2022 FIS World Junior/U23 Championships
Lygna, Norway
February 22 – 27, 2022

World Jr Championships – history of top BC results: https://www.crosscountrybc.ca/world-jr-championships-bc
World U23 Championships - history of the top BC results: https://www.crosscountrybc.ca/world-u23-championship-bc

Juniors at Lygna

My name is Jasmine Drolet, I’m a 19 year old from Rossland BC, currently attending Dartmouth College in Hanover New Hampshire. This is my last year as a junior skier and my fourth time attending the World Junior/ u23 Championships! This year was a very exciting year in terms of the team and our performance at these championships. From BC, a total of four athletes raced. Myself and Marielle Ackermann were the two juniors who raced on this trip, while Joe Davies and Beth Grandstrom were the two u23s. I’ll be sharing my experience from the junior race days and Beth will share hers from the u23 days.

The championships opened with the long distance free technique race for the junior category. The women raced 15 km and the men raced 30. Overall, Canada had an amazing first day with Xavier McKeever skiing to a 5th place and Tom Stephen right behind him in 7th. Our other two junior men, Derek Dueling and Sasha Masson skied together into 17th and 18th, respectively. The women also had a stellar performance with Jasmine Lyons from Nakkertok finishing 15th, myself in 20th, Liliane Gagnon in 24th, and Marielle in 51st. The conditions were perfect on this day and personally, the racing was pretty fun, although somewhat frustrating. The course had some wide areas and some very narrow ones, so there were many broken poles throughout the day due to congestion, but everyone made it through even if it ended in tears, which in my case it did. This was not the result I was hoping for, but I remembered that this was only the beginning of the championships and I had plenty of time to come back and make myself proud.

The next day was the relay day. This is a super exciting day for everyone and the atmosphere at the venue and among the teammates is always amazing. The women's team for Canada was myself, Sarah Cullinan, Jasmine Lyons, and Liliane Gagnon. We each raced 3.3 km, with myself and Sarah as classic legs and Jasmine L and Liliane as skate legs. This was my first time starting off the relay for these championships and I was quite nervous but also very excited to have a chance to redeem myself from the day before, as well as put my teammates in a good position to continue the relay. I gave it my all during the short race and tagged off to Sarah in first position with Russia and Norway close behind. As the relay went on, the women skied strongly to finish in 7th, which is a team best for the Canadian women’s team. Of course we would have been excited to finish in the top 6, but this was almost equally as exciting for us.

The Canadian boys team consisted of Felix-Olivier Moreau, Xavier McKeever, Sasha Masson, and Tom Stephen. The boys skied an extremely strong race to finish in 4th, just behind the USA and ahead of Sweden. Although the boys were looking for more in this relay, they should be extremely proud of their performance out there.

The next day the juniors had a day off while the u23s raced their classic distance races, but we went for easy training, did some race preparation, or took a rest day, all depending on what races we had planned next. Of course, we watched the u23 race live on television and ate amazing meals prepared by our team chef, Mattias. Out of all four years I’ve attended these championships, this was by far the best meal situation we’ve ever had. We had a professional chef cook each meal for us, and the food was amazing. He baked us fresh bread every morning and made us proper race meals. I already miss Mattias and it has only been a few days since I last ate one of his meals.

On the 25th of February, the juniors put their race suits back on for a classic distance race. The starters for this day were myself, Tory Audet, Sarah Cullinan, and Jasmine Lyons. I was super excited for this 5km classic individual start race, especially after my classic relay leg went so well. On classic race days, we get to the venue a little bit earlier to test kick on our classic skis, and usually glide as well, but the wax techs that come to world jrs with us test our glide and select our best skis for us before we even arrive to the venue, which is an amazing bonus in these kinds of experiences. The team is super well set-up for these races with the Canadian wax truck and our best techs waxing our skis. We always have stellar grip and glide, so thank you to the waxers! During this championship, the women started their race at 1:00 pm and the men at 3:00 pm, so we had a lot of time to kill in the morning before arriving on site and starting our warmup. Personally, I would sleep for as long as possible, go for a walk or run and then go eat breakfast before getting ready and leaving the cabins. I am not the biggest fan of afternoon racing but I try to best prepare myself and make the most of my morning before races so that I can put my best foot forward during the race. I ended up having my best-ever world junior result this day, finishing 8th. Jasmine L finished 26th, Sarah skied to 44th and Tory, who was racing her first race of the championships, finished 59th. The boys raced a 10km race and also had some great results with Xav skiing into 6th, Max Hollman finishing 17th, Derek Deuling finishing 19th, and Tom Stephen coming in 26th. All four boys finishing in the top 30 is a great day for Canada, and I think most were happy with their races.

