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  • Minneapolis to Host 2020 FIS Cross Country World Cup

    Minneapolis to Host 2020 FIS Cross Country World Cup

    Jessie Diggins (front), seen here leading fellow U.S. Ski Team member Sophie Caldwell in a World Cup race, was key to securing a FIS Cross Country World Cup for Minnesota. (Photo: U.S. Ski & Snowboard)

    (Press release)

    The International Ski Federation (FIS) today officially confirmed that Minnesota will host a World Cup cross-country ski event in Minneapolis in March 2020.  U.S. Ski & Snowboard and the Loppet Foundation will serve as hosts of the World Cup event, taking place at the new ‘The Trailhead’ facility in Theodore Wirth Park.

    “A Minnesotan who brought home a gold medal has now helped us bring home the World Cup,” said host committee co-chair RT Rybak. “Now it’s time for Minnesota too, once again, show we host big events better than anyone.”

    Cross country ski champion Jessie Diggins is a native of Afton, Minnesota, and the first American athlete to win a gold medal in Olympic cross country ski competition; she and teammate Kikkan Randall won the women’s team sprint at Pyeongchang earlier this year. Diggins was key to securing this international competition for Minnesota.

    “Hosting a round of the World Cup is our chance to show skiers from around the world how Minnesota embraces winter — through sport and through our hospitality,” said Diggins. “U.S. Ski & Snowboard and The Loppet Foundation are excited to host a world-class competition and share our state with athletes from around the world. We’re equally excited to give ski fans from around the US a chance to see the action up close for the first time in nineteen years! I am so proud to represent Minnesota as one of the first American athletes to win Olympic Gold in cross country, and now to bring the sport I love to the state I call home.”

    “When Jessie called me and asked if the Foundation would support her dream of bringing a cross country World Cup event to the U.S., my team and I responded with an enthusiastic ‘yes!’” said John Munger, Executive Director of the Loppet Foundation. “Her ask was a no-brainer for us because we, too, have dreams of sharing this spectacular sport with the world. That’s why we’ve worked hard over the last 16 years to elevate cross country skiing, and adventure sports widely, starting in our own backyard.”

    “Everyone at U.S. Ski & Snowboard is delighted that we and the Loppet Foundation are able to formally confirm that the cross country World Cup will be coming back to the USA in March 2020 and to one of the great hotbeds of cross country skiing in Minneapolis,” commented Calum Clark, Chief of Systems and Operations for U.S. Ski & Snowboard. “A lot of hard work has gone into making this announcement possible, from the Loppet Foundation team in Minneapolis to the International Ski Federation (FIS), but none more so than from Minnesota’s own Jessie Diggins and the whole U.S. Cross Country Ski Team whose efforts, especially in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, were the catalyst for the compelling concept to bring the world’s best cross country skiers to the city of Minneapolis.”

    On the heels of successfully hosting Super Bowl LII, the WNBA All-Star Game, and now preparing to host the NCAA Final Four, the FIS Cross Country Ski World Cup event is yet another in a string of world-class sporting events to choose Minnesota as host.

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    “The Loppet has helped put Minneapolis cross country skiing on the map, and Theodore Wirth Park offers the best trails in our state,” said Mayor Jacob Frey. “Hosting a round of the Cross Country Ski World Cup is yet another chance to showcase how to do winter right and for our city to shine as we show the world that Minneapolis welcomes everyone with open arms.”

    “Minnesota is the perfect host state for a cross country ski racing World Cup event,” said Beth Helle of Explore Minnesota. “Minnesota boasts more than 2,000 miles of cross-country ski trails, and the sport is integral to our winter tourism industry. Winter accounts for 24% of tourism expenditures in Minnesota, and our high-quality, groomed ski trails help ensure that skiing-related destinations and businesses are able to thrive throughout the winter months.”

    Nearly a decade in the making and just opened this summer, The Trailhead is part of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s Master Plan for the park and the Loppet Foundation’s long-term vision for making lifetime endurance sports more accessible for their local community. This year-round hub for outdoor adventure will host competitive races, community events, and now an international ski competition right in Theodore Wirth Park; solidifying Theodore Wirth Regional Park as a world-class cross country venue.

