January 25, 2017 (Ulricehamn, Sweden) – The US Ski Team recently posted selection criteria and quotas for the upcoming World Cup Finals in Quebec City, March 17-19, relocated from Russia due to the doping scandals in that country. With a North American venue now in the mix, both Canada and the USA have the opportunity to channel more skiers to start lines via respective Nation’s Group quotas – Canada has 10 women and 8 men, while the US has five of each. This is great news for each country’s development programs but adds challenges to both organizations to quickly devise selection criteria and other logistics not planned for. We caught up with Chris Grover, US XC Head Coach, in Sweden during the recent World Cup there to chat about the fabulous racing there on the weekend and to find out more about the “behind-the-scenes” scrambling to create “multiple pathways” as he describes it, for skiers to earn a berth to Quebec City. With the 2017 Junior/U23 Worlds also taking place in Utah very soon there’s lots of excitement along with challenges as well. Grover estimates 20-30 US athletes are vying for their 10 Nations spots for QCity – read more about the US selection criteria and quotas here.