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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.

Tag: Sarah Renner

  • Randall Takes Third FS Skier of the Year Award, Tie for Men

    Randall Takes Third FS Skier of the Year Award, Tie for Men

    Cross-Country Skier of the Year

    The 2010 FasterSkier Awards wrap up with the Cross-Country Skier of the Year.  While the women’s winner was a no-brainer, the men’s was not so clear cut.

    Cross-Country Skier of the Year (women):

    Kikkan Randall (USA).  Randall is head and shoulders above the rest of the North American women.  She followed up her silver medal at World Championships last season with a stellar all-around campaign.

    With a focus on the Olympics, Randall was the only American to race her fastest consistently in Whistler.  She set a new mark for American women by placing 8th in the classic sprint – also a career-best in that event.  She teamed up with Caitlin Compton for an excellent 6th in the Team Sprint, hung with the leaders in the scramble leg of the 4x5km relay, and placed 24th in the 30km – just the third time she had raced over 15km on the World Cup.

    In addition to her Olympic results, Randall climbed back on the World Cup podium with a 2nd place in the pre-World Championship sprint in Oslo.  Randall did not have many opportunities to race her favorite event, the skate sprint, and used the chance to show she should be considered a favorite to defend her silver from Liberec.

    Randall also continued to improve her distance racing and is quickly becoming an all-around World Cup skier.  She capped the season with a 14th in the pursuit at the World Cup Finals in Sweden, and ended the 4-day mini-tour in 17th.  All told she had four top-30 distance races this season.

    On the domestic front, Randall swept the US National Championships, winning all five titles and the SuperTour Finals.

    She finished the season ranked 18th in the World Cup Sprint Cup standings, and 37th in the overall.

    Kikkan Randall (USA) – 10th qualifier, 8th overall – Olympic sprint.

    Honorable Mention

    Sarah Renner (CAN).  Renner completed a standout career with her third Olympic Games.  She placed 10th in the 15km pursuit and 16th in the 30km.

    Her season highlight came the week before in Canmore when she thrilled the hometown crowd with a 3rd place finish in the classic sprint.  Renner also placed 16th in the Tour de Ski and was ranked 39th in the overall World Cup.

    Congratulations to Sarah on a wonderful career.

    Canada's Sara Renner helping her team to sixth place in the Olympic relay.

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    Cross-Country Skier of the Year (men):

    This was hands down the hardest choice.  The Canadian men – Devon Kershaw, Ivan Babikov, George Grey, and Alex Harvey all had standout Olympics.  Like most skiers their focus was on the Games, and the result was that they did not ski very well the rest of the season.

    Andy Newell, on the other hand, had arguably the best all-around season of any US skier since Bill Koch.  But he crashed out in the Olympic sprint qualifier.

    While Grey and Harvey both had standout performances, Kershaw and Babikov were a bit better results-wise.  Babikov has the edge in the overall World Cup, but Kershaw had two top-5 Olympic results.

    While it may seem like a total cop out, the point of the FasterSkier Awards are to recognize the best skiers, not artificially try to differentiate between them for the sake of picking a winner.

    And so for the first time, there is a three-way presentation.

    Ivan Babikov (CAN). Babikov placed 5th in the Olympic pursuit, 8th in the 15km, and helped the Canadian men to a 7th place finish in the relay.

    His result in the pursuit sets the mark (matched by Kershaw) for the best Olympic finish ever by a Canadian man.

    In addition the Olympics, Babikov placed 17th in the World Cup Finals mini-tour, 9th in the Tour de Ski and ended the season ranked 23rd in the overall World Cup standings

    Ivan Babikov (CAN).

    Devon Kershaw (CAN). A two-time winner of the Skier of the Year Award, Kershaw, like Babikov, saved his best for the Olympics.  He was less than two seconds out of the gold medal in the 50k, and teamed up with Harvey to finish 4th in the Team Sprint.  His “worst” Olympic performance was a 16th in the 30km.

    Kershaw also placed 16th in the Tour de Ski and 31st in the World Cup Finals.

    Devon Kershaw gunning for a medal

    Andy Newell (USA). Newell’s season should not be judged on the basis of the Olympics.  He was in the running for a top-3 Sprint Cup finish until the last sprint, and ended up a still-impressive 4th.

    He finished in the top-10 seven times, including a 3rd place in the Drammen, Norway classic sprint, and qualified for the heats in every World Cup sprint start.

    Newell also expanded his distance racing, showing improvement throughout the season, and became the first American to ski in the Tour de Ski.

    Domestically, Newell won the SuperTour Finals in March, holding off Ivan Babikov in the final climb.

    Andy Newell on the big screen takes the third step on the podium.