On the 26th, the u23s sprinted and some juniors went up to watch, to ski, or took a day off. I went out for a long easy ski and got quite lost in the Norwegian woods, but saw some very pretty sights, so it was all worth it.

The next day, and also last day of the championship, the juniors sprinted and the u23s raced their relay. This was my first time starting the sprint at these championships and I was very tired from my three previous races but I was really excited to finally have a chance at sprinting. The sprint course was very short and very quick, so every second counted. There were 9 seconds between the first qualifying time and the 30th time, with at least 10 more people in the 9th second who did not qualify, so a little goes a long way when sprinting overseas. For the women, two qualified: Marielle Ackermann and Liliane Gagnon in 18th and 27th, respectively. I came very close to qualifying in 31st, only a fraction of a second behind, and so did Tory Audet in 34th. Marielle and Liliane both skied some strong quarterfinals, but unfortunately did not move on past those. None of the men qualified, but they all came quite close, with Sasha Masson in 35th, Xavier McKeever in 45th, Tom Stephen in 52nd, and Felix-Olivier Moreau in 60th, who was only ten seconds behind the first qualifier!

After our sprints, we stayed at the venue to watch and cheer on our u23s in their relay, and then it was time to pack up and leave Lygna.

Overall, the team put forward some amazing results and we witnessed some amazing skiing here in Lygna and we should all be very proud of ourselves and our teammates this week!

We’re ready to take World Juniors home next year in Whistler!

By Jasmine Drolet, Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club

U23’s at Lygna

After our pre-camp in Sjusjøen we drove to Lygna where the championship races are being held! The drive took around an hour and a half and was split up by a stop in Lillehammer to get our pre-race covid test.

Our first day in Lygna was spent exploring the race trails for the first time and getting settled in our cabins located about a 5 minute drive away. U23 and junior men and women all had their own cabins and each one was around a 5 minute walk to a larger community center-like building where we ate all our meals. Our team was very fortunate to have our own chef, Mathias Eriksson, cook all three meals for us. The food Mathias made was delicious, and every day at least one person could be heard wondering out loud in excitement what we were going to have to eat!

When not training or racing our time was spent relaxing at our cabins, watching our teammates race on the livestream or hanging out at the dining center. At my cabin (U23 women) we found an assortment of sleds in a shed. Our cabin was located downhill from the dining center, and it became tradition that every day at dinnertime we would bring sleds up to dinner with us so we could sled down the hill afterwards! This is something we always looked forward to, as having a good laugh before bed helped us de-stress from the day!

The U23’s first race was a 10/15km classic interval start. The conditions for the race were really nice, a firm track, warm weather, and blue skies! The 5km course we did laps of had long uphills and long flat sections making for a tough race because you had to be working constantly. The U23’s didn’t race until 2 days into the championship so watching all the juniors do so well in their races helped with our pre-race jitters! Our second race was a skate sprint with a unique twist. What made this race unique was that the course was much shorter than we are used to, a 1.2km loop that only took about 2.5 minutes. Most sprint courses we race on take around 3.5 minutes. I was told the race organizers actually liked this aspect of the course because it made the race a ‘true sprint’. The U23’s final race was a mixed relay with 2 men and 2 women. This was the last event of the championship, so it was a blast having the entire team out cheering on the side of the course.

After the race finished, we took a team photo and attended ‘ski bag packing 101’ presented by our wax tech Joel Jaques before packing up our ski bags. We ate one last dinner from Mathias and bid farewell to him and our massage therapist Karoline before driving to the Oslo airport to stay overnight for our early morning flights.

By Beth Granstrom, Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club

Complete Results:  https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/event-details.html?sectorcode=CC&eventid=50985&seasoncode=2022

Previous Reports & Photos:

1.    https://www.crosscountrybc.ca/bc-athletes-2022-world-junioru23-championships-feb-12

2.    https://www.crosscountrybc.ca/bc-athletes-2022-world-junioru23-championships-feb-14

3.    https://www.crosscountrybc.ca/bc-athletes-2022-world-junioru23-championships-feb-20

BC Athletes on the Canadian Team:

Juniors:
Jasmine Drolet (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club, Rossland)
Marielle Ackermann (Kimberley Nordic Club, Kimberley)

U23s:
Beth Granstrom (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club, Revelstoke)
Joe Davies (Whistler Nordic Ski Club, Whistler)