spent almost three weeks in France on both sides of the World Cups in La Clusaz, the time seemed to pass excruciatingly slowly. I guess my frustrating bout of poorly timed food poisoning, which translated in standing over the French World Cups didn’t help speed things along either. While the scenery was gorgeous in France, I was very happy to get out of Praz de Lys and back feeling healthy.

The travel to Russia always tends to be a bit of a scene. We rolled into Sochi on the standard-fare Eastern Europe sketch-charter (this time a Bulgarian number “BH airways” – not recommended) with bags everywhere (I had my carry-on and guitar in my lap… Not sure that’s “standard operating procedure” but whatever…) and stepped into the above mentioned other world.

There’s something about a pre-Olympic World Cup. This was my third such event, and while on the surface it is just another World Cup stop – with the same cast of characters, race formats, etc… it’s also something entirely different. Teams tend to travel with bolstered staff as everyone uses the time to get a lay of the land a year out from the Games.

There are more people around and you quickly figure out things are a tad different. You see countries skiing around with head mounted GoPros. Not normal. Teams with laptops out while staff/athletes ski around with doo-dads, reporting back and transferring data. Not normal. There are people in National Olympic committee regalia around teams. Not Normal. Larger numbers of ski technicians that seem to be able to ski all day long – testing everything – everyday. Not normal, to name just a few.

Then there’s that first ski on the courses themselves. It’s different. You are awe-struck (at least I am, haha) with the stadium. You pause longer when taking a drink – visualizing what it will be like in a year’s time when the World comes to town. You get goose bumps after a sprint to the finish line in training. I guess it’s a definite sign of aging – but I was catching myself saying, “really – the Olympics are only one year away?” over and over again for an entire week differs from almost every other normal World Cup weekend.

Back to the venue itself – below in the valley it’s a mess. Sorry to sound harsh. But it is. You have to bend your mind into pretty tight spaces to believe they’ll get it all done in only a year – there’s so much work left to do. Yet, up at the cross country venue – a short 15-min gondola ride up the mountain from Krasnaya Polyana it’s a whole new scene.

Situated at around 1,500m above the sea, nature smacks you across the face. Hard. Gone is the gloomy, grey, noisy construction site (although there is still a huge amount of work going on up there too, haha) – replaced instead with 360 degree stunning views of snow plastered peaks begging to be skied.

Then there’s the ski trails themselves, which seem to be the only thing actually completed – the trails are cut and impeccably groomed. The trail systems for next year’s big show are the hardest and most challenging race trails I’ve ever skied. After climbing steady for 6-7 minutes at race pace it’s pretty evident who these courses are made for: Russia.

The sprint course is the most gnarly, leg-crushing course around – topping out around 4 minutes with two substantial climbs and for the skate course they didn’t even hide who it’s made for – you just tuck out of the stadium for about a minute, then turn at the bottom and start cranking back up the giant hill you just descended.

As for the race weekend itself – it was a mixed bag. The sprint went ok and I finally felt some spring back in these old legs. I ended up 8th when it was said and done, and I was happy to be back racing in at least the semi-finals. Not where I want to be – but much better than not making the heats at all like some other outings this year. While the sprint course is a total monster – I love it. It suits my strengths and the length distance skiers who have the jam for a sprint like myself.

The following day’s pursuit on the other hand was notta-too-good. It dumped about 40cm of snow and was snowing during the race as well. The classical side/course is beauty – flowing, exciting and I felt good for the first 15km of the race. Switching to skate though, things turned a bit ugly. The first time up the beast of a hill I was already struggling as my boots disappeared in the soft, slow powder below me. Not good when you have to climb that thing four times…

After straggling at the back of the lead group for two laps, I finally popped and limped in for 38th. Rough. I was so beat down and tired – the course was insanely hard. Steep climbing in skating is not my forte and I haven’t felt feelings like that except for up Alpe Cermis in the Tour de Ski. My legs just turned to complete concrete and with no reprise for 6-7 minutes every lap it doesn’t suit my strengths. I was both disappointed and frustrated, but at least I have something to work on and focus on for the next year!

The last day’s race – on Sunday – was the team sprint with Lenny. It should have been the race I was most looking forward to of the weekend – instead it turned nasty. At 3am Sunday morning I awoke with tummy troubles. Yep – you guessed it – I was struck down with food poisoning AGAIN only two weeks after the first experience. My bowels were not happy, and after six trips to the restroom to evacuate … I ate a small white bun and dragged myself up to the venue. And raced.

I know. I know. I should know better. But it got the better of me – I wanted to feel what it felt like to race the sprint relay on the Olympic course. It was of course not good. I’ve never raced feeling that depleted and just straight up bad in my career – and I won’t do it again – and to boot Lenny and I struggled with our kick – not a good thing on a beastly climbing heavy course like Sochi. We narrowly missed making the finals and settled for 11th. I was secretly happy – I wasn’t sure I could start the finals and mentioned that to Justin upon crossing the finish line regardless.

Yet, on the racing front there were still some serious highlights in Sochi. Our girls (Dasha and Peri) nabbed a podium, placing a gutsy 3rd in the team sprint and Kristin [Stormer-Stiera] WON the pursuit on the Saturday!! WOO! I was pretty fired up for her – while those big, soft, impossibly tough climbs didn’t suit these short, stubby legs – they turned out to be perfect for her slender, long Norwegian models. It was a thing of beauty.

Now team Canada is hanging out in Italy – split between Bormio/Val di Dentro and Livigno as we prepare for the season’s big objective – the World Championships that begin in two weeks time. I’m excited to race in Val de Fiemme again for the big show. Ten long years ago Val di Fiemme was where my senior international racing career began.

