Welcome to 2019: Nordic skiing
01.01.2019Second snow sport Worlds of the year head to Canada
This year will be a busy one in the world of winter Para sport, with four World Championships taking place in the first six months of the year. The second of those will be the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships in February, and here are five things you should know.
Canada will stage event for first time
The sixth edition of the World Championships will take place in the Canadian city of Prince George from 16-24 February.
Vuokatti, Finland, hosted the first in 2009. The following edition took place in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, in 2011.
Solleftea, Sweden, hosted the World Championships in 2013 and Cable, USA, in 2015. The last edition took place in Finsterau, Germany, in 2017.
World-class venue
The Otway Nordic Ski Centre, operated by the not-for-profit Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, is home to a world-class 30 lane biathlon range, a biathlon technical building, FIS homologated cross country race course (10km with LED lighting) and a large cross country technical building.
Located minutes outside of Prince George, it will introduce snowmaking facilities as well as accessibility improvements to the lodge ahead of the 2019 World Championships.
Medal-tastic!
There will be 38 medal events in the programme, 20 of them in cross-country skiing and the other 18 in biathlon.
Paralympic and world champions in action
Many Finsterau 2017 and PyeongChang 2018 gold medallists are expected to take on the slopes on Canadian soil.
It will be exciting to see established names such as USA’s Oksana Masters and France’s Benjamin Daviet competing, as well as promising youngsters including Austria’s Carina Edlinger and Taras Rad of Ukraine.
Canadian hopes
Nordic skiing’s most decorated Paralympian Brian McKeever and PyeongChang 2018 champion Mark Arendz are the two biggest hopes for Canada on the men’s side.
Paralympic bronze medallists Brittany Hudak and Emily Young will try capture a medal in the women’s events.
For more information on the 2019 Worlds visit the official Prince George 2019 website.
