From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
Masters World Cup 2021 Postponed Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Originally scheduled for March 4-12 in Canmore, Alberta, the Masters World Cup 2021 has been postponed to 2022.
PRESS RELEASE
The Masters World Cup 2021 for cross-country skiing has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Masters World Cup was originally scheduled for March 4-12, 2021 in Canmore and has now been rescheduled for March 3-11, 2022 in Canmore.
Due to the on-going travel restrictions and the current limitations around hosting major Sporting Events, the Alberta World Cup Society (AWCS) and the World Masters Association (WMA), along with our tourism partners and the Alberta Health authority, have agreed to postpone the MWC 2021 in Canmore.
“We’ve been watching the pandemic trends and it appears that the restrictions affecting our event will continue to be in place for the foreseeable future. The health and welfare of all the expected 1,200 participants coming from around the world, our volunteers and our community are our highest priority.
All of our community stakeholders want the Masters World Cup to be a tremendous success when we hold it and it looks like March 2021 is too soon for that to be the case. We’ve been strongly supported by the Alberta Chief Medical Office, Tourism Canmore Kananaskis and our hotel partners in Canmore in reaching this conclusion. The World Masters Association has been an incredible partner as well. We both want this event to be a great success when we hold it and it looks like that won’t be possible until 2022,” said Norbert Meier, AWCS, Event Chair.
“The decision to postpone the MWC 2021 in Canmore has been the result of a careful evaluation process over several months. The Alberta World Cup Society (AWCS) and the World Masters Association (WMA) have been committed towards looking at what was best plan from both local and international perspectives. Ultimately it became clear to all parties that postponing to 2022 was our best path forward. In the midst of what is an incredibly challenging era for sport organizers around the globe, the WMA could not ask for a better partner than the AWCS. Everyone in Canmore has been exceptionally professional while also remaining positive about what we all believe will ultimately be a fantastic MWC 2022 in Canmore!” said John Downing, WMA, President.
The Masters World Cup has been held annually since 1980 and brings together cross country skiers aged 30 to 90+ from all over the world for a week of racing, camaraderie and celebration of cross country skiing as a lifelong sport.
Stephanie Howe (left), Taylor Leach and Sarah Max (right) at the 2011 Engadin. (Photo courtesy of Howe)
The XC Oregon skiers posted solid results at the Engadin Ski Marathon in Switzerland last weekend and are ready to take on the Norwegian Birkebeiner on Saturday.
Now fully adjusted to the time change, the XC Oregon racers are excited to race from Rena to Lillehammer, 54 kilometers in challenging, exposed, open tundra terrain with a 3.5-kilo backpack. The venerable event that has been a staple on the calendar for almost 75 years.
Brayton Osgood, 29, is coming off a solid performance at the Engadin last weekend where he was the top American and finished 24th overall, is excited about the Birkie and hopes to build on that experience on Saturday.
“For the Birkie I have pretty much the same goals as I had going into the Engadin. I want to ski with the lead group until the race gets serious, and then put out a good effort from there to the finish,” Osgood said to FasterSkier, noting that at the Engadin, the only thing missing was enough juice for the last couple of kilometers.
“So, if I can finish things off a little better than I did at ESM, I’ll be very pleased, but mostly I want to make it to the finish and have some good memories when it’s all said and done. I won’t say I want to have a good time out there, because that’s a pretty tough standard to live up to during a race,” Osgood added.
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16,000 racers annually enter the Norwegian Birkebeiner. (Photo: Inge Scheve)
Something a skier has to do
While Osgood has tried his hand at the Birkie before, his XC Oregon teammates Taylor Leach, Stephanie Howe and Sarah Max are new to the legendary race.
“As a skier, the Norwegian Birkie is one of the races you have to do in your lifetime,” Howe said.
With her previous marathon results, including winning the women’s freestyle Gatineau Loppet in February, Howe has landed herself a spot in the FIS elite wave. That certainly adds some performance pressure, but Howe still wants to enjoy the experience.
“I hope to have fun! I am starting in the elite FIS wave, so I’m a bit nervous. It should be fun though, I love climbing, and I hear there should be plenty of that. The biggest challenge for us will be to select the correct skis and wax,” Howe explained.
Less pressure
Leach and Max said being new to the event adds some uncertainties, but also cuts down on the expectations and self-inflicted performance pressure.
“I have never done the Norwegian Birke before, but I have wanted to do this race for a long time. so I am really excited, a little bit nervous because it seems like a challenging course. As I have dedicated most of my winter to coaching, I do not have many expectations. My goals are to ski technically well, have a smart race and enjoy the experience,” Leach said to FasterSkier.