I had just turned 20 and I’m embarrassed to say I had my training bib signed by Bjorn Dahlie (yes, the one you have to wear everyday to ski on the courses and mine had a big signature on the front of it) and it was all I could do not to ask Per Elofsson and Thomas Alsgaard to do the same – seeing how I had to race them. I got smoked in Val di Fiemme in 2003, but seeing how the year before I piled into a van with some buddies and drove 16 hours south to watch our heroes race at the 2002 Olympic Games, I was just in shock that I was on the same start line as those dudes…

Yes – quite the journey indeed. I’m a little older now, a lot more experienced – but I still get stoked to race and I try not to take any of this for granted.  I’m training away, feeling decent and enjoying the best food going – Italian – under the Italian Alps. I can’t wait to suit up and race in Val di Fiemme. Maybe I should ask Thomas Alsgaard to sign this year’s training bib – since I no longer race him, haha. I actually think I might…

That’s the news! Peace,

Devon.

February 08, 2013 (Sun Valley, ID) – Watch this highlight video courtesy of John Plummer and SV Resort, and check out some great photos by Nils Ribi from the Boulder Mountain Tour, the renowned 32km freestyle race and one of America’s longest running and most respected cross-country ski events. The video includes interviews with women’s winner Lauren Fritz (APU) and men’s champ Sylvan Ellefson (Vail Ski and Snowboard Club), as well as race action.

Results and more HERE.

February 07, 2013 (Toronto, ON) – We are thrilled to announce that Salomon has come on board with a fabulous SLab grand prize package including skis, poles, boots and bindings valued at $1,497 for our final FIS Fantasy Fiemme Worlds 2013 Contest launching soon.

The 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships take place from Feb. 20-March 3 in Val di Fiemme, Italy and we’ll have lots of coverage and more contest news soon…

Plus check our recent visit with Salomon’s Isaac Wilson at the SIA Show Demo at Devil’s Thumb Ranch in Colorado for the inside scoop on Salomon’s new 2013/2014S-Lab ski and boot line HERE.

February 06, 2013 – Check out this great video of the FIS women’s 4×1.25km team classic sprint in Sochi, where Canada’s Perianne Jones and Dasha Gaiazova snapped up a thrilling bronze medal with an incredible surge in the final leg.

February 03, 2013 (Sun Valley, ID) – Sylvan Ellefson (Vail Ski and Snowboard Club) edged out Mark Iverson (APU) taking his second win at the fabled 32km Boulder Mountain Tour (BMT), one of America’s longest running and most respected cross-country ski races.

Ellefson nipped Iverson at the line by a mere half a second as five skiers were in a bunch sprint with only a second between them at the finish. Peter Kling took the last podium spot with Mike Sinnott (SVSEF) in fourth and US Biathlon’s Jeremy Teela in 5th.

APU’s Lauren Fritz topped the women’s field besting Corinne Malcolm by an even smaller margin 0.114s with Ketchum’s Brooke Hovey an equally close third another 0.383 seconds back.

Full results HERE.

January 31, 2013 (Salt Lake City, UT) – Check out our Part 2 videos direct from the show floor at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market held Jan. 23-26 in Salt Lake City where the winter sports industry from around the globe gathered to display and sample the hottest winter gear for the upcoming 2013/2014 season. We caught up with Svein Pedersen of Swix showed off the new Triac pole, Pierre Perron of Louis Garneau highlighted the company’s newly redesigned nordic clothing collection and Thule’s Adam Donahue showed us the new Sonic Alpine box featuring the line’s lowest profile design.

January 31, 2013 (Obertilliach, Austria) – Team USA’s Jordan McElroy (Truckee,CA), Sean Doherty (Center Conway, NH), and Jacob Ellingson (Minnetonka,MN) placed ninth in today’s 3×7.5-kilometer relay with 15 missed shots (0+6+2+7) at 3:39.3 behind gold medalists Team Norway (Nenseter, Roervik, Gurigard) who had six missed shots (0+3+0+3) and a finish time of 59:58.5.

Team Germany (Janke, Horn, Homberg) placed second (0+6+0+1), and Team France (Begue, Personnaz,Claude) landed third on the podium (1+5+0+5). Team Canada’s Carsen Campbell, Arthur Roots and Matthew Strum finished 18th at 9:06.9 behind the winners.

In the women’s 3x6km relay Team Russia (Mironova, Slivko, Kaisheva) took home the gold with 11 misses (0+5+0+6) crossing the finish line with a time of 55:06.6

Team USA (Anna Kubek, Mikaela Paluszek and Aleksandra Zakrzewska) placed 13th (0+7+2+6) followed by Canada in 15th (Sarah Beaudry, Emily Dickson, Leilani Tam von Burg) at 5:36.9 behind the winners.

Team Ukraine (Zhuravok, Nychyporenko, Merkushyna) claimed the silver (0+2+0+3) while Team Switzerland (Bissig, Haecki, DiLallo) finished third (0+3+0+3).

Full men’s results HERE.
Full women’s results HERE.

January 31, 2013   (Salt Lake City, UT) – During the second half of the Outdoor Retailer Winter Tradeshow in Salt Lake City, SkiTrax focused on the apparel and accessory side of the Nordic world. The new product offerings brought some exciting  product innovations as well as some improvements on old classics.

Auclair
One of Auclair’s best developments was its improvements on a classic performance glove, the Finlander. This is an improved version of the glove that Billy Demong used to ski to Olympic gold in Vancouver. Auclair removed the piping on the top of the glove, and this provides a seamless transition between the glove and pole strap. The glove is also more wind resistant than previous models.

