November 30, 2005 – It’s snowing in the hills and Italian cross-country skiers are taking their skis out of their ski bags. Livigno has already prepared a two kilometre long training track and is getting ready to host more than a thousand cross country skiers for La Sgambeda which will take place on December 18. At this time there are more than 800 entries, but considering that the fee remains 45 Euro for the next five days, the organizers of the Events Office and Tourist Board hope to have more than a thousand registrations within the end of this month. But from the 1st December those who would like to take part in the 16th edition of La Sgambeda will have to pay 55 Euro.

La Sgambeda is very popular amongst the cross country skiers and the “elite” athletes are interested into this race, too. This is the third year that La Sgambeda is confirmed as the opening race of the FIS Marathon Cup and here in Livigno you will find the best endurance skiers together with the Italian National Team.

The long distance Italian Team has already confirmed its participation, starting from Cristina Paluselli, who will wear the red starting number as she is the winner of the last FIS Marathon Cup finals, Lara Peyrot who triumphed the last two editions of Livigno race and also Anna Santer. Among the men athletes who have also confirmed to attend La Sgambeda in Livigno, there are Marco Cattaneo, Pierluigi Costantin, Silvio Fauner and Tullio Grandelis and Roberto De Zolt from Belluno. There are a lot of foreign athletes like Juan Jesus Gutierrez from Spain, Teemu Kattilakoski from Finland and Raul Olle from Estonia, a specialist in cross country, together with his teammate Kajari Priit. From Switzerland, precisely from Davos arrives Jasmin Nunige who took third at Transjurassiene and from Austria comes Thomas Steurer. Ben Derrik from Australia won four times at Kangaroo Hoppet at the end of August and was second at Koenig Ludwig Lauf in 2004.The dramatic turnover can come from Czech Republic and from Katerina Neumannova who wants to take part in the event as she would like to get ready for the Olympic Games 2006, in Torino. According to the trainers of this strong athlete La Sgambeda is a perfect occasion for training (thanks to its 1800m) and facing the competition.

The final starting list is not ready yet, but La Sgambeda can already count on some prestigious new entries like the Norwegian Team as their technicians on the occasion of their meeting at the end of September said that they are interested in La Sgambeda and they could come back to Livigno, together with the strong Swedish Team.