Last May, FasterSkier wrote about the retirement of University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) legendary ski coach Cory Schwartz, who had been with the University for 42 years. This summer, UNH named Shane MacDowell— the team’s former assistant coach— as Schwartz’s replacement. Following in the footsteps of a person whose career stretches back to the Reagan administration is a daunting task. Doing so at a university which has a dedicated and passionate alumni base is even...
It’s been 14 years since I became an Olympian, competing as a cross country skier in the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. Since then, it hasn’t been easy to get to the Olympics as a spectator. The Winter Games have been in Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing, while the summer games have been in Rio and Tokyo, with an interruption by the Covid pandemic. The Paris Games were finally an opportunity for me to attend my...
Finnegan Bailey—a resident of Landgrove, Vermont, and team member of SMST2 and the University of Vermont—was selected this spring to become one of the newest members of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team at the staggering age of 18. So how’d he do it? In the last twelve months, Finnegan (Fin) Bailey has received quite the accolades in the competitive nordic skiing scene. To name a few: he was named to the SMST2 club team, he...
For better or worse the old cliche, ski racers are made in the summer still applies. Cross country runners are made in the summer too. Conveniently, running is excellent training for skiers and obviously runners. Inconveniently, there tend to be a lot of injuries associated with running. And even more inconveniently, we don’t have a ton of research to tell us why or what to do about it. The clearest correlation to running related injury...
In Part I of our interview with Andy Gerlach we talked about how he got into the ski business, the Factory Team, and the products he carries. We continue our interview with a broader view of Gerlach’s mission to change the mindset of cross-country skiers in America and the way you think about skiing, buying skis, and racing. FasterSkier: Your backstory is interesting. You’re a mechanical engineer and have a master’s in economics. You wrote...
“If you’re not pedaling, you’re going to fall over.” Last month, the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation sprang into registrants’ inboxes with a summer announcement: Ben Popp, Wisconsin native and ABSF Executive Director since 2013, had been elected President of the Worldloppet International Ski Federation. Replacing Finland’s Juho Viljamaa, Popp will serve a four year term, effective immediately. He already has the regalia to prove it. The Federation’s gavel, a relic of the Tony Wise...
We live in an era where product lines are often dominated by several large companies. More and more, small companies are bought up by large corporations as soon as the small company shows an innovation or growth pattern which its lumbering competitor can’t duplicate. Consolidation, just shy of monopoly, is standard practice for many industries. Fortunately for skiers, this pattern hasn’t held true for cross-country ski wax. There are the big two—which is really the...
Ever wonder where and how all of those cool cross-country ski products you may drool over come from? There’s one man who has an outsized role in bringing very ski specific products into the United States. But he’s also on a larger mission. He doesn’t want to just sell cool ski stuff. He wants to change your mindset about skiing, and the way the country buys skis. The man’s name is Andy Gerlach, and he’s...
Anhelina Hryhorenko is a typical 14-year-old girl in many ways—she loves art and isn’t a fan of math. And she’s excited to have her freshman year of school over. But she’s got a lot of unique qualities, too. For one, she’s a junior national champion with more medals than she can hold in two hands. She’s also the daughter of a former national cross-country ski team member team and the niece of a three-time...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. All of us need to take a break from our jobs every now and then and do something a little bit—out there— which challenges us. For many, that’s going for a long ski,...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. In part I of our interview with Julia Kern we talked about her summer training changes, and what was a very challenging winter of racing. Please continue reading for Part II of our...
Parallax is an effect where the objects in the background of an image appear to move more slowly than the objects in the foreground. In animation, it’s traditionally been used to add depth to an otherwise two-dimensional world. With the background moving slowly, the faster movement in the foreground implies that time is moving. In effect, parallax is a way of adding time into one’s understanding of a place. I reckon that the essential experience...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Julia Kern is firmly established as a veteran member of the U.S. Ski team. She is uniquely sandwiched between the venerable veterans Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan, and the up and coming squad of...
One of the beauties of skate skiing for the recreational athlete is that it gets us out of the straight line, sagittal plane motion that is so common with walking, running, and cycling. But this also poses a challenge for those of us who don’t rollerski in the summer: How do we stay conditioned for skate skiing’s lateral motion when there’s no snow on the ground? Fortunately, there’s a long list of exercises that will...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. In Part I of FasterSkier’s article about the Lake Placid organizing committee’s work to be chosen as a venue for a World Cup, we spoke with Kris Seymour, Nordic Program Coordinator for the...
For the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (the Birkie) it’s been a long time coming. The dedication ceremony held Saturday for the new projects that encompass the Mt. Telemark Village, the former site of the legendary Telemark Lodge, have been in the works for five years. All together, Mt. Telemark Village is “the biggest thing the American Birkebeiner has ever done.” Its $10.2 million dollar capital campaign, though, doesn’t capture what, for skiing, might just might...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. The Minneapolis World Cup was a sensational success. Now, the announcement of the upcoming vote on Lake Placid as a host venue for a cross-country World Cup weekend has kindled hopes of another...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. In part one of our interview with U.S. coach, Matt Whitcomb, about Bend spring training camp he told us about training regimens and the team building approach. In part II, Whitcomb talks more...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. May 4th through the 17th marked the return to the unofficial start of serious cross-country ski training for Team USA with their annual return to Bend, Oregon for their spring camp held at...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. After the smash success of the Minneapolis World Cup, a question being asked by American cross-country fans was whether Minneapolis was a one trick pony, or would we see other World Cup events...