January 23, 2012 – The other day, while I was at the CBC filming the highlight show on the Tour de Ski, I was asked by Scott Russell if I thought that this generation of male racers was the best in Canadian history. At the time I replied that this group of Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov, Len Valjas and others were at least as good as the group that was led by Pierre Harvey and included Yves Bilodeau, Al Pilcher, Alain Masson, Wayne Dustin and Dany Bouchard.

After the results of the Tour de Ski and the stunning, gutsy 3rd place by Devon Kershaw that followed the 4th place by Alex Harvey in Otepaa I now think that this group is better.

While it seems that you can have good results in sprint races when you are young, doing well in men’s distance racing on the World Cup is the hardest thing to do in xc ski racing. It takes talent, years and years of commitment to training and a strong national program to create these results.

It starts, I think, with a strong national program that can find, develop and support international skiers. Canadian NST head Tom Holland and the rest of the staff at Cross Country Canada have worked tirelessly for years to create this program. They continue to have great coaching and support staff in place led by Justin Wadsworth and a strong training center system with strong coaches that can develop our talented skiers. As well, CCC supports a system of strong clubs that are capable of finding, developing and producing great skiers. While the Canadian women’s program is starting to rebound the American women’s team keeps getting better and better.

In addition to the expertise and hard work of the professional staff and volunteers a strong system also needs the resources and funding to run programs and fund teams. This is a Catch 22 in that in order to receive funding you need results internationally. The Canadian men’s Team has achieved those results consistently over the past few years (before that it was the women’s team led by Beckie Scott, Sara Renner and Chandra Crawford) and as a result they receive good funding from Sport Canada, Own the Podium and sponsors. Of course, this could always be better and CCC is working hard to raise more funds. The USST has little government funding and must rely solely on sponsors and USOC funding so they struggle more to find these resources.

Having strong organizing committees that are willing to risk hosting World Cups is also essential. As well as giving our skiers home field advantage, races in North American also expose the next level of skier to the highest level of racing. This helps those that are fortunate enough to race and others who are able to watch the racing live or on TV. Next season there will be two World Cups in Canada – one at Canmore and the other on the streets of Quebec City. These races should be televised in Canada and the US.

This also highlights an area that needs growth in Canada and the US. There is no consistent source of TV or internet coverage of xc ski racing that can be seen unless you watch pirated webcasts very early in the morning. In order to create xc ski racing heroes for our kids they need to be able to see the top skiers from North America and the rest of the world racing every week the same way aspiring football, basketball and hockey players can see the best in the world playing on TV almost every night during their seasons.

This increased visual coverage will also bring more sponsors and money to the sport. Imagine what would happen if more business and corporate CEO’s and Marketing Directors could see Devon, Alex, Kikkan Randall and the other top xc skiers on a weekly basis throughout the winter. They would be much more likely to spend their marketing dollars on a sport and athletes that they see more often.

It is a pleasure now to report on the results of the North American skiers who race on the World Cup. Every week and every race has someone near the top of the field. In looking at the developing skiers I can also see many strong young male and female skiers like Jessie Diggins (an amazing 18th on Sunday) who will make their mark in years to come. Of course, there is room for improvement in any system and as the old saying goes “if you are not improving then you will be left behind”. Kudos go to the leaders in Canada and US for their vision and hard work. Kudos also go to the skiers and coaches who make it all happen.

It is time for North Americans to stop thinking that we are inferior in xc skiing to Scandinavians and other Europeans. We have the systems and the skiers to compete with the best in the world. Right now Kikkan Randall is 4th overall and the leader in the women’s sprint World Cup. Devon Kershaw is 5th overall on the men’s World Cup and Alex Harvey is 8th. With increased media coverage and resources this system can produce more and more top skiers in the future so that both programs can increase their depth.

Remember when I stated before Xmas that Petter Northug and Marit Bjoergen had the overall World Cup sewed up for the season? Well, there is a reason why I am 250th in the SkiTrax World Cup fantasy pool and why I don’t gamble on horses! Dario Cologna has taken a big lead in the men’s standings and with Northug now missing World Cups to train for and race in World Loppet races it looks like Cologna is the one to beat for the men. He has 1,474 points to 1,181 for Northug and 843 for Marcus Hellner who is 3rd.

Watching Justina Kowalczyk power her way up the big hill on the course in Otepaa on Sunday leads me to believe that she has a great chance to beat Bjoergen. She is only 62 points behind Bjoergen now and has been getting closer every week. Kowalczyk is the defending overall champion and she has shown that she can ski fast all year long. She is on snow for over 340 days a year and has trained this year to win the Tour de Ski and the overall cup. Bjoergen has trained with the same goals so it will be fun to see who comes out on top. As in the men’s race there is really no one else who is close enough to have a chance to beat these two skiers.

There is a one week break on the World Cup this weekend. Many nations hold their National Championships during this break. Petter Northug will race on Thursday in the Norwegian Championships and then will travel to Italy to race in the Marcialonga Marathon cup race. This is the first of three marathons that he will race this year. It is 70km long and he will try to do it double poling the whole distance. This has become the standard in most of the classic marathon races. He is also planning on double poling the 90km Vasaloppet in Sweden in March.

Many of the North American skiers are training in Ramsau, Austria before travelling to Russia for the World Cups starting with a sprint race in Moscow on February 2nd. I hope that you have great skiing where you are and you get out and enjoy your winter.