The same is true for Max.
“I’ve never done the Birkie. I don’t have much in the way of expectations, which is the beauty of doing a race that is completely unfamiliar,” Max said.
Additionally, the Norwegian Birkebeiner will represent some extra challenges for Max, who is fairly new to classic skiing. Given that the course covers 54 kilometers of varying, exposed and challenging terrain, Max is hoping for good kick from Rena to Lillehammer.
“This is only my fourth or fifth classic race ever. My hopes are to have good kick throughout the race,” Max said.
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Being new to classic skiing and new to the Norwegian Birkebeiner, Max (XC Oregon) is hoping for wax conditions a little less tricky and frantic than these. From the start at Rena in 2007. (Photo: Inge Scheve)
A legendary race
Since the inaugural Birkebeiner race in 1932, the Norwegian Birkie has only been cancelled seven times, most of them due to World War II (no race in 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945).
But in 2007, when the XC Oregon trio Brayton Osgood, Marshall Greene and Zach Violett, attempted to cross the mountains, the Birkie was cancelled due to blizzard conditions, high winds and literally no visibility in the open. The racers in the first couple of waves, which were allowed to start, were called down from the mountain and brought back to the start at Rena.
XC Oregon's Birkie crew in 2007: Zack Violett (left), Brayton Osgood, and Marshall Greene (front). They were turned around early. (Photo: Inge Scheve)
That first wave in 2007 included the XC Oregon skiers, who said they encountered head winds so strong that it was hard for even large skiers to make headway into the wind, let alone stay on the tracks that quickly disappeared from windblown snow on the tundra.
In 1948, the owners of the event could not agree on whether to develop the Birkie into an elite competitive race or focus on participation and recreational skiers. The race was not held, but the owners worked out their issues and now the Birkie is a mass-participation event, maybe the largest and best-known ski race in the World.
The lure of the marathons
For Leach, 25, the European marathons represent crowds and atmospheres unmatched anywhere in North America.
“The big European marathons are a different experience to racing the US, there are so many people. Even our biggest race, the American Birke, is not even close to the size of many of these races. Although when it comes down to it, racing is racing, regardless of where you are,” Leach said, explaining that as a junior coach with the Mount Bachelor Sports Education Foundation in Bend, she doesn’t have the opportunity to do many races for herself in the meat of the season.
“The Engadin and the Norwegian Birke were the only races that I was planning on doing this year, I did get to race at Crescent Lake a few months ago and I may be able to race the Great Nordeen but these European races were really the focal point of my winter,” Leach explained.
For Max, 36, now a veteran of the European marathon circuit, the European marathons have become the main focus of the season. But equally the overall experience is easily just as important as the race aspect.
“I’ve done about half a dozen European marathons now, and while I consider them my main focus, the races are really just a good excuse to travel around, meet interesting people and eat euro breakfasts,” Max said to FasterSkier.
Stephanie Howe won the 2011 Gatineu Loppet (Photo courtesy of XC Oregon)
For Howe, 27, the European marathon races are the reward after a long domestic season, and the European racing experience is icing on the cake.
“They are kind of a bonus at the end of the season. I didn’t have a lot of expectations since I haven’t raced in Europe before. I’m also still new to the marathon distance, but I am learning. In terms of overall season, these races were something I was looking forward to all year,” Howe said.
Return on Investment
In Downing’s opinion, ski marathons are a great return on investment for athletes who can’t do a lot of travel to follow the USSA SuperTour or Canadian Nor-Am series, but want to race a stacked field. For many of the XC Oregon racers, the marathons serve as motivation, variety and a season goal.
“For any athlete that isn’t interested in the SuperTour-format races and prefer longer events with guaranteed field strength, the American Ski Marathon Series domestically and World Loppet internationally are the way to go. Particularly for female athletes, or any athletes with limited travel time, the value of the marathon circuits is super hard to beat,” Downing said.
For XC Oregon as team, marathons are one more way get exposure and experience.
“What we (as a team) are getting out of the World Loppet starts is keeping athletes motivated and excited plus many great to good results over the years,” Downing said to FasterSkier.
Downing lists off that just this season, XC Oregon has placed four female athletes in the top ten at World Loppets: Evelyn Dong third place at the American Birkie, Kristina Strandberg’s Engadin Ski Marathon eighth, Sarah Max’s fourth at the Gatineau Loppet freestyle and Stephanie Howe’s first place in the Gatineau Loppet classic.
