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North America's leading news source on All Things Nordic across the continent and abroad.

26/05/2026

Jim Galanes digs into a quiet but significant development buried in recent U.S. Ski & Snowboard meeting minutes: a USOPC-driven push to move USA Biathlon governance under USSS.

Why now? What does USSS actually gain? And how does this square with the 2007 decision to cut Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined loose for the same financial reasons being ignored today?

We reached out to USA Biathlon, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, and the USOPC. The answers we got back were carefully worded and avoided the harder questions entirely.

Read Jim's full breakdown — link in comments — and tell us in the comments: should USA Biathlon move under USSS, or is this a governance shortcut that skips real accountability?

pc: Nordic Focus Photo Agency

15/05/2026

Keep Showing Up: Will Sweetser’s Unglamorous First Principle

"Maybe I was a genetic predeterminist, and that's why I started learning all the physiology."

Will Sweetser on how a kid with one of the smallest engines on his college roster became one of the sharpest coaching minds in American skiing. Part one of two.

Read it now on FasterSkier — link in comments.

12/05/2026

At 15, Johannes Høstflot Klæbo finished 101st at Norwegian junior nationals. In most programs, that kid gets filtered out. In Norway, he stayed in — and went on to become the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time.

FasterSkier's Jim Galanes digs into a new paper from Jacob Walther and Øyvind Sandbakk on what Norway actually does differently. Spoiler: it's not a secret interval session or a magic intensity zone. There's no "Norwegian method." What they have is a system — and the discipline to hold the line on it when everyone else is chasing short-term results.

Galanes pulls out the parts most worth paying attention to: why Norway delays selection instead of accelerating it, how Olympiatoppen sits inside the coaching process rather than above it, and what happens when you build a system around the reality that peak endurance performance shows up in an athlete's late 20s — not their teens.

Worth the read for any coach, parent, or club program thinking about the long game — link in comments — as always, please feel free to discuss in comments.

pc: Nordic Focus Photo Agency (from Johannes Høsflot Klæbo's first World Cup win to his most recent).

25/04/2026

We say long-term development matters. We say early results don't predict long-term success. Almost no one disagrees.

So why does the system keep rewarding the opposite?

Junior skiing in the U.S. is quietly organized around early selection. Rankings at U16 and younger carry weight. Opportunities follow results. And the fields keep shrinking as athletes age up.

Meanwhile, there are roughly 6,500 high school skiers in this country and only about 2,100 in the USSS junior system — and very little overlap between them. At the college level, USCSA has thousands of athletes sitting in a trainable window with no clear bridge to higher performance.

The pieces are there. The alignment isn't.

FasterSkier's Jim Galanes takes a look at where high school and USCSA actually fit into the development pathway — and what we're choosing when we don't integrate them.

Read the article on FasterSkier (link in comments) and share your thoughts below.

pc: Tobias Albrigtsen /

16/04/2026

Are you doing plyometrics too early in your training cycle?

It's one of the most common mistakes we see — athletes jumping straight to bounding and box jumps in search of more power, skipping the steps that actually make plyometrics work.

In his latest piece, FasterSkier's Jim Galanes breaks down where plyometrics actually belong within a periodized training program and why the sequencing matters more than the exercises themselves.

Hint: They come last. Not first.

Read now on FasterSkier, link in comments.

08/04/2026

How do you know when it's actually time to add more training... and when you're just following a plan because you wrote it down in April?

Jim Galanes tackles that exact question in his latest piece, and his answer might make you rethink how you're building your summer base. A three-time Olympian and one of the sharpest coaching minds in American Nordic skiing, Jim argues that we should only increase loads because of improved fitness — not in an attempt to drive fitness gains. The difference matters more than most of us realize.

One line that sticks: "If a training day or week feels heroic, it is too big."

He also shares what Zach Caldwell told him about when athletes should adapt to high-intensity workouts. The answer is not next week. Not next month. It's worth reading just for that exchange alone.

Read on FasterSkier - Link in comments.