Auclair has developed a warmer ski glove called the Alex Races, named after Canadian Alex Harvey. The Alex Races features the same seamless upper as the Finlander, and provides a bit more warmth than other models. Auclair’s lineup is highlighted by its versatility. A new unnamed prototype light glove could be used for roller skiing, while a lobster claw glove named the Alaskan Crab can be used in temperatures well below 0 degrees (F).

Auclair’s most unique development for 2014 is a new glove cover that Velcro attaches over your existing gloves, and can be put on while the skier is attached to pole straps. This allows the skier to remove the glove after a warm-up, and prior to race.

Bjorn Daehlie Clothing

Bjorn Daehlie has a couple of new jackets that they are featuring for 2013/2014. The first is the new Cross jacket, which is the brand’s “do everything” jacket. It features many elements of Bjorn Daehlie clothing that we’ve seen in the past: stretch panels in the shoulders and under the arms for freedom of movement, and wind and water resistant fabric on the front and main panels for warmth. The new features are the reflective elements in the seams for reflectivity. The new Champion jacket is what the US Ski Team will wear next year. The Champion features the same safety/reflective features while providing more of a “racer’s fit”, and waterproof panels.

Sporthill

Sporthill will enter 2014 with more than a few great products. The Whistler jacket is a great light weight pick. Water proof up to 10,000mm of standing water, and windproof up to 40mph, this jacket would be a great pick for a wet and windy fall training day. The Callaghan pant, cut for both men and women, is gram for gram the warmest pant on the market. The pants are made from a woven polypropylene fabric that is slightly thicker than most but is probably the most comfortable pant around. If you are looking for a warm, breathable, comfortable pant that is windproof up to 37mph, look no farther than the Callaghan pant from Sporthill.

2XU

2XU is the official compression wear supplier of the US Ski Team. In the past, people have thought of the base layer as being simply thermal. Compression adds a new element to the base layer. Compression can do multiple things. It can improve posture, influence muscle containment, and influence circulation in particular muscle groups to improve performance. Significant amount of study has been done to determine the positive effects of compression in recovery. Many of the US Ski Team’s top athletes in both alpine and Nordic have used the compression socks for recovery and to promote circulation during long flights to feel rested and quick after a long day of travel. Of course fit is of the utmost importance, so remember to take care when sizing these compression products to ensure you get the perfect fit.

Leki

On the performance side, Leki’s new Strike Carbon pole is an improvement on its popular Shark line. While the Leki poles may be a bit heavier than other high-end brands, they have uncompromising durability, and are as stiff as anything on the market. The poles also feature great and improved grips with a new notch near the top of the grip to provide a more ergonomic fit. The line of gloves has also been built upon. The gloves feature an integrated trigger system so the transition between glove and ski grip in absolutely seamless. Leki is a great brand to pick for performance and functionality.

Thule
Thule has one new box that may catch the Nordic skier’s eye. The Sonic Alpine box for 2014 can accommodate skis up to 213cm long. It features an innovative dimpled design at the nose that has lowered the box’s drag coefficient by 10%. The box is also the lowest profile box that Thule has on the market, with a height profile of only 11in. The box comes in silver and black, and is a great looking box for any Nordic skier looking to stash their gear away from the harmful effects of salty roads.

Sugoi

Sugoi has added a number of products to their line. The company has traditionally had a summer, bike and running focus, but is making a strong move into the winter world this year. The line features a layering system with a number of high tech fabrics. The style is definitely reminiscent of the products that Sugoi has brought to the cycling world, but they bring a level of functionality that rivals all the usual cross country focused brands. Sugoi has also moved into accessories for cross country – everything from socks, hats and gloves, to Velcro ankle wraps to keep snow from getting into your boots. Sugoi is definitely a brand to check out for 2014.

January 29, 2013 (Obertilliach, Austria) – US Biathlon celebrated historic news today from Austria as wunderkind, Sean Doherty, 17, from Center Conway, NH, won his third consecutive individual medal scoring silver in today’s 12.5km individual event (2+1+0+0) at 5.6 seconds behind Aristide Begue (FRA) who won the gold (0+0+0+1). Anton Myhda finished third at 40.2 behind with one missed shot.

Doherty won gold in Sunday’s pursuit, and silver in Friday’s sprint. This is the first time in US Biathlon history that any athlete – Youth or Senior – has won three individual medals in World Championship competition.

“Sean’s performance at the World Championships is both historic and inspiring,” said Max Cobb, US Biathlon CEO.  “Sean proved beyond doubt that with hard work, a supportive family and coach even big dreams can be realized. I’m sure the whole US Biathlon community takes motivation from what Sean and the staff, coaches and team achieved at these World Championships.”

Jakob Ellingson (USA) landed in the point in 21st followed by the top Canadian, Carsen Campbell, of Bedeque, P.E.I., in 37th. He was followed by the USA’s Jordan McElroy in 46th, with Brian Halligan (USA) in 54th, Matthew Strum, of Canmore, Alta., in 67th and Arthur Roots, of Prince George, B.C., in 86th. Top Canuck  Stuart Harden did not start.

Full results HERE.
Full results HERE.

January 27, 2013 (Duntroon, ON) – Today was the final day of racing at the Haywood NorAm and World Senior Championship trials at Highlands Nordic. It was a great day for racing, just below zero and partly sunny as the athletes took to the course for the 10 and 15k, interval start, free technique races.

On the men’s side, Whitehorse skier Graham Nishikawa came into the race as one of the favourites after winning the first trial race at Lappe, the 30k skiathlon. True to form Nishikawa dominated today’s race with a blistering fast first lap, cruising to victory by over 30 seconds in front of Foothills skier Kevin Sandau. Michael Somppi from Lappe was another 13 seconds back in 3rd.

