Andy Newell is one of several athletes presenting in the four-part series. [Photo] Courtesy NNF Any athlete or coach wants to improve their performance, whether it’s upping one’s mental game, learning new tactics to share with a team of aspiring champs or taking a different approach to strength training. The National Nordic Foundation’s (NNF) recently launched virtual Summer Speaker Series provides a chance to enhance your skills in any of these areas (and more) just by tuning in via Zoom this June.  There, you’ll find top-of-their-field experts—Tschana Schiller, director of sport science ..read more

Troops like these ones at Camp Hale trained hard, skiing up to 20 miles per day and carrying as much as 90 pounds of gear. [Photo] Courtesy Colorado Snowsports Museum and Hall of Fame The U.S.’s newest national monument is inextricably tied to ski history. When President Biden traveled to the central Colorado Rockies in October to announce the 53,804-acre Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument, he honored the troops of the U.S. Army’s legendary 10th Mountain Division. These skiing soldiers, who battled in Italy’s Appenine Alps near the end of World War II and broke through a significan ..read more

Sammy Smith in the classic sprint at the 2023 FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Whistler. [Photo] Courtesy USSA/Steve Fuller Last year, U.S. Ski Teamer Samantha “Sammy” Smith competed in two World Cups. But not two cross country World Cups. The 17-year-old Idahoan competed at the World Cup level in two entirely different sports.  First, Smith competed in soccer for the U.S. at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India last October—scoring two goals in group play against Morocco. Then, in March 2023, she skied in nine FIS Cross Country World Cups in Scandinavia, finishing in the ..read more

Not cleaning off your kick wax after each ski session? You should be. [Photo] Cody Downard If you were a 19th-century pioneer traveling across the American West, you knew how to take care of your gear. Tear a boot sole or jam a rifle barrel on the open plains and it was up to you to make the repair. In some cases, your family and livelihood may have even depended on it. Fixing your important possessions often meant relying on minimal resources, which made general care and maintenance that much more important.  We no longer need skis to traverse the land and hunt for our own survival, but ..read more

Matt Quann launched Ornot, his San Francisco–based company, in 2013 to give cyclists an alternative to becoming rolling billboards. The company typically trades in tasteful, darker-colored bike kits designed to weather trends (remember how flashy cycling clothing looked when Lance Armstrong was winning the Tour de France?) and the Bay Area’s notoriously changeable climate. Recently, however, Quann deviated from the typical palette and went all in on a collection of cycling gear inspired by the distinctive Salomon 811 combi boots from 1992. Salomon’s memorable 811 Combi boot from the early 1990 ..read more

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Steve Fuller (@flyingpoint) Photographer Steve Fuller posted an image from Outside Watch’s livestream during Saturday’s World Cup races. Popcorn in hand, many of us sat down last Saturday to watch the Stifel Loppet Cup (a.k.a. the Minneapolis World Cup) on Outside Watch—the livestream service offered a free broadcast of the first domestic World Cup in 23 years. Within minutes, the questions were flying (and perhaps the popcorn). “Is skiing always on Outside now? I can’t get it to work,” texted one friend. Then came an email from a disappointed ..read more

Gus Schumacher en route to victory in the men’s 10km. [Photo] John Lazenby/Alamy Live News The sun continued to shine at the Stifel Loppet Cup in Minneapolis on Sunday as American Gus Schumacher made history, skiing to victory in the 10km freestyle individual start at Theodore Wirth Park. He is the first American man to win a World Cup distance race in more than 40 years. Schumacher outlasted several highly ranked contenders to win in a time of 20:52.7. “I’ve only spent about 15 seconds in the leader’s chair during my racing career,” he laughed afterward. “To see my time keep holding up, I rea ..read more

Race fans showed up in droves for the first day of Loppet Cup competition. [Photo] Hansi Johnson As the first day of the Stifel Loppet Cup dawned, with women’s and men’s sprints on the horizon, several questions hung in the air:  Will the Swedish women continue their utter dominance of the discipline?  Will Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway similarly lay waste to the men’s field and notch his 101st career victory? And, of course, how will this American team fare in its first-ever World Cup competition at home? Morning temperatures hovered at about 16 degrees F for the 10 a ..read more

Racers train at the Loppet Cup venue in Minneapolis [Photo] Hansi Johnson A bald eagle soared against a bluebird sky, while six inches of fresh snow coated the Minneapolis landscape. This Friday afternoon at the Stifel Loppet Cup venue, the day before racing kicks off, was a fortuitous way to start a weekend of World Cup racing.  Despite a dearth of snow throughout the Midwest, the Loppet (pronounced Low–pet) Foundation, presenter of the first World Cup cross country ski races in the U.S. in 23 years, had been making snow for weeks. “We were ready to go with the course and snow we had,” s ..read more

Skiers compete in the 2013 City of Lakes Loppet in Minneapolis, site of a World Cup this winter. [Photo] Bruce Adelsman/skinnyski.com Jessie Diggins has always wanted to race a World Cup on home snow. This coming February, on trails that she raced as a junior near her hometown in Minnesota, the three-time Olympic medalist’s dream will come true. Minneapolis’s Theodore Wirth Park will host men’s and women’s freestyle sprints (Feb. 17), followed by 10-kilometer free individual start races the next day (Feb. 18) on a hilly 3.3-kilometer loop—a unique setting for a World Cup race within a city’s l ..read more