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    Previous Winners

    2009
    Kikkan Randall (USA)
    Devon Kershaw (CAN)

    2008
    Kikkan Randall (USA)
    Devon Kershaw (CAN)

    Award Schedule:

    Thursday, April 15 – Rookie of the Year
    Friday, April 16 – Collegiate Skier of the Year
    Monday, April 19 – Adaptive Skier of the Year
    Tuesday, April 20 – Continental Skier of the Year
    Wednesday, April 21 – Biathlete of the Year
    Thursday, April 22 – Nordic Combined Skier of the Year
    Friday, April 23 – Performance of the Year (cross-country, biathlon, nordic combined)
    Monday, April 26th – Cross-Country Skier of the Year

    FasterSkier Awards 2010

  • World Cup Skiers Say Farewell

    The World Cup season has come to an end, and with it, so have a number of prominent careers.  Retirements always spike at the end of an Olympic year, and 2010 is no exception.  The list includes Virpi Kuitunen (FIN), Sabina Valbusa (ITA), Laurence Rochat (SUI), Reto Burgermeister (SUI), Rene Sommerfeldt (GER), Sarah Renner (CAN), Milan Sperl (CZE) and Anna Olsson (SWE).

    Kuitunen is the biggest name among the group.  She won consecutive overall World Cup titles in 2007 and 2008, and finished in the top-6 for six straight seasons.  She started 147 individual World Cup races, winning 20.  She has two Olympic bronze medals, both in team events – the 4×5 in 2010 and the Team Sprint in 2006.

    Her World Championship record is even more impressive – 6 gold medals (2 relay, 2 team sprint, and 2 individual) – as well as a silver and a bronze.

    Sommerfeldt had a long and successful World Cup career, racing for 14 years at the highest level.  He won the overall World Cup in 2004 and finished 2nd twice, in 2003 and 2008.   He started 190 individual World Cup races and has three championship medals to his name – an Olympic bronze from the 4x10km in 2002 and two World Championship silvers – relay in 2003 and 50km in 2001.

    He has expressed an interest in coaching at some point in the future.

    The 34-year-old Olsson (formerly Dahlberg), ends her career on a strong note, winning the city sprint in Stockholm, and finishing 8th in the World Cup Final overall.  Olsson, married to fellow Swedish skier Johan Olsson, won Olympic gold in 2006 in the team sprint.  A good all around skier, she made her mark in the sprints.  Olsson twice finished 3rd in the Sprint Cup.

    Olsson told FIS that she plans on enjoying family life with her husband.

    Valbusa, at age 36, also called it quits, after 219 individual World CUp starts.  She made her debut in December of 1992 in the 5km classic in Ramsau, Austria, finishing 44th.  A month later she cracked the top-30 for the first time, taking 24th in Cogne, Italy.

    She won bronze at the 2006 Olympics and the 2005 World Championships in the 4x5km relay.  Overall she finished on the World Cup podium nine times and won once.

    Rochat never made it onto the World Cup podium, but she was part of a surprising Swiss relay team at the 2002 Olympics that took the bronze.  She cracked the top-10 on the World Cup just once – in 2005 in Canmore, but she was a mainstay on the Swiss relay team, and started 121 World Cup races.

    “I’ve thought about this decision and am now ready to retire after 15 years of being on the Swiss ski team and in the World Cup squad.”

    She has worked part time for watch manufacturer Audemars Piguet, one of her sponsors.  Starting in May, she will work full time for the company.

    Burgermeister has also been a fixture on the Swiss National Team, racing in three Olympics (1998, 2002, 2006).  In his 99 World Cup starts, he stood on the podium twice.

    According to FIS, his farewell race was at the Swiss National Championships in Sörenberg ,where he took part in 50 km. After the finish Burgermeister was greeted by teammates with a bottle of champagne.

    Sperl at just 30 years old is the youngest of the retirees.  He started the 15km at the 2010 Olympics, his 3rd Games.  He also won a World Championship bronze in Sapporo in 2007.  The FIS site lists his personal comment as “Be lavish with happiness for others.”

    “It is time to move on and do something else” commented Sperl at the Czech National Championships, where he raced for the last time as a professional.  “I will now work for three years as a law assistant.  I am looking forward to that. It will be completely different from what I have been doing until now.  My performance has not been as I wished, but of course I do not leave cross-country skiing for good, I only quit from professional skiing.”

    Sperl was carried across the finish line by his Czech teammates at the conclusion of his final race.

    Renner goes out as one of the top Canadian skiers of all time, trailing only Beckie Scott.  She won silver with Scott in the team sprint at the 2006 Olympics, and took World Championship bronze in the classic sprint in 2005.

    She started 124 World Cup individual races and finished on the podium four times.  In 2006 she was 10th in the overall World Cup, and completed her career with a strong showing in front of a home crowd at the Vancouver Olympics, completing a two-year comeback after having a child.