Australia’s Largest Cross Country Team to compete at OPA Cup

Australia’s largest ever Cross Country Team to compete at a Continental Cup race outside of Australia will line up at the OPA Continental Cup / Swiss Cup this week to kick start their 2021/2022 Northern Hemisphere season.

The team of 25 will race against some of the world’s fastest skiers as they aim to qualify for future World Cup events which will be crucial on their journeys to qualifying for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Dual Winter Olympian Phillip Bellingham, and PyeongChang 2018 Olympians Jessica Yeaton, Casey Wright and Amiee Watson will headline the team in Goms, Switzerland.

Yeaton is looking forward to the season finally starting again after an interrupted couple of years.

“It’s really exciting that the season is about to begin, especially considering that I didn't have as many chances to race last year due to Covid,” said Yeaton.

“I do feel like I've been able to put in a really good block of preparation; I trained in Alaska for about a month on snow before heading over to Europe last week. I am definitely nervous for the first races but feel well prepared and ready to race!”

Yeaton’s teammate Seve de Campo is the second ranked male Australian Cross Country skier after the Australia / New Zealand Continental Cup (ANC) leader Bellingham. The 23-year-old has been putting in the extra miles during the off-season to give himself the best chance to qualify for Beijing 2022 and make his Olympic debut in February.

“[Beijing 2022] is a big goal of mine and it’s been a pretty special year so far,” said de Campo, who won two silver medals at the ANC behind Bellingham in August this year.

“I told myself in May that I need to be standing in the gate at Goms knowing I’ve done everything I could to be racing at my best, and I think that’s the essence of achieving this goal.

“I worked on some mental things, I put extra time into recovery and health, and my brother Fedele and I smashed out a ridiculous amount of good quality training.”

The Continental Cup will also determine the starting places for the upcoming Davos World Cup on December 11 and 12.

Yeaton and de Campo have been pre-selected for Davos based on their FIS ranking points, while Wright and Bellingham have a free World Cup place as winners of the 2021 ANC.

De Campo said it was nice to have some pressure off him heading into the first event, having already secured his World Cup start, but his main objective remains unchanged.

“Whilst it means I can be a bit more relaxed, my main goal for Goms is to still ski as fast as I can. I’ve got some mates from various other nations that I’m hoping to beat which would get me far up the field,” he said.

“Showing a strong result in the 15km classic on the Friday at Goms would be the main priority as that is a specific Olympic event.”

The other 21 Aussies will be aiming to secure remaining World Cup quota places in Goms.

Past World Cup athletes such as Watson, Mark Pollock and Katerina Paul will be in contention for these places, alongside up-and-coming first year senior athletes Tuva Bygrave, Lars Young Vik and Bentley Walker-Broose, and Lausanne 2020 Youth Winter Olympicans Zana Evans and Hugo Hinckfuss.

Yeaton said it is fantastic to see so many Australian cross country skiers in Europe this season, which is a reflection of the increasing talent in the sport.

“There is so much up and coming talent and it’s really great to see that there is so much enthusiasm for the sport, and so many cross country skiers training hard right now,” Yeaton said.

“I think we will see a rise in performance over the next few years because of this, which is really exciting.”

The Continental Cup runs 3 - 5 December. Follow the results HERE

Australian Team competing at the OPA Continental Cup / Swiss Cup in Ulrichen, Goms: