Aleksander Wierietielny And Justyna Kowalczyk Step Down As Team Poland Coaches

Aleksander Wierietielny And Justyna Kowalczyk Step Down As Team Poland Coaches

Leaders, Newsfeed
...It was an exciting experiment... ...Aleksander Wierietielny had a long and illustrious career capped with his best known pupil, Justyna Kowalczyk, winning two Olympic golds, three FIS Cross-Country World Cups and incredible four Tour de Ski victories in a row. [caption id="attachment_15635" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wierietielny and Maniek, the First Dog of XCsking, always there on the tracks [/caption] The Soviet Union-born coach wanted to retire after the 2018 Olympics but none else than Ms. Kowalczyk had convinced him to stay for a few years to work on the project both fascinating and incredible: select a group of 16-17 year old Polish girls - and turn them into world-class skiers. It would be wrong to add the standard "money no object" but it was a very well funded project, money of…
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Swedish Team = Dream Team? A-Landslag Damen 2019/20 In Pictures

Swedish Team = Dream Team? A-Landslag Damen 2019/20 In Pictures

Leaders, Newsfeed
A-Landslag Damen better known in English as Swedish National Team, Ladies for 2019/20 has just been announced - and it looks like a Dream Team Here's what their current FIS Points standings are - as far as we're concerned, those are the most objective overall rankings in the world of pro-skiing. The first figure against their names corresponds to the latest FIS Distance rankings - the second one are the Sprint standings. The result is stunning: 4 out of 10 best sprinters are Swedish and so are 3 out of 10 distance runners! What happened to the Norwegian dominance that was assumed to last forever? With both hottest young stars - Andersson, 21 and Karlsson, 19 - it's now Sweden's turn to look indomitable in a foreseeable future. [caption id="attachment_11182"…
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Upshot Of Decision To Ban Legkov/Belov

Upshot Of Decision To Ban Legkov/Belov

Leaders, Newsfeed
Yesterday's verdict of The IOC Disciplinary Commission, handing out a lifetime Olympic ban and stripping medals off the Russian skiers Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov will go down in history. Regardless of which side of the argument you're on, the history is made because for the first time ever in sport a doping ban is given in the case where there is no direct evidence of actual doping, no evidence of sportsmen being involved and still no clear understanding of what had actually happened. The formula under which international sports bureaucrats judge sportsmen is notoriously vague and deserves to be quoted in full: “...The standard of proof shall be whether the IOC has established an anti-doping rule violation to the comfortable satisfaction of the hearing panel bearing in mind the…
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Mayweather VS McGregor And How Is It Relevant To Skiing

Mayweather VS McGregor And How Is It Relevant To Skiing

Newsfeed, Trivia
We live in the world where ( some) boxers become multimillionaires after just one bout, footballers change clubs for amount of money with too many zeros to fit on one page and Uncle Ruppert round the block drives an Italian supersport that he never ever let go over 50. As one well known character from a TV commercial put it once, "Opulence, I has it" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5VvTj8Y9MY If you think that the cross country skiing should be immune and isolated from these signs of times we live in – please, save you time, read no further. For those, however, who want to "look like a million dollars" – or, more likely, to share the story of "opulence" with skiing club buddies - here are some ultra-rare ski items that few ever…
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