Was there ever such a sad FIS World Cup season as this one?

Was there ever such a sad FIS World Cup season as this one?

Leaders, Newsfeed
Was there ever such a screwed up FIS World Cup season as this one? Two WC stages scrapped- ostensibly - because of Covid, while every other snow sport was happily competing at the same time, even in the same countries. The World Cup final cancelled because of the politics - and what's most telling, not a single serious candidate sprung up to fill the void despite a three week notice. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" That's not us here saying - that's murmurs we increasingly hear among stakeholders of all hues. And it might get worse. It almost certainly will get worse. We are not privy to exact statistics, but one does not have to be a genius to see that a loss of the market of…
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Ustiugov deserves Olympic medal more than anybody else in cross-country skiing  – as a compensation for the  2018 Olympics that never happened in his career – Markus Cramer

Ustiugov deserves Olympic medal more than anybody else in cross-country skiing – as a compensation for the 2018 Olympics that never happened in his career – Markus Cramer

Leaders, Newsfeed
There will be an Olympic debut like no other in the Olympic Sprint competitions on Tuesday. Well, technically Sergey Ustiugov had his first Olympic race 8 years ago in Sochi where then-21 year old was one of the hot Sprint favorites. But the chaos in the Sprint finals with many a fall led to Ustiugov tripping over a Swedish skier, breaking his pole and finishing - if you could call it that - a minute behind the winner, Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway. Ustiugov hasn't started in any other race in Sochi. In the years between Sochi'14 and Pyeongchang'18 the Russian "Moose", as his domestic fans call him ,established himself as a dominant force in the international cross country skiing, winning anything from sprints to 50k and was gearing up…
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Beijing Olympics ski tracks  – what are they like? Tough with a capital  T , says the man in the know

Beijing Olympics ski tracks – what are they like? Tough with a capital T , says the man in the know

Leaders, Newsfeed
Without further ado, we give the floor to Max Volkov, distance squad coach in Team China, who is currently at Kuyangshu Nordic and Biathlon Center in Zhangjiakou - the future Olympic venue : Overall,the Olympic tracks are quite balanced and harmonious for the lack of better description when it comes to a combination of uphills and descents. As one would imagine, there are no easy race profile configurations at the top level competitions in principle. But in Beijing there are added factors: The one that gets mentioned a lot is the altitude. The courses are laid on or above 1700m - that's higher than any FIS World Cup races in Europe. During the Olympic Games, the weather is expected to be cold and dry. That would make the snow slow.…
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Bolshunov does not do any snow-skiing till November. We asked his coach why

Bolshunov does not do any snow-skiing till November. We asked his coach why

Leaders, Newsfeed
Pro-skiers and ambitious amateurs spend more and more time on snow while preparing for their snow season. We don't have any statistics at hand, but the talk of 100+ days spent on glaciers and inside ski tunnels between April and later October raises no eyebrows nowadays. There is one notable stand-out, however: Yuri Borodavko, the coach of Alex Bolshunov, Natalia Nepryaeva, Denis Spitsov etc. The amount of days his skiers spent on snow so far? Zero. That despite spending the last 10 days in Ramsau, right by the famed Dachstein glacier. While hundreds of skiers ranging from " true weekend warrior" to Dario Cologna queue up every day to get to Dachstein tracks , the " Boro Team" is spending all their time alternating between rollerskiing and running down in…
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Egor Sorin: Russian Skiers Are Well Provided For – Better Than Most Other Teams. It Would Matter In Crisis Times

Egor Sorin: Russian Skiers Are Well Provided For – Better Than Most Other Teams. It Would Matter In Crisis Times

Newsfeed, Training & Outfitting
Egor Sorin runs one of the training groups in large Team Russia. In practice the training groups operate much like independent teams. Sorin, former international-level skier, cut his " coaching teeth" working with Markus Cramer - and now in a way competes against his former mentor. At least his skiers do.We followed Sorin & his young skiers ( most of the group is U23 ) on their training in Ramsau We don’t see a huge problem in the lack of summer snow training this year. We concentrated instead on mid-altitude training that we see essential. [caption id="attachment_17194" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Setting the waypoints for hill running session. Sorin often runs/skies along [/caption]) True, we spend around 250 days/year in the camps and competing or traveling from one to the next. It’s…
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