The double victories in the Trials events should probably gain Nishikawa selection to the Canadian team for the upcoming Worlds. There could be some debate about additional selections after Nishikawa’s dominant performance today. On the distance side Kevin Sandau would seem to have the next best opportunity after 2nd place finishes at the trials.

For the women selection may also be a bit uncertain as Emily Nishikawa, the winner of the first Trial race and yesterday’s silver medallist, didn’t race today after waking up with a cold. Home club skier Brittany Webster, of Highlands Trailblazers, won by 23 seconds over Zoe Roy of Rocky Mountain Racers. Roy’s club teammate Andrea Dupont, the sprint winner was 3rd.

It would seem that both Nishikawa and Webster may have a chance for World’s selection, since the pre qualified members tend to do better in the sprint events. Dupont with double Trials sprint wins, looks to have a reasonable shot of making the team as a sprinter.

Final selection decisions will not be easy as the 7 World Cup athletes will be included in the selection process, and the final team size appears to be set at 11 skiers, based on the original selection criteria (section 10).

A team selection announcement should be available on the CCC site over the next 24 hours. Athletes selected to the team will also race in the World Cup in Davos just prior to the World Championships.

In the junior events Alannah Maclean of Walden ski club was the winner by 13 seconds over Jennifer Jackson of Team Hardwood. Sophie Carrier-Laforte of Skinouk was 3rd. Matthew Vrielink of Rocky Mountain Racers claimed 1st for the Junior Men ahead of Jack Carlyle of Soo Finnish and Ben Wilkinson-Zan of Nakkertok.

The Haywood NorAm circuit now moves east to Cantley, Quebec for the Eastern Canadian Championships at Nakkertok Nordic, hosted by the National Capital area clubs.

Full results HERE.

January 27, 2013 – Ned Zuelsdorff, Executive Director of the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, has announced his retirement, effective mid-may, 2013. Ned has served as the executive director of the ABSF for the past eight years, starting in 2005. “I have really enjoyed my job with the Birkie, thanks to our staff, volunteers, and our skiers and runners,” said Zuelsdorff.

Sue Scheer, president of the ABSF board of directors said, “during Ned’s tenure as executive director, he has created many new events, expanded and improved the Birkie Trails, and nearly doubled participation in the American Birkebeiner events.”

The American Birkebeiner, Kortelopet, and Prince Haakon events alone have grown from 6,000 skiers, to the record number of 10,000 skiers registered for this year’s 2013 event. New events Zuelsdorff has created include the BirkieTour as well as some of the Birkie’s most popular race week events—the Giant Ski, Barkie Birkie skijor, and Birkie Adaptive Events. Additionally, he changed the format of the Birkie Trail Run & Trek event in September, now in its eleventh year, growing it from 125 participants to more than a 1,200.

All of these events have added to the total number of visitors to the Hayward and Cable area year-round, to participate in these events and enjoy the Birkie Trail and surrounding attractions.

“Clearly, the long-term effects of Ned’s leadership have created a legacy that skiers and spectators alike will continue to enjoy for years to come,” said Scheer. “Ned has also been a champion of the citizen skier, perhaps one of the reasons that increasing numbers of skiers of all ages and abilities continue to sign up as first-time Birkie skiers then come back as returning skiers.”

One of Zuelsdorff’s personal passions has been the Birkie Trail itself. From the beginning of his service as executive director, he has worked to extend, improve, and maintain the Birkie Trail system. He has been instrumental, for example, in the vision for and development of the Birkie Classic Trail.

The board of directors accepted Ned’s resignation at their monthly board meeting on January 21, 2013, “with genuine appreciation and admiration for a job well done.” The board is now in the process of making preparations to secure a new executive director after the 2013 Birkie.

Said Scheer, “The American Birkebeiner is one of the largest and most recognized cross country ski races in the world. We have accomplished great things and look forward to continuing that tradition for years to come. We have a great staff and a fantastic network of volunteers. We also look forward to finding the leadership that can continue to move the Birkie, now celebrating its 40th year, forward into its next decade and beyond. We are grateful to Ned for his vision, leadership, and setting such a high standard for where we can go next.”

January 27, 2013 (Obertilliach, Austria) –  finished a respectable 15th as the top NA skier in the Junior women’s 10km pursuit on Sunday missing one shot in prone and two in her final round of standing as Olga Podchufarova claimed gold for Russia also missing three shots.

Germany took home the silver and bronze as Laura Dahlmeier was second at 17.4s suffering five misses (0+0+3+2), while Franziska Preuss was third at  24.7s with three missed shots (0+1+1+1).

Emma Lodge, of Canmore, Alta., was 36th (2+1+1+1), while Rose-Marie Cote, of St-Jean Chrysostome, Que., climbed five spots to place 38th (0+0+1+2) followed by Erin Yungblut, of Wroxeter, Ont. in 52nd (1+1+1+1). No American women competed.

Starting 14th in the Junior men’s 12.5km pursuit, Christian Gow, 19, from Calgary had another strong race but struggled on the range with five misses (1+1+3+0) dropping two spots to finish 16th. Norway’s Johannes Thingnes took home the title with a time of 34:58.2 and three misses (0+1+2+0). Russia’s Maxim Tsetkov was second at 15.7s missing six shots (1+0+3+2), while Russia’s Alexandr Loginov was third at 42.7s behind Thingnes with five misses (0+0+2+3).

American Casey Smith from Methow Valley, WA also had a solid day showing great composure on the range with only one miss  to finish 23rd while Canada’s Macx Davies, of Canmore, Alta., was just out of the points in 33rd with seven missed shots (1+2+1+3).