Brayton Osgood’s 24th place in the Engadin is just one example of how deep the field is in the FIS Ski Classics, said John Downing, the XC Oregon Program Director. Osgood, 29, finished in 1 hour, 43 minutes and 11.9 seconds. Fabio Santus (ITA) in second place finished in 1:42:16.3. Remo Fischer (SUI) won the race, clocking in at 1:39:51.3.
“Brayton’s race was not even a minute out of second place and 30 seconds or so from the top-15, so the men’s field was super tight. Given how he’s had to ski himself into form all season from a wicked back injury late in the fall, I thought that was a great result,” Downing said.
Perfect prep
Osgood landed in Switzerland with plenty of time to prepare for the Engadin and get over the time change and jet lag.
“I was in Switzerland for a week before the Engadin. Switzerland was great,” Osgood said to FasterSkier, citing perfect weather and plenty of skiing right out the door. “I can’t imagine a better way to spend the first week of March.”
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Perfect conditons in the Alps. Until race day. (Photo courtesy of Brayton Osgood)
Trouble from above
Leading up to the race was a week of perfect, stable weather conditions: no clouds, evening lows from -6 to -10 Celcius and afternoon highs from +5 to +10 in the sun. Despite the high afternoon temps, the snow stayed pretty cold and dry for most of the week, only starting to transform on Friday afternoon and then a little more on Saturday when the clouds started to roll in, Osgood recalled.
And those clouds with some wind added did mess up the conditions, especially for racers in the first wave, leaving snow piles and snowdrifts on the course.
“The Engadin was a really tough race. At the start on Sunday, we were met with blowing snow and temperatures around freezing. At least the wind was at our backs, so it pushed us along the lakes. It was blowing so hard the trail turned into waves of windblown powder, but it stayed fast thanks to the icier snow underneath,” Osgood said.
No wind was hardly better
While it would be reasonable to think that trees would provide shelter from the wind and improve the conditions for the front line skiers, this was only a partial bliss, Osgood explained.
“Once we got to St. Moritz and headed into the trees, the wind stopped, but the snow didn’t. By Pontresina the trail was covered with half an inch of wet cement. My skis were about average for the front group for the whole race, but ‘average’ went from ‘feels pretty fast and good’ to ‘these are maybe the slowest skis I’ve ever had and I would never race on them in a million years if I had the choice,’” Osgood said.
For the next portion of the race, from Pontresina to Zuoz, nothing really happened in terms of leaders and lead groups. It was a grunt of a transportation stage.
“Nobody really moved around in the group from Pontresina to Zuoz, because it was so much harder to move outside of the line. Hats off to the guys pulling the train, and especially to Remo Fischer, as that cannot have been easy work. It wasn’t fast skiing where I was 30th in line, but it was still a lot better than trying to pass,” Osgood said, noting that after putting that stretch behind them, the field totally changed.
“Once we hit Zuoz, the race exploded, and I tried to go with the front of the group. I stayed in pretty close contact until about three kilometers to go, when my legs decided to call it a day. I guess I’d burned a few too many matches early on. Those last couple Ks were pretty tough, but it was a good race all in all,” Osgood said.
Marathons: all-in-one package deal
For Osgood, the marathons represent an interesting racing experience, and learning to know yourself, your gear, your limits and the course.
“Marathons are all about making as few efforts as you can, but making those efforts count. Knowing the course – I also did the ESM in 2009 – and where it was important to be near the front – approaching St. Moritz mostly – made a difference as I was able to ski pretty relaxed once I’d established myself in the top 40. Otherwise I didn’t manage anything very special; I just tried to stay right with the guys in front of me. That worked out pretty well until it got hard at the end, and at that point you just have to be able to race a really fast 5K. I had a pretty fast 2-2.5K left, which I guess wasn’t quite enough.”
Next up for Osgood: The Norwegian Birkebeiner on Saturday, a 54-kilometer classic race from Rena to Lillehammer, where skiers have to carry a 3.5-kilo backpack to symbolize the weight of the baby king that the Birkebeiners carried to safety across the mountain in the year 1205.
Complete results from the 2011 Engadin Ski Marathon here.
With 329 Americans and 472 Canadians competing in the 2011 Masters World Cup in Silver Star, British Columbia, last week, the North American stories of medals, personal victories, and just-misses are countless. Let’s just leave it at this: The US athletes earned a total of 100 individual medals, while the Canadian racers snagged 78 medals. Additionally, 12 of the US relay teams medaled: four teams won their classes, four teams were second and four teams were third. North of the border, nine Canadian relay teams medaled, with four winning the bronze, four teams taking silver and one team taking gold in their age classes.
