Cross Country Director Update - January 2025

Rosie Fordham in action at Davos, image courtesy of @bildbyran

Dear XC Skiing Community,

Without a doubt I have to say that this has been the busiest northern hemisphere winter since I started working for the national body (then Skiing Australia) back in 1999. Never have we had Australian athletes taking part in this many events, including later today our 8th World Cup venue of the season in Cogne, Italy. In addition to the World Cup, we’ve had skier at races in three Continental Cups (NORAM, Central Europe (now called FESA) and Scandinavia), as well as in national championships in the USA, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Finland and Canada, and in other assorted nation cup and regional events. It is hard to keep up.

The first major championship of the season was the World University Games in Italy earlier this month, where we had seven athletes racing in the cross country events at Pragelato. A particular highlight of these games was an impressive 8th place by our team in the men’s relay, knocking off a number of higher ranked nations including Norway, Czech, Italy and the USA. Individual highlights included Hannah Price’s 22nd in the 20km, Bentley Walker-Broose finishing 36th in both the 10km and 20km, and Fedele de Campo just missing out on the finals with 31st in the Sprint. Congratulations to all the athletes racing at the WUG and a big thanks to our solo coach Jacob Huseby.

World Cup, where to start. Perhaps with a shout out to coach Alexei Sotskov and our primary wax techs Fabian Mauz and Toni Escher. It’s a huge effort trying to compete against all the big nations with wax trucks and large service teams, and our crew do an incredible job. So far this season we’ve had nine athletes (four women, five men) racing on World Cup, with the 10th Fedele de Campo set to make his season WC debut today. There have been ups (Rosie Fordham’s 33rd in the 10km in Lillehammer, Seve de Campo and Phil Bellingham completing the Tour de Ski) and downs (Rosie literally losing her ski mid-race in Ruka, Bentley Walker-Broose agonisingly being lapped out just before the final Tour de Ski stage), but my feeling is that the main highlights of the WC season are still to come. To see all selections throughout the season follow this link

Coming up next is the World Junior-U23 Championship in Schilpario, Italy, with the first race on Monday February 3. A team of 10 athletes have been selected with an even split between junior and U23. The team is being led by coach Tom Hoogenraad, who competed himself at the World Juniors in 2019. Most of the juniors have been training and racing predominantly in Switzerland for the past month. More information about the team is included below, keep an eye out also for the events on Snow Live.

As we move further into February the main upcoming event is the World Championships in Trondheim. Having competed at the last Worlds in Trondheim in 1999 and coached at the 2011 edition in Oslo 2011, this Norwegian festival is certain to be a great celebration of our sport. We are currently on track to have at least nine athletes and five support staff in Trondheim, but it is an expensive venture. Athlete fees for the event (most covering accommodation) will be in excess of $3,000 each. So far our efforts to gain an Norwegian sponsor for the event have been in vain, despite this post on the Norwegian site Langrenn and an earlier call-out. Time is running out, anyone with any connections please get in contact.

Finally, a note from back in Australia. This weekend 1-2 February is the first of the Perisher XC working bees for the year. The NSW and ACT communities do an amazing job over the summary and autumn to get the trails in shape for the winter. Read on below for more details, and reach out if you are interested to become involved. 

Happy skiing (and remote ski watching) to all.

Finn Marsland
Cross Country Skiing Program Director

Read Full Update

In this edition:

• Cross Country Junior - U23 World Championships Team Announcement for 2025
• Snowlive
• Special February Family-Friendly Work Party, Perisher XC Trails
• Expressions of Interest - NSWACT XC PDP (Participation/Development/Performance) Working Group