Viewing Guide for February 9–13: The World Cup Comes to Canmore

World Cup racing is back, and this time it’s in North America. The circuit has recently travelled to Canmore, for the first time since 2016 and the sixth time this century, to kick off six races on this continent. There will be four races in Canmore this week, then two races in Minneapolis next weekend. It is currently 22° F in Canmore as I write this on Wednesday afternoon, and 52° F in Minneapolis. Ski racing takes all forms.

Here is when this week’s races will be in Canmore:

Canmore World Cup (local time at venue: Mountain Standard Time)

Who is racing for the North Americans?

So many people! Both the U.S. and Canada get nation’s group start rights for these races. This is generous of FIS, insofar as the U.S. and Canada are in fact different nations, and generous of Canada, insofar as this will be at least the twelfth time this century that the U.S. has benefitted from Canada’s hosting largesse, while our neighbours to the north and east have not experienced a similar benefit in this country since Soldier Hollow in 2001. For perspective, Beckie Scott made the podium for Canada in one of those races, and Scott retired from professional skiing the year that soon-to-be-World-Cup-athlete Murphy Kimball was born (viz., 2006). It’s been a while.

Anyway. Each country gets a full twelve starters per race per gender for all four races. You can find the American starters here, and the Canadian starters here.

And speaking of Kimball: There is a noteworthy age range among the American starters in Canmore this week. At one end of that span, Rosie Brennan is 35. At the other end, Kimball, who is missing class at West Anchorage High School to be here, is 17.

Kimball is the “the youngest male American starter in a WC that I have any record of” writes the inimitable Joran Elias, aka Statistical Skier, in a recent email to Nordic Insights. He adds that this conclusion brings with it “The usual long list of caveats: my records are incomplete prior to 1991 or so, and birthdate information on athletes from FIS can sometimes consist only of a birth year, so that can make the age calculation a little approximate.”

Elias continues, “The next youngest I have a record of is actually Timothy Miller from way back in 1984; he would have been 18-19.”

Gus Schumacher, meanwhile, also of Anchorage, was 18 at World Cup Finals in Québec City in March 2019, which likely makes him either first or second on this list.

Kendall Kramer, of Fairbanks, was all of 16 at those same races; Elias confirmed my sense that this puts her on the short list for youngest American World Cup starter ever. Elias cites American skier Kristina Trygstad-Saari at the 2001 Salt Lake City World Cup as Kramer’s main domestic competition here; Trygstad-Saari was born in October 1984, making her slightly less than 16 years, three months old at the time of her World Cup debut. Kramer was born in June 2002, per her public FIS profile, meaning that she was roughly six months older than Trygstad-Saari when she raced in Québec City.

How can you watch the races?

This one is easier than it often is. For viewers in Canada, you can stream the races live on CBC here. For viewers who can geolocate to Canada (e.g., via a VPN), you can stream the races live on CBC via the same link. For non-American viewers, the FIS YouTube channel should provide, the same as it has all season long. For Americans, well, here are the rest of your options, same as they’ve been for a few months now:

How can you read about the races?

I am flying down tomorrow, and will be on site all week. Gerry Furseth is driving up and will take the lead on our Canadian coverage. We have a special guest who will be assisting with mixed zone coverage on sprint days.

How can you support our coverage of these races?

A great question. Travel for in-person reporting is not cheap, and travel to anywhere from Alaska is particularly not cheap. I used mileage tickets to make it to and from Soldier Hollow for U.S. Nationals, but that used up nearly all of my mileage stash on Alaska Airlines and I paid for this trip out of pocket. As well as, of course, food and lodging for both trips, and a rental car for Soho.

Another nordic ski news website you may be familiar with annually receives in the low-five-figures from Marty Hall to support their reporting (hence the “A Hall Mark of Excellence Award” often blurbed on their site at the top of news coverage). This is good, actually; I have nothing snarky to say about anyone financially supporting cross-country ski journalism in this country, and I am truly glad that Marty and his wife do so here. I really mean that. But that said, I have yet to reach a cumulative five figures’ worth of advertising revenue through my first two seasons at this site. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, this season’s GoFundMe may be found here.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the races.

— Gavin Kentch