2025 FIS World Junior/U23 Championships
Bergamo-Schilpario, Italy
February 3 – 9, 2025

January 25-26th - Athlete update from our international correspondents in Austria!

The trip started off in the Munich airport after an epic day of travel from all corners of the globe (Gällivare, Sweden and Calgary). We were lucky for all of our equipment to arrive in one piece, and after a quick donair, we were off to Seefeld, Austria to meet the rest of the team. We had our first dinner at the hotel where almost everyone was acting like zombies due to the jetlag except for the smug athletes who had travelled from Europe. The next morning we woke up to a beautiful picturesque valley town and had a European breakfast spread. The ski was nice to wake up the body, and we were treated to a vast trail network dotted with cabins and cute restaurants. It was a warm and sunny day as we cruised around the ski area, taking in the views. After that we returned to the hotel and had lunch followed by some down time for homework and video games, but absolutely NO sleeping as to adjust to the time zone. Feeling relaxed and recovered from the morning sesh, we returned to do a classic ski in the afternoon and explore even more trails. It was a great opportunity to get to know our teammates as we had fun social skis and got a bit lost. To end off our first day, we had an amazing dinner at the hotel and played some among us as a team.

The second day consisted of another morning ski in some wet fresh snow. We made our way around the vast stadium as we sprinted by pieces of wax table that doubled as cones. It was fun to see some other teams out training including the Japanese ski team and a handful of Norwegians. At the end of our workout we decided to make our way back to the hotel on skis, which consisted of walking through the town and stopping by the supermarket to grab some Austrian snacks before lunch. Unfortunately I'm having a hard time reading the signs here which made the journey home a little bit of an adventure. During lunch we enthusiastically cheered on our Canadian friends racing the World Cup that weekend. After a little bit more rest and some athlete-coach meetings, we returned to the wax room to sort out and label our ski fleets with the wax techs. We got some super cool Nordiq Canada ski labels but tragically my writing was not neat enough to fit on the small sticker. After sorting out the skis we hit the gym in town and did a tough core session inspired by our provincial coach Chris Manhard, before going back to the hotel for an amazing Sunday dinner. We finished the night with a quick team meeting and some fun socializing with the team before heading to bed for another great day!

By Eamon Wilson (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)

BC Athletes
Eamon Willson (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club, Burnaby)
Amelia Wells (Strathcona Nordic Ski Club, Victoria)
Finn Redman (Telemark Nordic Club, Kelowna)
Jasmine Drolet (Black Jack Ski Club, Rossland)
Anika Wallin (Williams Lake Cross Country Ski Club)

BC Coach
Maria Lundgren (Assistant Provincial Coach)