So let's hear it — do you go by the plan, or do you go by feel? Have you ever pushed through a big training block only to feel worse coming out the other side? Or found that holding steady for a few weeks actually moved the needle more than ramping up? Drop your experience below — coaches and athletes alike, we want to know how you're thinking about this heading into the off-season.

pc: Nordic Focus Photo Agency

03/04/2026

April. For a lot of coaches, parents, and skiers, this is the month when the planning begins — new training cycles, program adjustments, goals for next season. It's a natural time to reflect and build.

But before you open a spreadsheet or start mapping out hours, we'd encourage you to read this piece by Jim Galanes first.

Jim has been around this sport for over five decades, and in this article, he asks a question that doesn't get asked enough: Does the way we actually develop young skiers match what we say we believe in?

The answer, as Jim lays it out, is complicated and worth sitting with before you start writing down training targets for a young athlete.

Worth a read — link in comments.

Worth a conversation — let's have a constructive one below.

pc: Tryg Solberg

01/04/2026

A stray dog crashing the Olympic Sprint course. 15 million views on X. And now — skijoring on the World Cup calendar.

The story of how Nazgul the dog may have accidentally saved traditional cross-country skiing is one of the more remarkable things we've written in a while. A disillusioned FIS delegate, a desperate committee meeting, and one viral moment that changed everything.

We sat down with Lars Johansen, the Swedish FIS delegate at the center of it all, to get the full story — from the Cortina hotel room where it started, to a multi-million dollar Purina sponsorship deal.

The details are wild. Read the full story on FasterSkier — link in comments.

28/03/2026

From the Olympics and World Cup Finals to the Northeast Kingdom, the season rolls on this weekend at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for SuperTour Finals.

Ben Ogden took the men's sprint final on home turf, with APU teammates JC Schoonmaker and Gus Schumacher rounding out the podium. On the women's side, Canadians Katie Weaver and Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt swept the top two spots, with Emma Albrecht claiming third.

Gnarly spring conditions, fierce racing, and a U16 athlete crashing the heats — all in a day's work.

Full recap at the link in comments.

pc: Tryg Solberg / FasterSkier

22/03/2026

Sprint day at Mt. Van Hoevenberg was absolutely electric.

The crowd lining that course turned Lake Placid into something we won't soon forget. Cowbells on the climbs, voices echoing through the stadium, fans screaming names like they were cheering for family. This is what happens when our Nordic ski community shows up — and yesterday, it showed up in force.

Federico Pellegrino — —felt it from the very first warmup lap. "I got this feeling of power from the public," he said. "Chicco Pelle! Chicco Pelle!" And then in the final? He couldn't wait. He blazed off the front and stormed to the 18th victory of his World Cup career — the last sprint of a brilliant career. "This was the way I dreamt, when I was young, to win races. To end my career in that way was fantastic."

On the women's side, Sweden swept the podium for the second straight day. Linn Svahn, Jonna Sundling, and Maja Dahlqvist went 1-2-3, with Dahlqvist clinching her third career Sprint Crystal Globe. "It's like my second home, honestly!" she said. "So many people screaming my name. It was really cool."

Even Klaebo — watching from the sidelines for once — couldn't help but tip his cap. "The Americans really know how to make noise and a good atmosphere," he said. "It was cool!"
Racing wraps up today with the 20 k Mass Starts.

Full coverage on FasterSkier by our .teaford

Photos by .dils

Links in comments.

20/03/2026

A week ago, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo was lying on the ice in Drammen with a concussion after a dramatic crash in the sprint semifinals. His season looked like it might be over.

Today, after a 20-hour journey from Norway, in heavy snow and deteriorating conditions at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, he won the 10 k classic interval start at the World Cup Finals in Lake Placid — reclaiming the distance globe lead from Harald Østberg Amundsen, who finished fourth.
Never count him out.

If Klæbo finishes what he started this weekend, it would cap one of the most dominant seasons the sport has ever seen: six Olympic gold medals, the Tour de Ski title, and a clean sweep of the Overall, Sprint, and Distance Crystal Globes.

Gus Schumacher led the Americans in seventh, with Ben Ogden 11th.

Full race coverage from John Teaford on FasterSkier: link in comments

pc: Nordic Focus Photo Agency

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