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US racer Barry Makarewicz (front) is about to get passed by fellow American Kent Murdoch in the final 500 meters of the 45K skate on March 10. That cost Makarewicz the gold medal. (Photo: Inge Scheve)
Eva Carlsen of Norway beat Abott Icks of the USA to the silver medal in the 15K classic on March 11. But at least it wasn't the detour that cost Icks the silver. (Photo: Inge Scheve)
Each medal a unique story
“Please tell me that she was more than just a couple of minutes ahead of me,” said Abott Icks of the USA as she crossed the finish line for the bronze medal in the 15K classic on the final day of the championships.
Icks’s mind was so focused on squeezing the last ounces of energy out of her muscles for the last lap, she missed a turn and estimated that she skied at least a minute off course before she realized the terrain no longer looked right and backtracked to the race course. When told that she finished about five minutes behind the silver, a smile spread on Icks’s face so wide that if her ears were not in the way it would have wrapped around her entire head.
“At least it wasn’t the detour that cost me the silver,” she said.
World Masters as Norwegian Birkie Prep
While the majority of the athletes who participated in the World Masters this year live on this side of the Atlantic, a number of racers from other parts of the world also made the trip to Vernon and Silver Star, with Russia being the biggest non-American contingent with. Norway usually fields a large team to the World Masters, but this year only 16 racers competed. However, the small group helped themselves to no less than 18 medals, which is on average more than one per racer.
Gunnar Tronsmoen from Norway is one of them. The 82-year-old veteran helped himself to three gold medals out of three possible – starting with the 10K classic Sunday March 6, continuing with the 5K classic on Monday March 7, and concluding with the 15K classic last Friday.
“I had good skis and I’m healthy, so then everything else follows,” Tronsmoen said to FasterSkier after his first race. And apparently, he kept having good skis and stayed healthy, as more gold followed wherever he went.
While three races in six days would be quite an accomplishment for any racer regardless of age, the World Masters is just a part of the peaking program for Tronsmoen. His main goal of the season is the 54-kilometer Norwegian Birkebeiner on March 19, an annual habit so ingrained in the lively senior that he no longer counts how many times he has raced the Birkie. He only keeps track of the ones he wins. So far, that’s 33.
“I’m going for my 34th this year,” Tronsmoen said with a grin. “I like being one of those who determine the max time for the pin in my class.”
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Gunnar Tronsmoen credits his 3 gold medals to good skis and good health. Next up: the 54-kilometer Norwegian Birkie. (Photo: Inge Scheve)
Nicely executed
With amazing conditions, near perfect weather, world-class grooming, and well-organized logistics and planning, the stage was set for a week of high-level competition for some of the top athletes in the world in their respective age categories.
The start of the women's F3 category 15K skate race on March 5 showed promise of a fierce fight for the medals. (Photo: Inge Scheve)
“This was pretty much a very high-level North American championship with some Russians and other international racers included,” John Downing said jokingly. Downing is the USA National Director for the Masters World Cup, and the Director of American Cross-Country Skiers (AXCS).
The 2011 World Masters at Sovereign Lake/Silver Star also doubled as the US National Masters Championships. The 2011 US masters Team was announced, based on the race results at the World Masters. The full team will be published shortly. Stay tuned.
For complete results from all the events and more information about the 2011 World Masters, check out the 2011 Sparkling Hills Masters World Cup web site.
Next year, the Masters World Cup will move to Oberwiesenthal in Saxony, Germany. The championships are scheduled for March 1-9, 2012. More information here.
BEND, Ore. – Kristina Strandberg moved to Bend from Sweden. Evelyn Dong moved to Bend from the East Coast. And Chisa Obayashi just recently transplanted herself in Bend all the way from Hokkaido in Japan. They all have been training with the XC Oregon program director and coach John “JD” Downing.
“The three of them are in pretty identical positions, in three different ways. Evelyn is just on the cusp of a breakthrough, Chisa is on the cusp of making the Japanese national team, and Kristina has raced on the Swedish World Cup team,” Downing said.
Perfect match
Obayashi, 25, first came to Bend in June, but the initial set-up happened earlier this spring.
“I tried the SuperTour in the spring, and Peter Hale, the racing manager for Madshus USA, introduced me to some club teams in the USA. I chose Bend and XC Oregon, and JD accepted me,” Obayashi recalled.
Downing was excited to welcome Obayashi to Bend and explained that the chemistry with the women on the team could not have been better.
