Canmore is having a year. Just over a month after hosting the International Ski Federation (FIS) Cross Country World Cup, the Canmore Nordic Centre is pulling out all the stops and showcasing its brand-new biathlon facility as the host of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup Finals from Thursday, March 14 to Sunday, March 17. The world-class venue amid Canada’s Rocky Mountains is no stranger to World Cup nordic and mountain bike events. It...
This week’s featured articles are made possible thanks to the generous support of Masters World Cup 2018. The Canadian AQI is based on particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller, but uses a 1-10+ scale with “1” being low health risk and “+” very high.) Gareth Williams, a member of Canada’s national U25 Team and a native of Kelowna, B.C., wrote in an email that the smoke was a near-constant companion this summer. “Summer has been...
The 5 Peaks Trail Running Series came to Canmore for the second installment of central Alberta's race series last weekend. Consistent with the usual 5 Peaks format, this event consisted of an “enduro” distance and a “sport” distance, 12 k and 8 k respectively. But unlike your average 5 Peaks race, this event featured Olympians.
For the last several days, skiers from all over Canada and the U.S. have converged on Canmore, Alberta, to ski the seasonal anomaly that is Frozen Thunder: a 2.2-kilometer loop of real snow skiing, harvested from last winter and saved over the brief Canadian summer under a thick coat of sawdust.
With the holidays heralding a rest period for many, Canmore is old news, but we haven’t forgotten about several of the athletes we interviewed there. Here are some of the highlights, and be sure to check out our video montage with several Canadian nation's group skiers.
Germany's Tim Tscharnke made a good day into a great one, capturing his first World Cup win (and individual podium) on his birthday in the 15 k classic mass start at the Alberta World Cup in Canmore, Alberta.
A staple on the Australian national team for the last 10 years, Esther Bottomley wants to crack the top 30 in a World Cup this season, and she'll go for it in her first World Cup of the year in Québec this weekend.
Thirty-six men in the Spray Drag running race didn’t end up chasing Devon Kershaw up Spray Lakes Road in Canmore, Alberta, on Saturday, but they had one heck of a battle from the start. According to American Sylvan Ellefson (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Team HomeGrown), the pace was fast for a bunch of nordic skiers early on. “Any road runner could have pulled away, but it was a quick pace,” he wrote in an email....
Before the sun rises in Canmore, Alberta, those near the ski trails can probably hear the sounds of striding and skating along hard-packed snow this time of year. That’s likely accompanied by voices, chit-chatting as skiers compete 1.8-kilometer loops around the Canmore Nordic Centre before trail passes go on sale at 9 a.m. They’re not exactly renegades, night owls or extreme enthusiasts. For the most part, these individuals belong to clubs – some of which...
2ND ANNUAL SPRAY DRAG RUNNING RACE October 20th, 2012 Alberta World Cup Academy in a running race up the Spray Lakes road! All proceeds go to helping support the team for their upcoming season… According to AWCA coach and race organizer Stefan Kuhn, “It’s basically all up hill … Starts on the river and we run all the way up then past the nordic center and up to the Spray dam, which looks over Canmore.” ...
The average adult makes somewhere around 35,000 decisions per day. Before setting out for a road ride on Sunday, three retired Olympians made a couple of casual ones. First, former Canadian national-team members Robin Clegg (biathlon), Jason Myslicki (nordic combined) and Sean Crooks (cross-country skiing) decided to ride between 80 to 100 kilometers just outside Calgary, Alberta. Second, they picked a quiet township road, which would lead them to a coffee shop in the suburb...
This is the third preview in a quick-and-dirty series about Canadian national-training centres. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order. Team: Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) Coaches: Chris Jeffries (head coach/women’s coach), Mike Cavaliere (racing director/men’s coach), George Grey (women’s assistant coach), Stefan Kuhn (universal coach/men’s assistant), Jeremy Hecker (summer intern), Rob Soffer (strength...
Maybe it was the transition to full-time racing or the fact that Zoe Roy was competing in her home nation last season. It could’ve been the back-and-fourth flights across the U.S/Canadian border, or one team’s hospitality that helped Roy reach new heights on the NorAm circuit. Whatever it was, she wasn’t fighting it. After spending some 20 years in Bend, Ore., Roy, who turned 25 on Sunday, is moving to Canmore, Alberta. Starting Aug. 1,...
Canadian Olympian and Canadian National Ski Team veteran Gord Jewett is still racing – but on his bike, rather than a pair of skis. Earlier this month Jewett became Alberta Provincial Road Cycling Champion, taking top honors in the 130 k race in Lethbridge, Alberta. The 33 year old Jewett, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, retired from ski racing following the 2010 season, where he competed in the Vancouver Olympics. Jewett races for the Rundel...
Over 1,600 racers were met with mild temperatures and fast conditions for today’s Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Marathon just outside of Edmonton, Alta. It was a very flat course that started at the Ukrainian Cultural Village and wound it’s way through Elk Island National Park to the Cooking Lake Blackfoot recreation area. Racers got to take in the northern Alberta prairie scenery, crossing a number of frozen lakes and bogs in near-perfect conditions. The premier event,...
The 23rd Canadian Birkie races kick off tomorrow in Edmonton, Alta., but the festival has already begun
Twenty-two years after the 1988 Winter Olympics, the Canmore Nordic Centre remains a model of legacy planning for Olympic cross-country venues. When it was built in 1986, Canmore set a new standard for nordic facilities, and when it was refurbished in 2005, the ski area redefined that standard. In his masters’ thesis, John-Christopher Reid called the 1988 Winter Olympics “…the single most significant precedent in terms of structuring Winter Olympic legacies in North America.” Canmore...
During the month of June, the Canadian National Ski Team (CNST) tackled the usual Haig glacier ‘Yo-Yo’ Camp. Featuring 23 days of skiing, intervals, distance workouts and traveling from high to low altitudes and back again, the ‘Yo-Yo’ camp has been a fixture on the CNST schedule for the last couple of years. The training camp has always been a difficult one, due to its length and its strenuous workouts. The 2010 edition featured four...