Junior Women’s 10km Pursuit results HERE.
Junior Men’s 10km Pursuit results HERE.

January 27, 2013 (Obertilliach, Austria) – The USA’s Sean Doherty, 17, brought his A-game to the start line for the 10km pursuit at the 2013 IBU Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships and delivered a decisive GOLD with a 28.2s margin after nailing the silver in the men’s 7.5km sprint on Friday.

“It’s an incredible feeling and hard to put into words. I had a plan and knew I had a good starting position and wanted to stay calm and not blow it…things worked out well for me,” Doherty told Trax in a phone interview from Austria. “It was beautiful Austrian weather maybe -2 or 3 Celsius and good snow conditions. My main goal was to keep calm on the range and put both halves of the race together.”

Following two initial misses in prone Doherty from Center Conway, NH, focused and put his game plan into action skiing well and shooting clean the next two occasions on the range. A miss on the final standing session meant three misses in total – the same for the top 5 finishers – but the American was clearly in a class of his own today distancing himself by almost 30s from the chasers.

“I was a little bit nervous to start second today, but I had a really good plan and stuck with that and it worked out great,” he continued. And in a shout out to all of his supporters back home especially in New Hampshire the newly crowned world champ who was the lone Yank on the start line added… “I have nothing but appreciation for all of the support they’ve given me through the years… from my friends and the local community. It’s excellent and I couldn’t ask for better support.”

Interview with Sean Doherty

Estonia’s Rene Zahkna claimed the silver while Norway’s Fredrik Roervik finished third with three misses each with only 4 seconds separating them.

Calgary’s Stuart Harden, 18, was the top Canuck with a solid 18th-place result with four missed shots (1+0+2+1) at 2:49.9 behind the American champ. Carsen Campbell, of Bedeque, P.E.I., was 42nd while Arthur Roots, of Prince George, B.C., placed 60th.

Russia’s Uliana Kaisheva won the youth women’s 7.5km pursuit title despite missing one shot in each of her four rounds of shooting. The USA’s Anna Kubek (USA) finished in 25th with two misses (1+0+1+0) while Sarah Beaudry, of Prince George, B.C.,
he lone Canadian missed three shots (0+1+2+0) ending up in the points in 28th.

Youth Women 7.5 km Pursuit results HERE.
Youth Men 10 km Pursuit results HERE.

January 27, 2013 (Klingenthal, Germany) – Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) soared to 15th in jumping then made his way to the front to finish sixth in a FIS Nordic Combined World Cup in Klingenthal. Hometown hero Eric Frenzel won his third straight world cup as Germany went one-two.

“Today was an awesome day for me. Lately I have been struggling a little bit both on the jump hill and on the cross-country course. So I made some changes in my training to recover a bit more and things are starting to come together. I proved to myself that I am capable of working through the challenges that are thrown my way and even when I don’t perform my best I can be in the top ten. But today was also a solid day for the whole team. We all were in the points and that shows that we are making progress and things are starting to come together at the right time,” said Fletcher.

Taylor Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) was second fastest in cross-country to move up from 34th to 17th. All four U.S. men cracked the top 30 with Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) 22nd and Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) 29th.

“Solid day for the Team. Bryan stayed strong on the last half of the last lap and all of a sudden was sixth. Taylor was impressive again, individual time trial to get as many points as possible. Johnny is finally feeling a bit better on the hill and needs a few races to get race ready.  Billy jumped better in training but had a decent race,” commented Dave Jarrett, Head Nordic Combined Coach.

The World Cup continues Sunday with a penalty race format where athletes ski a designated number of extra short laps based on jump finish.

Full results HERE.

January 26, 2013 (Liberec, Czech Republic) – The USA’s Erik Bjornsen skied to a strong 16th-place finish in the men’s 30km Skiathlon (15kmCL/15kmFR), the final U23 race of the 2013 U23/Junior Nordic World Ski Championships, as Russia went 1-2 taking home more hardware.

Sergey Ustiugov and Evgeniy Belov skied away from the pack on the classic leg with Ustiugov winning his second gold by 2.5s as Belov settled for silver with Mark Starostin from Kazakhstan taking home the bronze over 30s behind.

Bjornsen who was 16th at the end of the classic leg held on to his ranking as he had the 18th best skate time to finish 2:03.8 behind the winner. His teammate Eric Packer was 48th at the switch-over having a much better skate leg (32nd) to finish 30th overall.

Patrick Stewart-Jones of Nakkertok was the only Canadian finisher in 47th, as Colin Abbott of Whitehorse (ranked 57th) and Andy Shields of Waterloo (ranked 62nd) were lapped and had to withdraw.

In the women’s 15km (7.5kmCL/7.5 kmFR) Skiathlon it was a 3-skier race in the end as Norway’s Ragnhild Haga scored her second gold in a tight battle with Italy’s Debora Agreiter in second, a mere +1.1 behind, with Kari Oeyre Slind also from Norway in third at +2.3 behind Haga. The Russians were shut out of the medals as Natalia Zhukova, in second after the classic leg, slipped to fourth at the finish 23.3s behind the winner.

Leading the charge for the North Americans was Caitlin Patterson from Craftsbury Common, VT, in 21st following the classic leg with a strong skate to move up two spots into 19th. Following her was Sophie Caldwell also from Vermont and racing for the Dartmouth Ski Team in the points in 28th, with Annie Pokorny from Spokane, WA, in 29th and Anne Hart from Stillwater, MN, also racing this season with Dartmouth in 31st.

Annika Hicks of Canmore Nordic was the top Canadian in 32nd, with Foothills skiers Heidi Widmer and Marlis Kromm in 39th and 43rd respectively followed by Andrea Lee of Strathcona Nordic finished 46th.

