From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
Deep into this winter’s Walkabout de Northern Italy, we’re wearing a little thin, but Devon rallies just before midnight to recap stages three and four. We’ll have a wrap-up after the final climb.
You can reach us at devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com. We appreciate all the feedback we’ve been getting — happy new year!
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It’s time for the Tour de Ski, which really is just a northern Italy promenade this year — no races in Switzerland or Germany. Nonetheless, we’re excited for some fun storylines and to follow along with you this year. Here’s a quick preview.
Questions? Comments? Hit us up at devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com. For those of you who have become voluntary FasterSkier supporters, we’re really grateful.
Love Stories Like This? Help Keep Them Coming.
Feature stories like this one take time, access, and care to produce. If you value thoughtful storytelling and independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a Voluntary Subscriber. Your support directly fuels the work we do to cover the people, places, and moments that make our sport special.
Matt Whitcomb has been a staple of the U.S. Ski Team coaching staff for a decade, seeing it through some of its most successful years. We hear from him about the coaching lifestyle, equal distance racing and other topics in another episode that we took a litttttle too long to post.
U.S. Ski Team head coach Matt Whitcomb (right) and Julia Kern seem course-side during the 4 x 5 k mixed relay amidst the 2021-2022 World Cup Finals in Falun, SWE. (Photo: NordicFocus)
We have no excuses for our prolonged absence other than it being the summer time. Devon has school and kids to take care of; Nat has…well, Nat really has no excuse. We taped this show with Robin McKeever, the new Canadian coach, and we’re just getting around to posting it now.
PyeongChang 9/3/2018 – Emily Young, of Kelowna, BC, and Coach Robin McKeever, of Canmore, AB, during a biathlon/cross country training session at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre during the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang, Korea. Photo: Dave Holland/Canadian Paralympic Committee
We’re finally here with a long-promised mailbag episode for you this week. Devon takes us through questions from more than a dozen listeners; we cover World Cup competition formats, tactics, training, broadcasting and a bunch of other random fun stuff. We’ll be back soon with coverage of Olympic team selection and hopefully some more intel on the Olympic venue in Beijing.
Send us questions and feedback to devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.
Devon Kershaw racing in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
We’ve got a special edition of the Devon Kershaw Show for you this week with star American cross-country skier Rosie Brennan. After more than a decade of international racing, Brennan had a breakout season last year with World Cup wins in Davos. She’s had more strong results this year, including a podium in Lillehammer and two near-misses in her return to Davos.
Brennan hails from Utah; she’s a graduate of Dartmouth College and currently trains with the Alaska Pacific University elite team. We’re grateful she was willing to join us.
Have a question you want answered? Send them Devon at devon@fasterskier.com and to Nat at nat@fasterskier.com.
We’ll be back once the Tour de Ski kicks off.
Rosie Brennan enjoys a wintery training day before the weekend of World Cup racing in Davos, SUI. (Photo: NordicFocus)
We’re back with this week’s episode of the Devon Kershaw Show!
Devon and FasterSkier’s Nat Herz break down the World Cup’s exciting season-opening weekend of racing in Finland, along with a special guest: U.S. Olympian Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, who retired in the spring.
The trio breaks down Ruka’s frigid temperatures, legit results from North American racers, Frida Karlsson’s surprising victory over Therese Johaug, and some Russian men’s distance domination — with the inevitable aside about doping. We hope you find the conversation anything but numbing.
FIS race director Pierre Mignerey makes the call to postpone the women’s skate pursuit in Ruka after the temperature that measured -22.7C. (Photo: NordicFocus)
This is a new project from FasterSkier and the podcast title pretty much says it: Devon Kershaw will be sharing his thoughts and insights of the 2019-2020 World Cup with us. It began this morning, Sunday, December 1, very early for me and not so early for Devon who is based in Lillehammer, Norway. Devon is a former longtime Canadian National Team member, a World Champion, and commentator for Eurosport at last year’s Seefeld, Austria World Championships.
He is as deep as you can be in the world of high-level cross-country skiing and we are stoked to have him along. That’s pretty much it: a new podcast and the first episode. If you have questions for Devon, please send them to info@fasterskier.com. (We’ll be changing that email to devon@fasterskier.com, but that part is in the works. As the podcast evolves, Devon will be taking more control of the format. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy the new project.
It might be a wee bit of time, but you’ll be able to subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcast fix.
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Google Play.
In this episode, Devon breaks down the three race series in Ruka, Finland which was the start of the 2019-2020 World Cup season.
Heading up to high camp on the glacier of Mera Peak, Nepal, in April 2014. (Photo: Devon Kershaw)
As long as the Canadian men’s national ski team has been a force, Devon Kershaw’s name has been synonymous with that success. As recently as 2012, Kershaw finished the season ranked second overall in the final World Cup standings. And in 2011, along with teammate Alex Harvey, he won the classic team sprint at World Championships in Oslo, Norway.
Beyond his Oslo win, Kershaw has settled for the time being with his wife, former Norwegian ski star Kristin Størmer Steira. The two live close to downtown Oslo where Kershaw has found a profoundly livable city; it’s easy to find world-class training and as he works on his Norwegian, he can default to English. Kershaw says nearly the entire population can converse in perfect English.
Kershaw (l) and Alex Harvey (r) celebrating their team sprint victory at the 2011 World Championships in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: Hemmersbach/NordicFocus)
At 33, and having been on the international ski scene for over a decade, Kershaw speaks with experience and authority when it comes to the evolution of the sport. Then there’s the dark side exposed bare this July with the release of the McLaren report.
“As an athlete, I’m just getting a bit sick of lip service. How much lip service do we need to take? It’s either a priority for us, for like, WADA, IOC, FIS … or it is not,” Kershaw said in the podcast.
Kershaw notes he’ll continue competing through the 2018 Winter Olympics, then it’s most likely back to school for the Sudbury, Ontario, native.
Listen to the full podcast here by clicking the play button below.
Devon Kershaw (Canadian World Cup Team) competing in the classic sprint at the Ski Tour Canada on March 8 in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
![Heading up to high camp on the glacier of Mera Peak, Nepal. (Photo: Devon Kershaw)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/08/heading-up-to-high-camp-on-the-glacier-Mera-Peak.jpg")
![Kershaw (L) and Alex Harvey (R) celebrating their team sprint victory at the 2011 World Championships. Photo, Hemmersbach/NordicFocus](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/03/0000073865_HiRes_05TNFK10073NY90D67D6P01HWBNL.jpg")
![Devon Kershaw (Canadian World Cup Team) competing in the classic sprint at the Ski Tour Canada on March 8 in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/Kershaw160308mf134.jpg")