January 15, 2007 – DOUBLE CROSS is learning to ski through jumps and bumps in your ski club’s own “ski playground”.

Cross-country skiing is much more than a walk in the park on skinny skis! Since the introduction of skating, higher technology equipment and new race formats such as sprinting, pursuits and mass starts, cross-country skiing has picked up speed and grown in excitement. The evolution continues, with athletes now performing feats on cross-country skis that are more closely associated with freestyle skiing and snowboarding. At the leading edge of this trend is “Xtreme X-Country”. In its elite competitive form, it takes place on high speed roller-coaster courses and resembles snowboard cross. At a more basic level, it involves learning to ski through jumps and bumps in your ski club’s own “ski playground”. Regardless of the level at which it is performed, Xtreme X-Country emphasizes basic athletic skills such as balance, agility, strength and the ability to adapt basic sport skills to an unusual setting. To keep in step with this new dimension of cross-country skiing, Cross Country Canada has developed the “Double Cross” program, designed to enable young skiers to experience the fun and excitement of applying their cross-country skills to challenging terrain in an environment of adventure and intra-group competition.

The principal objective of a DOUBLE CROSS competition is to bring together elementary school age children to experience the fun and excitement of applying their cross-country skiing skills to challenging terrain in an environment of adventure and intra-group competition.

To kick-off this new program, CCC will offer the organizers of approved events a special award to hand out to each participant. To view an example of the incentive award being demonstrated by two National Ski Team athletes visit here.

Note that participation in this activity is a requirement of “Target 14” in the new CCC Track Attack program for children 10 to 12 years of age.