Cross Country and Ski Mountaineering - 2022/23 Season Wrap

Cross country skiers are some of the fittest athletes on the international circuit and Australia’s crew have put in a solid season in 2022/23.

From World Cups to Junior, U23 and Open World Championships, Snow Australia’s cross country teams have travelled across North America and Europe during the northern winter with a number of significant achievements along the way.

Season 2022/23 also saw our first athletes compete internationally in Ski Mountaineering, which makes its Olympic debut in 2026.

Cross Country
Five Australians competed at the 2023 World Championship in Planica, Slovenia, including three making their World Championship debut.

2022 Beijing Olympians Phil Bellingham, Seve de Campo, and Lars Young Vik were joined in Planica by Phoebe Cridland and Ellen Soehol Lie who both also made their first World Cup appearances in Norway in December.

In his first appearance at an open World Championship, Vik qualified 40th in the Classic Sprint, the best Australian male result in this event since 2007. Lie also impressed in her debut Championship, finishing 37th in the 15km Skiathlon and 38th in the 30km Freestyle.

Australia fell just short of qualifying for the final 15 in the Team Sprint events, with Vik/de Campo finishing 18th and Lie/Cridland finishing 17th.

The highlight World Cup performances of the season were Bellingham finishing 56th in the Sprint in Toblach, Vik’s 48th and 50th places in the Sprints in Falun and Drammen, and Lie’s 47th place in the Falun 10km Classic. Australia also made a debut in the new Mixed Relay World Cup event, finishing 17th in Falun.

Bellingham achieved a milestone in March with his 100th World Cup start in Falun. He went on to finish his season with the gruelling Arctic Circle Race in Greenland - 160km in three days - where he repeated his victory from 2019.

At the Junior & Under 23 World Championships in Whistler, Hugo Hinckfuss scored a standout result by making the quarter finals of the junior Sprint. Qualifying 10th, he eventually finished 26th. Rosie Fordham achieved the best under 23 result, 30th in the 10km Freestyle. Two other skiers finished just outside the top 30 including Zana Evans 33rd in the Junior 10km Freestyle, and Lars Young Vik 31st in the Under 23 Sprint, just 0.21s away from the quarter finals.

Also representing Australia at the Junior & Under 23 World Championships were Tuva Bygrave, Adam Barnett, Bentley Walker-Broose and Fedele de Campo in the U23s, and Lily Murnane, Maddie Hooker, John Mordes and Noah Bradford in the junior events. 

The 2023 World University Games (WUG) was another target event for the Australian cross country ski team this season, with nine athletes competing in Lake Placid, USA in January. This was the most successful WUG for Australia since 2015, with six top 20 results including Rosie Fordham’s 13th place in the 15km Freestyle and Seve de Campo’s 14th place in the 10km Classic.

Other performance highlights this season included Seve de Campo winning the Austrian Championship 15km Classic and multiple top 10 results on the NCAA circuit by Hugo Hinckfuss, Rosie Fordham and Tuva Bygrave.

Ski Mountaineering
With ‘SkiMo’ making its first Olympic appearance in 2026, Australia had its first athletes compete on the ISMF World Cup circuit this season.

The primary athletes competing on the circuit and at the 2023 World Championship in Spain were Phillip Bellingham and Kate Zander. Bellingham finished 12 races with a best individual result of 46th in the sprint race at the World Championships. At that event he combined with Zander for 23rd in the mixed relay. Zander competed in seven races including 24th in the individual event at the World Championships.

Two other athletes made World Cup debuts: Anna Trnka in the Sprint and Vertical events in Schladming, Austria, and Innika de Rosa in the Vertical and Individual events in Tromso, Norway.

Later this year Snow Australia aims to conduct talent identification and development camps around SkiMo events in the Australian snowfields.

Keep an eye out for our upcoming breakdowns of the Ski & Snowboard Cross and Alpine Skiing & Snowboard seasons. Follow the links for our season wraps on Freestyle Skiing, and Park & Pipe.

Don’t miss Australian snowsport’s night of nights at the 2023 Snow Australia Awards on 27 April in Melbourne - book your tickets now.