A spectacular two days of skiing and I didn’t even put my skis on!
Ladies sprint quarter-finals at Canmore World Cup. #24 is Canadian Chandra Crawford. Feb 6, 2010
The weather today was as nice a winter’s day as I’ve ever seen and the there was a huge crowd lining the track and cheering on the skiers. I was volunteering both days but my job allowed me lots of time to spectate.
Canadian Stefan Kuhn(#7) leads the pack around the the first turn.
The hi-lite of the weekend for Canadians was Sara Renner’s bronze medal in the sprints today. She qualified 15th but raced smart in her quarter-final and semi-final to make it into the final where she showed her experience and came in third.
Canadian Sara Renner wins a bronze medal at the Canmore World Cup
- An exhausted skier at the finish line during the World Cup at Canmore
Sweden took home two gold medals, with Charlotte Kalla winning the women’s 10K skate on Friday and Emil Joensson winning today’s men’s sprint by a country mile. It will be interesting to watch what he does at the Olympics. The Nowegians did not send their “A” team to Canmore, so I’m sure they’ll give him some competition at Whistler. The Norwegians won a silver medal today in the men’s sprints from a B-team skier. XC skiing in Norway is like hockey in Canada.
Carissa from Sweden had lots to cheer about this weekend with two gold medals for her home country.
It was encouraging to see 9 Canadians qualify for the sprint heats today. Dasha Gaiazova and Sara Renner were the only ones to advance further, but a good showing nonetheless. This experience of competing in a world cup race will be invaluable to their chances at the Olympics in one week.
Yesterday in the men’s 15K skate, Canadian skiers had two solid results with Ivan Babikov finishing 10th(39 sec behind) and George Grey 17th(56 sec behind) out of 79 skiers.
As for my volunteer job, it was top secret but this might give you a hint:
See 30 additional photos including a Pisten Bully grooming snow on main street in Canmore and a very rare photo of me without skis on
Here’s the Calgary Herald story Sara Renner roars to World Cup bronze at Canmore
If you want to see more detailed stories, go to Ski Trax
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