    More information on the World Cup event, including how to secure tickets and see the competition in action, will be available on the local organizing committee’s website, www.mnworldcup.com, or on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @mnworldcup.

    About the Loppet Foundation

    The Loppet Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that creates a shared passion for year-round outdoor adventure in the Minneapolis area, focusing on underserved youth and families. Since 2002, the Loppet Foundation has worked to create high-quality public events, youth education, and outdoor recreation programs for the local community. Learn more at loppet.org.

    About U.S. Ski & Snowboard

    U.S. Ski & Snowboard is the Olympic National Governing Body for ski and snowboard sports in the USA. One of the oldest and most established sports organizations worldwide, directly tracing its roots back to 1905, the organization, based in Park City, UT, provides leadership and direction for elite athletes competing at the highest level worldwide and for tens of thousands of young skiers and snowboarders in the USA, encouraging and supporting all its athletes in achieving excellence wherever they train and compete. By empowering national teams, clubs, coaches, parents, officials, volunteers and fans, U.S. Ski & Snowboard is committed to the progression of its sports, athlete success and the value of team. U.S. Ski & Snowboard receives no direct government support, operating solely through private donations from individuals, corporations and foundations to fund athletic programs that directly assist athletes in reaching their dreams and achieving the shared goal of being Best In The World.

  • Utah to Host 2017 Junior/U23 World Championships (Updated)

    Utah to Host 2017 Junior/U23 World Championships (Updated)

    Torin Koos (BSF) out-lunges Ben Saxton (SMST2) for the win of the 1.5 k freestyle sprint at the U.S. Cross Country Championships. (Photo: Tom Scrimgeour)
    Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah serves as the cross country venue in the recently submitted bid for the 2017 Junior/U23 World Championships by USSA. With no competing bids, there is a high chance the Championships will come to the U.S. for the first time in its modern form. In this photo, Torin Koos (BSF) out-lunges Ben Saxton (SMST2) for the win of the 1.5 k freestyle sprint at the 2014 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow. (Photo: Tom Scrimgeour)

    UPDATE: According to the International Ski Federation, Utah will officially host the 2017 FIS Nordic Junior/U23 World Ski Championships. See the pre-decison article from June 5 (below) to learn how the U.S. entered a bid after last hosting in 1986, and what the Championships will look like.

    If everything goes according to plan the world’s best junior and U23 nordic skiers will descend upon Park City, Utah in the winter of 2017. The United States Ski and Snowboard Association announced Tuesday that organizing body submitted a bid for the 2017 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships at this year’s International Ski Federation (FIS) Calendar Conference, which began June 3 and will continue until June 8. With no other bids, all that stands between the U.S. and the Championships is a stamp of approval from FIS.

    The last time the U.S. hosted a Nordic Junior World Championships was in 1986 at Lake Placid, N.Y. At the time, however, the event only consisted of ski jumping and nordic combined and did not include officially recognized cross country skiing races (although there were cross country races that were coordinated with the event), as is standard in Junior/U23 World Championships since 1991. The U.S. has also hosted the 2004 Cross Country Intercontinental U23 Championships at Soldier Hollow, but the U23 World Championships were not created until 2006, when they were hosted in conjunction with the Junior World Championships in Kranj, Slovenia.

    According to USSA Vice President of Events and IT Calum Clark, there’s a high chance the U.S. will host its first modern Junior/U23 World Championships in 2017. He explained the U.S. bid was the sole entry for the event, and that all that was left for USSA to gain hosting rights was the official go-ahead from FIS.

    “We met with the FIS leadership this afternoon any they were excited for [the Championships] to come back to America,” Clark said from the 2015 FIS Congress in Belgium Thursday. He explained that the only thing left was “a simple rubber stamp from the council.”

    If the U.S. is selected by FIS, the event will be held between the cross country courses at Soldier Hollow in Midway and the jumping complex at the Utah Olympic Park, in Park City.

