WORLD’S TOP JUNIOR NORDIC ATHLETES WHISTLER-BOUND
In early 2023, the world’s top junior athletes in three Nordic disciplines — cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined — will descend on Whistler Olympic Park (WOP). They will compete in the most prestigious event the park has hosted since the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
This past fall, the Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS) announced that WOP will host the FIS World Junior/U23 Championships, bringing more than 500 young athletes from around the world to compete from Jan. 27 to Feb. 5, 2023.
Canada has hosted the World Juniors only twice previously — in 1979 at Mont Ste. Anne, Que., and in 1997 in Canmore, Alta. “It’s not often we get a world championship event in our area, and when FIS announced it, it just created such an exciting buzz, both for the chance to showcase the Sea to Sky Corridor and really to showcase the fantastic athletes that we have,” said Norman Laube, chair of the Black Tusk Nordic Events Society (BTNES), which is organizing the 2023 event.
Landing such an event comes with a fair bit of prestige, some facility upgrades and the opportunity to host other events, including the 2021 FIS Cup Ski Jumping/Continental Cup Nordic Combined (Dec. 17 to 20, 2021) and the Canadian National Championships in March 2022. BTNES is seeking volunteers to help with all three events.
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