“It was a good race considering I woke up with a sore throat this morning,” said Hicks. “I wasn’t overly confident but pulled off a good race. I stayed relaxed in the classic and during the skate I pushed and caught a few girls, so really happy.”

U23 Women’s Skiathlon results HERE.
U23 Men’s Skiathlon results HERE.

January 26, 2013 (Obertilliach, Austria) – Canada’s Christian Gow, 19, from Calgary placed a strong 14th in the men’s 10km Sprint with two missed shots in standing as Russia claimed another gold courtesy of Alexandr Loginov who scored his first junior title with a time of 25:09.7, missing one shot standing.

Norway’s Johannes Things also suffered one miss but in prone for the silver as Loginov’s teammate, Maxim Tsvetkov, added bronze to Russia’s medal haul with two misses on the standing range.

This was Gow’s 4th Championships and first as a junior saying he’s not as nervous as he used to be and looks forward to more racing this week adding, “I’m happy with the race overall, but not very happy with dropping two shots standing. It is nobody’s fault but my own. I took it easy and skied relaxed today. I was up quite high for most of the race so it would have been great to be in the top-10, but I did reach my goal of top-15.”

Three other Canucks were on the start line men as Macx Davies, of Canmore, Alta., tied for 30th with five misses; Menno Arendz, of Hartsville, P.E.I., was 64th and Jasper Mackenzie, of Kelowna, B.C., placed 73rd at 30:41.8 (2+1). Casey Smith from Methow Valley, WA led Team USA in 43rd with teammate Jacob Dalberg from Ely, MN placing 72nd.

In the women’s 7.5km sprint, Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier shot clean for the gold as Canada’s Julia Ransom, 19, of Kelowna, B.C., missed one shot standing en-route to a solid 16th-place finish. Ransom distinguished herself last year at the IBU Worlds in Kontiolahti, Finland winning silver in the women’s youth pursuit competition.

Taking home the silver was Russia’s Olga Podchufarova with three misses followed by Austria’s Lisa Theresa Hauser, who shot clean to claim the bronze.

Canada’s Emma Lodge of Canmore, Alta. placed 41st, Rose-Marie Cote, of St-Jean Chrysostome, Que., was 43rd with clean shooting and Erin Yungbult, of Wroxeter, Ont., was tied for 59th. The lone US biathlete, Tara Geraghty-Moats, from West Fairle, VT), finished 63rd.

Junior women’s results HERE.
Junior men’s results HERE.

January 25, 2013 – Check out this great YouTube video of Swix USA waxing guru Zach Caldwell’s young son, Gunnar, teaching the basics of kick waxing.

January 24, 2013 (Liberec, CZE) – Japan’s Sara Takanashi defended her gold medal in the women’s individuals’ ski-jumping competition at the 2013 U23/Junior Nordic World Ski Championships today in Liberec. Evelyn Insam from Italy won the silver and Katja Pozun of Slovenia won the bronze. The USA’s Sarah Hendrickson, who was gunning for gold, had to settle for 6th place.

World Cup leader Takanashi, 16, landed a 98.5m first round jump on Jested in excellent weather conditions and headed to the second round in first place. Insam from Italy and Coline Mattel from France lined up behind her. Hendrickson, second overall in the WCup standings, jumped to 89 metres putting her in 16th.

Takanashi’s second-round jump of 102m delivered her the gold with Insam just behind at 100m to claim the silver. Pozun from Slovenia put in a strong second jump of 99m for the bronze.

“It’s a great feeling to repeat last year’s victory at the Junior World Championships. My jumps here in Liberec were all good and I am so happy about winning the gold medal,” commented the Japanese who repeated her victory from the championship last year in Erzurum in Turkey. “It is a great feeling to defend the junior world title among such great competition.”

Hendrickson, the reigning World Cup champion, came into this year’s Junior Worlds confident and determined to complete her medal trifecta by winning the elusive gold – she’s won 2010 bronze and 2012 silver medals at the Junior Worlds.

“It just wasn’t my day,” said Hendrickson, who finished sixth, with jumps of 89 and 97 meters on the K90 hill. “My first jump was awful and my second jump was good enough to be in the running, but you can’t win with one good jump.

“Obviously, I’m not happy about today. This was a really big event for me and has always been in my dreams to win Junior Worlds,” Hendrickson continued. “But it’s just one day in my career and I can’t let it get me down.”

“Ski-jumping is a sport in which head decides. From this point of view, I have not managed well at all in the first round.  I was over-motivated,” said the disappointed American.

Hendrickson’s teammate Emily Anderson, 17, made history last year when she competed in the first ever Youth Olympic Winter Games. It marked the first time women were allowed to ski jump in an event sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee. At only her second international event she brought her A-game finishing in 29th at Liberec.

“I was so excited about how I did for my first Junior World Championships. I was really happy I made it to the second round and I just thought – I did it,” said Anderson.  Following Anderson in 30th was her teammate Nina Lussi with Manon Maurer in 42nd. No Canadians competed.

Insam as happy with silver, “That was a great and exciting competition today. I am absolutely satisfied with my jumps and my performance. Now I really hope to go on like this!”

“I am totally satisfied and happy right now,” commented bronze medalist Katja Pozun, “These are the last Junior World Championships I’m taking part in, so winning the Bronze medal means a lot to me.”

