July 15, 2018 – Cross-country skiing is an international sport, and with that in mind NENSA is very excited to announce that we are bringing Ludvig Sognen Jensen to New England for a week of high visibility rollerski events. Known to some by his social media handle @luddeyo, Jensen is the world’s fastest cross-country skier in the new discipline of supersprint racing.

His arrival in Boston on August 6th will kick off a week of events across the northeast including a stop at the U16 national camp in Lake Placid, NY where Ludvig will train with the U16s and face off head-to-head in a “celebrity deathmatch” sprint with Andy Newell on August 8th.

Luddeyo will then make at stop on the afternoon of August 10th to the Burlington VT waterfront to set a NASTAR like sprint course and time that athletes are welcome try to get as close to as they can!  He will also make a guest of honor appearance at our App Gap Challenge rollerski race in Fayston, Vermont on August 11. There will be autograph sessions at High Peaks Cyclery in Lake Placid on August 8, and at the SkiRack in Burlington, VT on August 10.

Ludvig’s agent Steffen Aabel tells us, “The absolutely [most fun] thing about working with Ludvig is to push our national sport forward with supersprint, where I can be witness to and support the pioneering work he puts down. Therefore it is incredibly cool to be able to announce that we together have created a collaboration that is part of developing sport on another continent.”

The announcement of Ludvig’s visit is part of NENSA’s push to fill a gap in the programming available to US skiers in the off season. Earlier this summer we announced our partnership with Swenor Rollerskis, as well as our continued collaboration with SWIX  in supporting our summer and fall NENSA Rollerski Race Series. This series will bring together elites, juniors, and masters to strengthen our ski community, and NENSA Competitive Director Justin Beckwith is also creating a bridge to Europe and international competition with the inclusion of Ludvig at the App Gap Challenge.

There will be five races in the 2018 NENSA Rollerski Race Series. Athletes will be ranked by their best 3 of 5 placements, with senior athletes vying for a cash purse graciously provided by Marty and Kathy Hall. (1st: $500, 2nd: $300, 3rd: $200)

The top skiers from pre-registration (lowest US Ski & Snowboard / FIS points) will race on NENSA’s matched sets of Swenor Rollerskis.  Depending on race formats skis will be provided to the top-ten or top-twenty skiers of each gender. For more information please visit here and for questions email justin@nensa.net and tom@nensa.net.

NENSA is the Community Olympic Development Program (CODP) for cross-country skiing in the East as well as the umbrella for most organized Nordic skiing events in the region. Cross-country skiing, as practiced by our youth skiers and families, is a lifetime activity firmly rooted in New England tradition. It is NENSA’s mission to sustain a vital and active skiing community in New England.