    An American-hosted Championships has been a dream of U.S. Nordic Combined Coach Greg Poirier for many years, but it wasn’t until 2014 that he decided to jumpstart the project. “It was kind of my idea to bring these Championships to the U.S. I had been thinking about it for years and finally last year I decided to stop thinking about it and get something going,” Poirier said in a phone interview.

    He approached the cross country and nordic combined committees at the 2014 USSA congress and was encouraged to further explore a U.S. proposal. Poirier put together an ad hoc bid committee consisting of officials from Soldier Hollow and Utah Olympic Park, which then presented a proposal to the leadership of USSA, including President and CEO Tiger Shaw, in the fall of 2014. Once USSA was comfortable with the presented budget, it sent a written intent to host the Championships to FIS before the December 31 deadline.

    A view of Soldier Hollow's stadium from the highest point of the 5 k olympic course.
    A view of Soldier Hollow’s stadium from the highest point of the 5 k olympic course.

    According to Clark, USSA supported the proposal due to thorough planning and feasibility.  “So often with these World Championships, the excitement can overwhelm the practicality and you get this aftermath of realizing that this is going to be a whole lot of work that you’re not prepared for,” he explained. “In this case we had such a tremendous group of people with great experience on both sides of the nordic skiing jumping and cross country.”

    Clark said that the financial model of the Championships was within the means of USSA due to various groups who provided “semi-guarantees of strong financial support.”

    According to the Vice President, the most important factor of the bid was the athletic opportunity it provided to U.S. athletes. Over the years USSA has been exploring the possibility of bringing other high-profile international competitions stateside to further such opportunity, exampled by last year’s discussions of a cross country World Cup in New York City. Clark said that in the end, however, a Junior/U23 World Championships made more sense.

    “We went through the process of exploring an urban cross country World Cup and [the nordic leadership] came back to us and said, ‘no, if you’re doing anything Junior Worlds is what we’d like to have.’”

    If USSA receives the pending bid for the 2017 Championships there will be several focus areas that organizers will need to tackle. It will start with the creation of a new organizing committee, consisting of technical delegates from cross country, nordic combined and jumping. Once the committee is created they will work to build a plan regarding marketing, television or live streaming, transportation, and accommodation. Poirier hopes to create an athlete village in Midway, Utah — possibly at the Zermatt Resort — where all competitors, coaches, and staff will stay during the event.

    Organizers will also look into updating Soldier Hollow, the cross country and biathlon venue for the 2002 Olympic Games, to meet the Championships’ needs. Poirier said that a future organizing committee would explore using the original cross country stadium at the venue in addition to creating more challenging courses that feature increased climbing. According to the nordic combined coach, any changes in courses or stadium placement would use existing trails and facilities.

    “It’s already a great center,” Poirier said of Soldier Hollow. “We created this bid with the intent that we wouldn’t have to create a whole lot of dollars for infrastructure improvements. If we can get some and there’s a need then it would be a great opportunity for both the Olympic Park and Soldier Hollow. But if we can’t, we’re confident that we can move forward with the facilities the way they are now.”

    Although the 2014 Nordic Combined Olympic Trials featured the cross country portion of the event at the Utah Olympic Park, Poirier said that it made more sense for the cross country portion of the Championships’ nordic combined events to take place at Soldier Hollow because the venue was already in use by the other cross country races and due to its proximity to the athlete village in Midway.

    Those anxiously awaiting official confirmation of the bid will have to wait until Monday June 8, the last day of the the 2015 FIS Calendar Conference.

    In the meantime, the high likelihood that the U.S. bid will be approved is giving many in the nordic community a sense of excitement. “It gives me goosebumps to think about it and I have butterflies in my stomach,” Poirier said.

    “What I’m most psyched about is those kids that are in our pipeline who are going to be able to compete on our home turf,” he added. “Hopefully they are really going to shine and that will really be the impetus and catalyst for the spark that gives those young boys and girls motivation. That’s going to be the real gem, the real benefit to these games.”

    With just days before official confirmation, USSA officials, Poirier and other organizers aren’t about to relax.

    “The real work begins today,” Poirier said.