Results
Ski jumping – Ladies, HS 100 (42 participants)

1. Takanashi (Japan) 268 p. (98,5 + 102)
2. Insam (Italy) 259,5 (96,5 + 100)
3. Pozun (Slovenia) 253,5 (94,5 + 99)
4. Mattel (France) 246,5 (95 + 95)
5. Bogataj (Slovenia) 241,5 (93 + 96)
6. Hendrickson (USA) 241 (89 + 97)
29. Emilee Anderson (USA) 149.5 (74.5, 76)
30. Nina Lussi (USA) 149 (72, 75.5)
42. Manon Maurer (USA) 17 (47)

Complete results HERE.

January 24, 2013 (Liberec, Czech Republic) – On Day 4 of the 2013  U23/Junior Nordic World Ski Championships, Ragnhild Haga took home  the first gold medal for the ambitious Norwegian team winning the women’s 10km FR race. The men’s 15km FR competition was clearly dominated by the Russians as they won gold and silver.

Team USA’s Caitlin Patterson and Erik Bjornsen led the North Americans, placing 14th and 15th in the women’s and men’s competitions, respectively.

Kazakhstan also celebrated their first medal of the championships winning silver in the women’s 10km thanks to Anastasia Slonova, while the bronze medal went to Italy, courtesy of Debora Agreiter.

USA’s Sophie Caldwell finished 17th in the women’s race, with teammates Annie Pokorny and Elizabeth Guiney in 29th and 42nd, respectively. Heidi Widmer posted the top Canadian women’s result in 28th place, while Annika Hicks finished 37th, Andrea Lee placed 40th, and Marlis Kromm took 43rd.

Bjornsen’s men’s teammate Sam Tarling finished 39th in the 15km event, followed by David Norris in 50th and Eric Packer in 54th. Top Canadian man was Colin Abbott in 63rd. Patrick Stewart-Jones (CAN) finished 71st.

Women’s 10km Individual Free – Haga Scores First Gold for Norway
Fifty one women set off on the demanding course in Vesec on Thursday morning. The conditions were worsened by thickly falling snow and hard frost. Nevertheless, only two skiers failed to reach the finish.

“I am really satisfied. Today, it was a real exhausting race; I could not afford to relax. Two years ago, I triumphed at the junior world championship so I am happy that I managed to pick up on this success,” said winner Ragnhild Haga.

Haga literally flew through the course and left second-placed Slonova half a minute behind. She was especially strong in the second half of the race. It was the young Kazakh, however, who performed admirably after the unsuccessful first third of the race when she overtook seven competitors and got a well-deserved silver.

Anastasia Slonova: “I feel good after the race. I am really pleased with the result. We watched the weather carefully, so we were able to prepare the skis very well. It is a great achievement for us, indeed. We picked up on the successful performances during the World Cup competition which took place in Liberec few days ago.”

Debora Agreiter: “I do not know what I lacked for being the second placed. I guess I did not have enough strength at the end; after all, it was a difficult race. But I am still excited about the third place.”

Men’s 15km Individual Free – Russian Dominance
The strong Russians again confirmed their role as favourites of the cross-country competitions. The 15km freestyle was won by Sergey Ustiugov ahead of Evgeniy Belov. The bronze medal goes to Germany thanks to Thomas Bing.

Just before noon on Thursday, 84 competitors set off on an extremely demanding course in Vesec. Conditions were really difficult, as the skiers were slowed down by freshly fallen snow.

Ustiugov dominated the whole race and was the fastest at all split times. In the end he triumphed with a lead of nineteen seconds. The twenty-year-old Russian followed his great performance of last year at the WC in Turkey, where he won four gold medals. His countryman Belov won his second medal at these championships. On Tuesday, it was silver in the sprint.

“It is fantastic! I feel really wonderful. I achieved my goal: I was in first position for the whole race. I feel really happy,” rejoiced the confident winner Sergey Ustiugov from Russia after the finish.

Evgeniy Belov: “I am really satisfied with the result of the race. Today´s race was just a training for the next month – I will started at the FIS Nordic World Ski in Val di Fiemme in Italy, so I did not expect medal. That pleased me more.“

Thomas Bing: “I am incredibly happy. Today, it was a really tough race. I did not want to overvalue the start; I saved my energy for the end. And it was worth it: as time went on, I worked my way to the fourth place – thanks to the cooperation with Clementini from Italy, as well. And then, I got enough strength in the finish.”

Women’s 10km Free results HERE.
Men’s 15km Free results HERE.

Complete results are available at www.liberec2013.cz.

January 22, 2013 (Liberec, Czech Republic) – The USA’s Sophie Caldwell (VT) put in a strong qualification run claiming 5th in the women’s 1.3km CL Sprint as the lone North American skier to advance to the heats as the U23 races got underway on Day 2 of the 2013 U23/Junior Nordic Worlds in Liberec.

Caldwell continued her superb skiing winning her quarterfinal heat. Her 5th-place finish in her semi-final round saw her day end with a top-10 score ending up a strong 9th. The top Canadian was Calgary’s Marlis Kromm who placed 32nd, just outside the top 30 and did not advance.

In U23 men’s 1.3km CL race the USA’s Erik Bjornsen (APU) was also the lone North American to make the heats and cut the same trail as Caldwell winning his quarterfinal heat also finishing 5th in his semi to end his strong day in 10th. The top Canadian qualifier was Patrick Stewart-Jones, of Chelsea, Que., in 39th.

FIS Nordic Junior & U23 World Ski Championships Report – Pellegrino and Soboleva Take Gold
report by U23/Jr Nordic Worlds

The first medals have been presented in Liberec in the Nordic U23 World Ski Championships.  The sprints in Vesec were dominated by Federico Pellegrino from Italy and Elena Soboleva from Russia.  In the men’s category, most attention was focused on the famous names on the starting list. However, the younger brothers of skiing megastars, Gianluca Cologna and Tomas Northug, did not get to the finals and ended up in ninth and eleventh place respectively.

