Cross Country Coordinator Update - June 2022
Published Fri 24 Jun 2022
Dear XC Skiers,
What a start to the winter! Early snow conditions have been amazing across all the resorts and I’ve been very envious of those able to take advantage of them.
This past month has been busy. It was great to see Melbourne’s first ever FIS rollerski races take place at the end of May, and then quite exciting for the Snowy Mountains Nordic rollerski event in Jindabyne to be moved to Perisher due to so much snow and already groomed tracks. Last week the National Team had a very successful AIS Camp in Canberra, led by NSWACT coach Alexei Sotskov. NSWACT XC on-snow training has already begun at Perisher, and next week the first National Team on-snow camp takes place at Falls Creek.
Work is also afoot to refresh the Victorian Cross Country Committee (VIC XC) and re-energise the Victorian athlete development pathway after a significant decline due to Covid-19. Several community consultation meetings have already been held, and a preliminary meeting of a new committee is set to take place in Mt Beauty this Sunday July 26. Others interested to take an active role in XC development in Victorian should reach out to me via fmarsland@snow.org.au.
Though July and August have many racing events on the Cross Country Events Calendar, I would like to encourage up and coming athletes and their parents to strategically plan their season and decide which races they will target. Club events can be great training sessions and good for practicing race plans, but it is also important to make sure that junior skiers have plenty of time on snow for unstructured training and free skiing. More information on the XC development model is available in the Pathways section of the Snow Australia site.
Looking further ahead, preliminary planning has started for the 2022/2023 international season, in which we plan to send teams to the all the major events including the 2023 World Championships in Slovenia, the 2023 World Junior/U23 Championships in Canada, and the 2023 World University Games in the USA. To this end, we are calling for expressions of interest from coaches to support teams preparing for and competing at these events.
Finally, the Snow Australia XC discipline committee is seeking expressions of interest for new members to assist in overseeing the development of the sport. Interested people should apply before the end of July.
That’s it for now, I look forward to catching up with many of you on snow before too long.
Finn Marsland
Cross Country Skiing Program Director
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