January 16, 2007 (Canmore, Alta.) – The Russians are here. So are the Poles and the Fins. They are the first visiting teams to arrive in Canmore to partake in the Alberta World Cup Cross-Country 2008 at the Canmore Nordic Centre from Jan. 22-26.

The World Cup is Olympic level cross-country skiing, with the best skiers from each nation participating.

“Tonight I expect Belarus,” Dale Swanson, competition secretary said on Monday. “The Russians brought 40 people with them, half of them are athletes, the rest are coaches and support staff.”

The rest of the teams are expected to arrive early this week, to give themselves time to get acclimatized to Canmore’s elevation and get some training in on skis.

The Russian team had training in mind when they lined up for rental skis at Trail Sports, a rental shop and cross-country ski store located at the Canmore Nordic Centre on Saturday. The team’s expensive technical gear was left behind at the airport in London, England, according to teammate Pankratov Nikolay.

“We arrived yesterday evening,” Nikolay said at Trail Sports on Saturday. “We are having a good visit. There are good mountains. We hope for good times for our team.”

Not many of the Russian team could speak English, so it was a bit challenging for Trail Sports staff when 40 of them tried to rent skis at the same time.

“It was different,” Kristie Patterson, Trail Sports employee said after the rush. “But skiing is a universal language. They know their sizes. We helped them a little bit to find what they wanted.”

The team hit the trails for some skiing and work out the jet lag. Robin Blanchard was out for a ski on Saturday. Robin is the brother of Chris Blanchard, a member of the Canadian cross-country ski team who competed in the Nagano Olympics in 1998.

“I saw a bunch of the Russians on the Rundle Trail,” Blanchard, who now lives in Montreal, said. “I flew by them really fast so I didn’t see much of them. There were a bunch of them in town getting groceries at Sobey’s. They were trying to push the right button to cross the busy intersection at the lights. I’m kind of disappointed that I won’t be in town for the World Cup. It would be fun to stick around for a bit.”

Canmore’s Alberta World Cup is jointly hosted by Foothills Nordic and the Canmore Nordic Ski Club. It is part of the Viessmann FIS World Cup cross-country, presented by Rauch.

“We are putting on four races,” Robert Hogg, Chief of Competition said at an information night in Canmore on Monday. “That is the most races to be held at a single resort, other than a World Championships, or the Olympics.”

There are 21 nations competing at the Alberta World Cup in Canmore, including Canada. The other countries are Australia, Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukranine and the USA.
There will be 180 athletes competing, with 100 men and 80 women. Along with the competitors are 165 coaches, technicians and support personnel.

“The Polish team came with three athletes and six technicians,” Hogg said. “The technicians vary. The Italians are bringing a chef.”
The event will be broadcast by three international broadcasters, reaching 80 million viewers worldwide. CBC’s Country Canada will show the races, as will the regular CBC sports news.

“In Canada, 200,000 people watched the World Cup on TV last year,” Hogg said. “These races outdraw Nascar, alpine skiing and the average football games.”

The Alberta World Cup starts on Tuesday, Jan. 22 at the Nordic Centre. The first race will be the pursuit, 15 kilometres long for the women and 30 kms long for the men. Race day festivities start at 10 a.m. each day. There will be no parking at the Nordic Centre, but shuttle buses will be provided throughout the day, with loading at downtown locations.

The exciting sprint elimination rounds will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 23 with the classic 1.2 km races.

“There is always lots of action in the sprints,” Hogg said. “It’s not roller derby, but it’s challenging and aggressive.”

The first sprint round is an elimination round, after which the top 30 skiers are put into heats, six people per heat. They are eventually eliminated until the final round produces the winners.

Thursday will be a training day with no races. On Friday, the 10 km women’s and the 15 km men’s free technique races will be held.

“It’s a traditional event,” Hogg said. “Racers go every 30 seconds and they race against the clock. They go as fast as they can and ski as hard as they can. We start with the slowest racers first, so you never know who will win.”

On Saturday, Jan. 26, the sprint freestyle races will be run. Races will be done by about 2:30 p.m. everyday.

“The free sprints are on a shorter course, about 1 km,” Hogg said. “It’s short, fast, a real power course. You can see the entire race from the stadium.”

Canmore has one of the best courses in the world for the number of times spectators can see racers from the stadium, with up to three times per lap, he said.

“We have a great announcer, (Kjell-Erik Kristianson, from Norway),” Hogg said. “He speaks 12 languages and he understands the formats. He will do a wonderful job explaining the drama.”

Town events will be held each night at the Seventh Ave. pond and at the Civic Centre plaza, including medal presentations to the winners. A street dance will be held on Friday night and everyone is welcome.