The twenty-year-old Russian star Soboleva won the women’s race with ease. She was already the fastest in the knockout rounds and fully confirmed her superiority. In the final, she crossed the finishing line with a comfortable lead ahead of the German silver medallist Sandra Ringwald and the bronze winner Hanna Kolb, also from Germany.  Kolb did not manage to repeat her success of last year’s junior championships in Turkey.

”I am so happy. I’ve been feeling very strong since this morning. I was fast in the qualifications and went to the quarter-finals with the fastest time. In the heats, I always tried to be in the front to gain control of the race. I believed I could go for a victory in the final. It is a dream come true for me,“ said the winner, Elena Soboleva.

Sandra Ringwald: “I’m so happy, it was so amazing to compete here today. It is awesome to get silver. In the morning, I was very tired, but then I thought it could be my competition today. I am so happy that the silver and bronze medals go to Germany“.

Hanna Kolb: “I am not disappointed at all about the third place. I hoped for a medal in the sprint. It is great that Sandra (Ringwald) is on the podium as well. It was really tight in the end between me and Daria Godovanichenko. I like the course very much. I think there is a great atmosphere in our team. We have many good athletes and in the U23 we push each other in training and also in competition.“

The Italian Pellegrino confirmed his spectacular form

The men’s category had an undoubted favourite. Federico Pellegrino from Italy has been succeeding regularly in the senior World Cup. In Switzerland in January, for example, he finished the sprint in second place, when he managed to beat everyone but the Norwegian Krogh; defeating, for example, Jönsson, Hellner and Cologna sr.

The Italian super-talent confirmed his excellent form when he was clearly the best in the qualifying races as well as the knockout rounds. It was only in the final that he had to use all his strength, when the gold was being contested to the very last metre.  The first three actually finished within twenty hundredths of a second.

“I am finally the World Champion! Last year I could not compete in Erzurum. I was ready and in a very good shape but it did not work out. So today is my big satisfaction. I’m very, very happy,“commented Federico Pellegrino on his triumph.

The famous Cologna brothers and Northug ended in the semi-finals.  The Norwegian athlete has now finished competing in the Liberec WC, and turns his attention to the National Championships and the World Championships adult qualifications in Val di Fiemme. The great favourite Sergej Ustugov from Russia, who won four gold medals last year in the junior championships in Turkey, ended up among the defeated.

Juho Mikkonen: “I am very happy about the medal today. It is my fifth Junior/U23 Championships. It was my last chance to claim a medal. The final was quite good for me. I started well and tried to go my way. I also managed to save some energy for the last 200 m. The silver medal is very important for me as it gives me motivation and energy for the next training.“

Evgeniy Belov: “In the qualification I did not feel good. It was very hard for me. It was difficult to breathe. The home stretch is very long. In the finals I felt much better and stronger. I am not very happy about third place. I wanted to be the winner today.“

Results (brief)

U23 Women
1. Elena Soboleva (Rus) 3:17.65
2. Sandra Ringwad (Ger) 3:20.73
3. Hanna Kolb (Ger) 3:20.46
4. Daria Godovanichenko (Rus) 3:20.20
5. Ragnhild Haga (Nor) 3:30.92

9. Sophie Caldwell (USA) 3:22.92
32. Marlis Kromm (Can) 3:35.72
34. Heidi Widmer (Can) 3:36.40
36. Elizabeth Guiney (USA) 3:37.18
38. Caitlin Patterson (USA) 3:38.11
39. Anne Hart (USA) 3:39.69
47. Andrea Lee (Can) 3:46.93

U23 Men
1. Federico Pellegrino (Ita) 3:36.75
2. Juho Mikkonen (Fin) 3:37.71
3. Evgeniy Belov (Rus) 3:39.90
4. Sindre Bjoernestad Skar (Nor) 3:38.55
5. Alexander Wolz (Ger) 3:41.93

10. Erik Bjornsen (USA) 3:40.74
34. Eric Packer (USA) 3:47.52|
36. David Norris (USA) 3:48.69
39. Patrick Stewart-Jones (Can) 3:49.72
47. Colin Abbott (Can) 3:53.61
53. Skyler Davis (USA) 3:57.62
DNS Andy Sheilds (Can)

U23 Women’s qualifications HERE.
U23 Women’s Final HERE.

U23 Men’s qualifications HERE.
U23 Men’s Final HERE.

January 22, 2013 (McLean, VA) – The 18th annual Winter Trails Day experienced a very strong turnout at many locations this month. With good snow conditions in many areas of the country and a greater consumer interest in low impact exercise, final numbers are trending above 11,000.

With the exception of bitter cold in Colorado and pockets of extended warm weather in the Midwest and New England, many event attendance numbers are sharply up over the past two-year average.

“The timing was right on,” stated Reese Brown, Winter Trails administrator, “After last year’s light snowfall and the late start to this year, there was a large group of underserved people ready to get out in the snow,” added Brown.

Final numbers are still being tallied, but it appears the program received positive gains over the previous years. Winter Trails continues to fill a need of enticing families and individuals to try snow sports.

Response from attendees around the country was very positive, not only on the event experience, but also on the sports themselves. “It was a completely new experience for all of us, and we fell in love,” said Rue Mapp, an attendee at the Tahoe Donner, Calif. event. This sentiment was echoed in many regions as those new to snow sports tried cross country skiing or snowshoeing.

Each year, Winter Trails is held in early January and offers children and adults the opportunity to try either or both activities free at participating locations throughout the United States. Venues are posted HERE. Check out the website to see the few events scheduled later in the winter season.