Fresh off their Olympic debuts, U.S. Cross Country Ski Team members Hannah Halvorsen and Hailey Swirbul candidly discuss how they deal with performance pressure as elite competitors, the stress it puts on a healthy mindset and their different takes on balancing a desire to win with positive self-worth. The conversation expands on a piece Halvorsen …

The American Birkebeiner is so much more than a ski race—it provides an opportunity for Nordic skiers of all ages and abilities to unite as a community and celebrate our sport. Cross Country Skier podcast host Peter Graves talks with Birkie Executive Director Ben Popp about what it takes to put on the most iconic cross country ski race in the U.S. …

Veteran sportscaster Peter Graves has been the host of the Cross Country Skier Podcast, but this time we turn the tables on him for a behind-the-scenes look at what’s it like to communicate the action at some of sporting’s biggest events to a worldwide audience. New editor-in-chief Cindy Hirschfeld interviews Graves about his Olympic memories—he’s …

There’s a lot happening at Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks. With new trails designed by John Morton and programs sanctioned by both USA Nordic and U.S. Biathlon, the future looks bright for athletes looking for a training base. To learn what’s afoot in the Adirondacks, we speak with John Morgan, a former National Team bobsledder who is over…

Tom Kelly’s career is rooted in cross country skiing. After covering ski jumping, Kelly found himself working for entrepreneur Tony Wise in the mid ’70s, promoting the American Birkebeiner and World Cup cross country races in Telemark, Wisconsin. Kelly’s 30-plus year tenure as vice president of communications with the U.S. Ski Team culminated track…

Fresh off their 2020 FIS Junior World Championships gold medal relay, Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher join Peter to talk about their standout winter and what’s next for them and America’s other rising stars. Anchorage, Alaska’s Schumacher, from the Alaska Winter Stars program and a Service High School graduate, anchored the gold-medal-winning World Ju…

Peter talks with chairman of the FIS Cross Country Committee and multi-Olympic medalist Vegard Ulvang. Recognized around the world for his athletic accomplishments, the native Norwegian maintains a thoughtful, humble style that is widely respected. Ulvang goes deep on his remarkable career, the status of cross country in Norway, fluorocarbon waxes …

In early May, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced its nominations for the 2021 Cross Country Ski Team. As always, we found the selections notable for many reasons. Hot on the heels of some great finishes at Junior Worlds, next year’s team is fat with young talent, including the biggest D team ever. But the team is equally notable for the absence of some…

Thirty years ago, environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote “The End of Nature,” the first book for a general audience on climate change. And while disappearing snows are a concern of any cross country skier, they perhaps best know McKibben’s name for another one of his titles, “Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously,” in which he explores the limi…

When Bill Koch won the first-ever U.S. Olympic medal in Nordic skiing at the 1976 Innsbruck Games, Marty Hall was the coach behind the athlete. But Hall’s successes extend well before and long after Kochie’s silver medal, including having built the U.S. women’s team from the ground up beginning in 1969 with athletes like Allison Owens and Martha Ro…

In spring 2017, the same year Katharine Ogden anchored the bronze-medal-winning Junior World Championships relay and became the first American to podium in an individual Junior World Championships race, she was diagnosed with a near-crippling anxiety disorder that threatened to derail her racing career. But two years later, she’s skiing for Dartmou…

Chris Grover joins us to preview the upcoming international racing season. Find out what to look forward to, and what he’s most excited for in the months ahead. Topics include team rosters, which athletes to watch for, main events, the first World Cup on U.S. soil in 19 years and how fandom around the U.S. team has grown post Gold Medal. This episo…

Fasterskier.com journalist Jason Albert covers everything about the World Cup cross country scene, from FIS and WADA politics to wax. For the past year, he’s undertaken unprecedented research on the long-term effects of our use of short and long chain fluorinated wax both on the environment and human health. With the recent EPA crackdown on wax man…

When Jessie Diggins crossed the finish line during the team sprint at the PyeongChang Olympic Games she, along with teammate Kikkan Randall, became the first U.S. cross country skier to win a medal at that level since 1976. In this episode we sit down with Jessie to hear how her life has changed since that day, how it has affected her perspective o…

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