In 2016, Maya MacIsaac-Jones got her first World Cup top-30 in the Gatineau sprint stage of the Ski Tour Canada. She'll start this season on the World Cup, but is shooting for excellence at U23 World Championships in Utah later in the year - fueled by pre-race Harry Potter reading.
Prior to June 24, Canada's Ivan Babikov was training in Canmore, prepping for the upcoming World Cup season. Then "boom", he's retired and named Cross Country Canada's national-team coach. We caught up with coach Babikov while he was in Quebec, where he is helping lead the national team's first camp of the summer.
It's a big day for national-team nominations as Canada released its list of top-tier cross-country skiers -- with six men and one woman on the World Cup A and B teams -- for the 2016/2017 season.