The USSA Cross-Country Sports’ Committees had their annual meeting in Park City on May 21 – 22. The following interesting issues were discussed.
– The 2004/2005 USSA Development Team will consist of four athletes
– US Ski Team will send at least 5 skiers to all World Cup event this year, starting in November
– US Ski Team will send at least 10 skiers to the 2005 World Championship in Oberstorf, Germany
– The 2005 and 2006 US Senior National Championship will be held at Soldier Hollow, Utah
– The 2005 Championship on Jan 3 – 10 will have the following program:
– Day 1: 15/30 km Free Technique
– Day 2: 5/10 km Classic
– Day 4: 5/10 km Free Technique
– Day 6: Sprint Classic
– Day 8: 15/30 km continuos pursuit
– USSA will not fund any athletes to the 2005 Junior World Championship Team in Rovaniemi, Finland March 21 – 27. The USSA will fund coaches, but it is up to each qualified junior to fund their trip on their own.
– The team selection criteria for the Junior World Championship team includes results achieved in the SuperTour races before February 13th this coming season, including the races at the US Senior Nationals in January
– The 2006 Junior National Championship will be held at Michigan Tech in Houghton, Michigan.
– The 2007 Junior National Championship will be held at Soldier Hollow, Utah
– The relay at the 2005 US Junior National Championship at Auburn Ski Club will be in one technique – classical (not both classical and free technique as in past years)
– The events at the US Junior National Championship will be new after next year, and is after 2005 proposed to introduce Sprint, mass-start and continuos pursuit (alternating years), but still keeping one interval start race (more on this later)
– The cities of Madison, WI and Minneapolis are organizing “City Sprints” this year, on January 16th and Feb 4th/5th respectively, both as part of the USSA SuperTour. The course in Madison is proposed for the city block around the State Capitol Building.
– There is discussion of adding a 50 km US Championship this year in connection with one of the 2005 March Marathon races in the West
– The USSA Cross-Country committee formed a Working Group to start planning a structured National Cross-Country Coaches’ Education system, including a certification system for licensed USSA Cross-Country coaches (more on this later).
