2 local skiers named to world championship team
Hard work is paying off for Kelowna’s Gareth Williams and Vernon’s Hannah Mehain, who were both named to the Canadian world junior championship team to compete in Lahti, Finland, Jan. 20-27.
There they will face tough competition from the best young cross-country skiers from all over the world.
Although Mehain has made the team, she is not yet a member of the Canadian National Ski Team, so much of this trip is at her own expense.
She has a Go Fund Me page if you can help: gofundme.com/world-u23-championships-in-finland.
——— Kelowna’s Emily Young, who won a silver and a bronze medal at the Pyeonchang Paralympics, is now—after the first ParaNordic World Cup held recently in Finland—the third-ranked Para-Nordic skier in the world.
Her teammate, Natalie Wilke from Salmon Arm, a gold and bronze medalist from Pyeonchang, is ranked seventh.
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Beckie Scott, the best cross-country skier Canada has ever produced, was inducted into the Order Of Canada recently.
Scott won 17 World Cup medals, a gold medal in the 10K pursuit at the 2002 Olympics, and a silver in the relay at the 2006 Games and was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame in 2011.
She was much more than just a skier. She was passionate and outspoken about the use of drugs in sport. She served as a member of the athletes’ commission for the World Anti-Doping Agency and the IOC.
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There was sad news in the Canadian Nordic ski world today with the passing of Bjorger Petterson. I had just read his book, A Cross Country Ski Story, and although I had met him a few times, I had no idea what an incredible contribution he had made to Nordic skiing in Canada.
Petterson was born in Norway in 1942 and came to Canada in 1953.
The family settled in Prince George where his father shaped the development of cross-country skiing both there and throughout British Columbia.
Petterson followed in his father’s footsteps and spent his life working full-time with Nordic skiing in Canada. He was, in my opinion, the father of competitive crosscountry skiing in Canada. He later moved to the small town if Inuvik, N.W.T.
There he started teaching kids to ski and, in 1972, five of the nine skiers on Canada’s Olympic team, including the amazing Firth twins, Sharon and Shirley, were from Inuvik.
He served as Canadian cross-country representative on FIS for 27 years and was made an honorary lifetime member in 2000. Learn more at skimuseum.ca.
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The first Canadian Tire Interior Running Series race will be, as it has been for almost 40 years, the Starting Block 10K in Lavington (near Vernon) on Feb. 10.
This flat, fast course is a great way to start the season and like all of the Canadian Tire races, the entry fee is modest, only $32.
There is also a 3K run for those not ready for the longer distance.