Dear XC Skiers,

This update comes after the busiest month of competition for the season and plenty of late nights / early mornings watching the FIS live streaming. For those who haven't taken advantage of this yet, World Cup highlights and repeats of the World Junior-U23 live streams are available via the XC section of FIS TV.

Soon after the January XC update the Australian Team returned to action at the Goms World Cup in Switzerland. Each of the three Australian women scored World Cup points, with Ellen Soehol Lie 49th in the Sprint and Phoebe Cridland and Rosie Fordham 49th and 50th in the 20km. The Mixed Relay Team of Ellen, Rosie, Seve de Campo and Lars Young Vik battled to 16th place in the 4 x 5km, moving Australia up to 22nd in the overall Nation Cup rankings. A big shout-out also to our AUSXC Instagram meister Bentley Walker-Broose who raced his first World Cup since 2021 and finished a solid 70th place in the Sprint.

See FIS Results and AUSXC Instagram posts here Goms World Cup / AUSXC Instagram Goms

Action then moved to Gangwon in Korea for the 2024 Youth Olympic Games. The XC contingent of Samuel Johnson, Clancy Harvey, Satara Moon and Rosie Franzke did Australia proud, with a hard-fought 18th place in the 4x5km Mixed Relay. Individual bests included Rosie 38th and Satara 44th in the 7.5km Classic, Sam 42nd in the Freestyle Sprint, and Clancy 48th in the 7.5km Classic, all in fields of around 80 competitors. A great experience for these young athletes, we hope to see them at the World Juniors in the coming years.

See FIS Results and AUSXC Instagram posts here Gangwon YOG / AUSXC Instagram YOG

At the 2024 World Junior and U23 World Championships in Slovenia in February the Australian Team collected top 30 results in both Junior and U23 categories for the third year in a row. It's worth repeating that before this streak we've only ever had top 30 results at World Juniors once before, in 2003 (Ben Sim and Esther Bottomley). Top 30s in the U23s have been a bit more frequent - Esther Bottomley in 2006, Ben Sim in 2008, Aimee Watson in 2008-2010, Phillip Bellingham in 2014 and Casey Wright in 2017. Links to all the 2024 results are included in the article below.

The 2024 World Masters recently took place with an enthusiastic contingent travelling to Vuokatti in Finland. See below for a report from Australian World Masters coordinator Peter Lambert, including a call-out for interest in the 2025 World Masters in Switzerland.

Wrapping up this event-full update, in the past two weeks we've seen the Canmore and Minneapolis World Cups take place in North America. Given the success of these events, a question for FIS is why the Cross Country World Cup shouldn't travel outside of Europe every season, as the other disciplines do? Perhaps it's due to the availability of willing race organisers - but if not then it would be great to see the XC "World" Cup live up to its name on an annual basis.

Until next time,

Finn Marsland
Snow Australia Cross Country Director

Snow Australia's Cross Country Skiing team at the 2024 World Junior/U23 Championship in Planica continued the momentum of recent years with strong performances across the board. Eleven athletes contested 13 events across seven days from February 5-11 in Slovenia.

The outstanding result of the championship was Rosie Fordham's 19th place in the 20km Freestyle, Australia's best result at a World U23 Championship since 2008. Phoebe Cridland also racked up a PB in the same race, finishing 35th. Other performance highlights included a sprint final appearance (top 30) for Jayden Spring in the Junior Sprint, and a gutsy team 14th place in the 4x5km U23 Relay.

Conditions deteriorated throughout the championship due to warm weather, with rain and mushy snow during the 10km Classic events. However, as World U23 debutant Hannah Price put it, "very gritty and tricky racing out there, but many years of Buller Interschools prepared me well!".

Full results are available on the FIS site, with repeats of the Live Streaming available in the Cross Country section of FIS TV. For photos and daily wrap-ups from the team head to the AUSXC Instagram.

Last weekend February 17/18 six AUSXC skiers headed to Minneapolis in Minnesota for the first World Cup in the USA since. Racing in front of 20,000+ ecstatic fans revved up by two USA podiums, the Aussie crew reported the atmosphere to be the best they'd ever seen at a World Cup.

Hugo Hinckfuss recorded two PBs in Minneapolis with 40th in the 10km Freestyle and 49th in the Sprint. In her first WC since 2022 Jessica Yeaton finished 45th in the 10km, squeezing in by 15 seconds ahead of Rosie Fordham who was top 40 in the first half before fading to 49th. Tuva Bygrave finished 59th in both events, with Seve de Campo 65th and 62nd in the Sprint and 10km, and Bentley Walker-Broose 71st and 75th in the same events.

Full results are available here on FIS, with images on AUSXC Instagram here.
This FasterSkier article also paints a great picture of the event.

The World Cup circus took a rare trip to North America in the past two weeks, starting off with four events in Canmore (CAN) on February 9-13. Resident in Canada for the past two years, Nic Blackwell flew the Australian flag solo in Canmore as he made his World Cup debut.

Supported by Luke McGurk and Leah Reitz from the local Rocky Mountain Racers club, Nic took on all four races in Canmore, with his best performances 56th in the 15km Freestyle Mass Start and 60th in the 20km Classic Mass Start.

Via Instagram Nic reported: "This week was the gnarliest racing I have ever been a part of. But I wouldn't expect anything less of my World Cup debut. I might need a couple days to recover from this one, but I am just so stoked to now have this under my belt."

Full results are available here.

A small but passionate team of Australian cross country skiers have recently competed at the Masters World Cup in Finland.

The town of Vuokatti, home to Finland’s Olympic Training Centre for all nordic skiing disciplines, played home to the event from 9-16 February.

Prior to the competition the team held pre-event training in both Vuokatti and also at Dobbiaco/Toblach in the Sud Tirol region of Italy. Some competitors even completed the gruelling 42km Dobbiaco-Cortina Cross Country Race.

Australian Cross Country skier Anna Trnka has taken hold of a new opportunity to race World Cup as a SkiMo athlete. After a six-year hiatus from international competition, Anna returned to Cross Country skiing in 2021 and alongside this took up a new challenge in SkiMo in 2023. 

Registration is open for the 2024 Australian Rollerski Championship at Stromlo Forest Park in Canberra on April 13/14. Featuring a Freestyle Sprint on Saturday and a Freestyle Criterium on Sunday, the event is open for all levels of participants from juniors and Masters to FIS registered athletes.