2020 FIS World Junior/U23 Championships
Oberwiesenthal, Germany
February 28 – Mar 8, 2020
Monday, February 24th, 2020
After a hard weekend of training, it was time for the team to rest up and enjoy some of the other incredible spots that Austria has to offer. So, after a casual morning, the team strolled over to the train stop and hopped on for a 45 minute trip over to Innsbruck, Austria. We put on our best touristing clothes and made our way to the old part of Innsbruck, to see some colourful buildings and unique alleyways. As the day started to clear up, we were extremely fortunate to be able to see the surreal mountains that laid behind the town. With the sun shining, it made our train ride back to our hotel much more pleasant as we were able to admire the landscape of the Tirol region.
Tuesday, February 25th, 2020
For most of the team, today was the last day in Seefeld. It was not a beautiful sunny day like early in the trip, but the rain of that past two days had stopped and skiing conditions were fairly good. Actually, it was quite a pleasant temperature outside, and it felt like spring skiing out there. In particular, we had some fantastic turns down the steep hills of the World Championship courses. Most of the team took the opportunity to do some intervals, the format varying based on which races each athlete is prioritizing next week. Some also went for an easy ski in the afternoon. Tomorrow will be approximately a five-hour drive to Oberwiesenthal, where there does not seem to be much snow waiting for us. This winter has been a very mild one for Europe as a whole, and the news is that there is only a 2.5 km loop of good snow at the venue. Because of this some athletes who are not prioritizing the sprint event, including BC skiers Michael (Murdoch), Jasmine (Drolet), and Hannah (Mehain) will remain in Seefeld for a few more days to get some quality sessions in before heading to East Germany. For the rest of the team, it will be fun to discover a new area, even if we have to do a bit of running.
By Rémi Drolet
February 26th and 27th, 2020
Yesterday we drove from our hotel in Seefeld, through the Czech Republic and straight to the World Junior race site in Oberwiesenthal, Germany. We were nervous about the lack of snow waiting for us in East Germany but fortunately it was snowing heavily when we arrived and the race organizers had been blowing lots of snow onto the race trails. Here the team met up with a few more coaches and the team wax truck before heading out for an easy zone 1 ski to preview the sprint and distance race trails. After the ski we headed back to the hotel to check in and get set up for the week.
We were pleasantly surprised by the dinner buffet and very excited to be at the same hotel as Team Sweden. That evening we had our first team meeting in Oberwiesenthal where we met some of the World Cup wax tech’s and discussed the upcoming few days. This morning we headed back to the race trails where some athletes did some harder skate race prep while others had an easy classic ski. The first official training days starts tomorrow and Team Canada is getting ready for the upcoming week of racing.
By Molly Miller and Elizabeth Elliott
Additional Reports & Photos:
1. http://www.crosscountrybc.ca/bc-athletes-2020-world-junioru23-championships-trip-feb-18
2. http://www.crosscountrybc.ca/bc-athletes-2020-world-junioru23-championships-trip-feb-21
BC Athletes on the Canadian Team:
Benita Peiffer (Whistler Nordic Ski Club, Whistler)
Elizabeth Elliott (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club, Revelstoke)
Hannah Mehain (Sovereign Lake Nordic Club, Vernon)
Jasmine Drolet (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club, Rossland)
Michael Murdoch (Whistler Nordic Ski Club, Whistler)
Molly Miller (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club, Kimberley)
Rémi Drolet (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club, Rossland)