Hi Readers!
As some of you may know, the World Junior and U23 Championships were held last week in Lillehammer, Norway, and BSF had a decisive showing.
Anders Weiss, Elke Hammerstein, Max Kluck, Luke Allan, Coach Andy and I all had the pleasure of romping through Norway for the last week for what was a very exciting championship. I’m going to take you through some highlights and hopefully give you an idea of what the atmosphere is like around a championship event like this one.
Often with races involving a trip across the pond, a “precamp” precedes the actual event. This gives athletes time not only to adjust to the time change (and figure out when it’s socially acceptable to drink coffee for the third time before noon), but also to get acquainted with the championship team. As athletes are selected from all over the country, many have never met before, and a cohesive team makes for a much better championship environment. In my opinion, this is just as important a reason to head over early as any.
Once the races started, there was an event every day for seven days in a row. This meant that everyone was on a slightly different schedule, and sticking to your own training plan was important. My race came on the last day we were in Lillehammer, which meant that for me, most of the trip felt like a slightly suspicious “Lillehammer vacation.” My days were spent structuring my intervals around watching the events of the day, trying to look productive while also enjoying the world-class spectating.
It has been a goal of mine for years to compete at the U23 championships, and the experience was nothing short of spectacular. When I wasn’t on course cheering on my teammates, I was skiing endless kilometers on the Norwegian Birkebeiner trail and gawking at the saunas and wooden cabins perched right on the edges of the ski trails as I passed by. At one point I became convinced that every Norwegian cabin comes with a sauna by default. Honestly, the Norwegians might be onto something with that setup.
The cherry on top of the week was getting the opportunity to race in the 4 x 5k mixed relay alongside my teammate Anders on the final day. Relays are one of the rare moments in skiing when an individual sport truly becomes a team sport. Two men, two women, half classic, half skate—20 kilometers total and a lot of nerves packed into a short amount of time.
The atmosphere was incredible. Spectators lined the sides of the course, running back and forth to see the skiers as many times as possible. And in some cases, such as mine, being chased up the course by an extremely enthusiastic teammate with a cowbell, screaming words of encouragement (shoutout to Elke for that one). Nothing motivates you quite like the fear of getting caught by your own teammate with a cowbell.
It was well worth the hype, and the experience is one I’ll hold dear for many years to come.
Trips like these wouldn’t be possible without the support of coaches and the entire BSF community. Experiences like this are the reason many of us fell in love with skiing in the first place, and we truly wouldn’t be able to do it without all of you. Thank you for your continued support of the BSF Pro Team.
See you on the trails,
Emma