“Chisa and Kristina really hit it off and trained together daily. The design of our program is perfect for that,” he said.
Kristina Strandberg during a dryland workout in Bend, Ore. (Photo: The Center)
Independent and flexible
“Our program is pretty much perfect for Chisa in that it is so athlete-driven. It lets the athletes dictate how they train, and because the program is so athlete-based, I as the director didn’t really do much for Chisa on a regular basis besides making sure the logistics were covered and match her up with training partners,” Downing said.
Downing explained that self-reliance has been part of his coaching philosophy since the XC Oregon program was established 12 years ago, and that the independence helps athletes excel.
“Chisa could easily have flourished in a more structured training environment as well, but I think she really benefitted from seeing how independently athletes train here and how they can take advantage of the support when it’s there,” Downing said. “Bend is an amazing place to train, and one of the best places in the world for skiers.”
On her first visit, Obayashi stayed for three weeks. She arrived just as the snow season was transitioning into dryland. She didn’t mind at all, as Bend has plenty to offer no matter what the time of year.
“I really like Bend. Bend is a great place for training. It has the best weather, and it has some really nice roller ski courses and big mountains,” Obayashi said. She ended up training a lot with Strandberg – much more than Strandberg had imagined to start with.
“She is pretty much a self-coached athlete, and after one of her first camp workouts, she wondered what I was doing the next week. So I sent her my training plan for the week and I figured she could pick out which workouts she wanted to join me for. But then she just said that the plan looked great and did all of it with me,” Strandberg said with a laugh.
In love with Bend
In fact, Bend was such an amazing place for Obayashi this spring that she e-mailed Strandberg from a New Zealand training camp this summer and wondered if she couldn’t come and stay with her for, say, four weeks this September.
Chisa Obayashi teaches Lars Flora how to make sushi from scratch. (Photo: Kristina Strandberg)
“You always start to wonder when someone comes to stay with you for several weeks, how on earth that is going to go. We don’t exactly have the largest house in town. But she is the easiest house guest ever. She immediately told us she likes housework and likes to cook, and she did a lot of both,” Strandberg said, mentioning that homemade sushi and Japanese specialties often landed on her dining table.
Mutual benefits and lasting impressions
“Kristina and Evelyn taught me some training methods and ways to weight train,” Obayashi said. “They are very strong and have very strong spirits. I have a lot of respect for them, and want to train to become as strong as they are.”
While Strandberg and Dong might have taught Obayashi a lot about their training methods and sent her home with some new tricks – most importantly, more focus on heavy strength training – Obayashi certainly left her impression on the Bend girls too.
“Skiing with Chisa was valuable, because she has perfect technique every minute she is out there,” said Dong. “She is never sloppy, even when we’re just going easy. You can tell she puts a lot of hours into perfecting every detail. That’s probably the thing that stuck out the most and hopefully will stick with me the most,” Dong noted.
Obayashi inspired Strandberg and Dong in ways that go far beyond the trails.
“She is incredibly polite and expressed such gratitude whenever she got help. She was always nice and kept her stuff in meticulous order. Even on training camps when things start to go everywhere for all of us, Chisa kept her stuff neat and packed away,” Strandberg said.
Now what?
For the upcoming season, the three skiers are in very similar positions. They all have to prove their potential to earn spots on their respective teams, and they all dream big.
Strandberg, 35, will try to make the Swedish World Cup team again this season, but she knows it will be hard.
“It’s a very hard team to get onto at this point, and it will be more interesting for the coaches to pick a 20-year-old than a 35-year-old, everything else being equal,” Strandberg explained. “But I will race hard and do my best, and if I make it, it would be fantastic.”
Obayashi will go to Muonio, Finland, with the elite ski team from Japan. “I want to get a chance to race at the World Championships in Oslo and get a good result,” she said.
However, to make it to Oslo, Obayashi will need to have all the stars aligned for her.
“She has to ski really well to make it to the World Cup,” Strandberg said. “She’s a distance racer, but she hopes to make it to the World Championships this year. It would be amazing if she did.”
Dong, 25, also has her eyes on Oslo.
“My goals for the season? I’m aiming big. I want to go to the World Champs and make top 30,” she said.
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/03/Howe-Leach-Max-at-Engadin-2011.jpg" "Howe -Leach-Max at Engadin 2011")
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![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/03/Stephanie-Howe-at-2011-Gatinueu-Loppet.jpg" "Stephanie Howe at 2011 Gatinueu Loppet")
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![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/03/F3-start5-web.jpg" "2011 Sparkling Hills Masters World Cup")
