Okay, I know I'm hitting the nordic skiing stuff pretty hard here, but these two posts are great for color and panache. Even non-skiing, snow-hating folks will like
1. This great account of Kikkan Randall's third-place race at Rybinsk on Sunday, in her hometown paper. The track conditions were brutal, the final heat was tightly contested, and yet she eked out the bronze. Beautiful skiing.
2. An incredible travelogue, written by the coach of the U.S. cross-country ski team and posted on the team's blog, about their amazing trip to Rybinsk. The photos (especially the second one and the third one) are flabbergasting, the local color is vivid, and the perseverance is inspiring.
Notably, Tuesday marks 30 days to the start of the Nordic World Ski Championships in Sapporo, Japan. I had been looking forward to the marquee events - the pursuits and the relays - but now I think I'll pencil in the sprints on February 22 - to be held in the Sapporo Dome, the futuristic home of the Hokkaido's baseball team, the Nippon Ham Fighters.