Nordic sports abound this weekend

From Davos to Vikersund to Park City, there is plenty of action this weekend for nordic fans.

The World Cup cross country tour moves to the glitzy resort town of Davos (SUI)–a town at over 5,000 feet high, possibly making altitude a factor in two days of racing. The snow temp today was -4 celcius with a track of mixed old and news snow. Many local fans will be watching their hometown star Dario Cologna, try and imporve on his fortunes of the last couple of weeks. He is the defending World Cup champion in men’s cross country, but currently is ranked in 69th place. Cologna’s injury this fall to his thigh has clearly set him back. But it is a long season. Both the U.S. Ski Team and the Canadian Ski Team will be represented. However, Canada’s fine distance man Russian born, Ivan Babikov is sidelined due to a cold and will not race. There will be a 10/15 km Saturday followed by sprints on Sunday. Expect Norway to be very strong, along with the Finns, Russians and Swedes. Italy could be tough especially in the women’s sprints.

The ski jumpers are gathered in Vikersund, Norway for a World Cup and the combined team is in Engleberg,(SUI) and they will have the World Cup’s that were moved from Harachov, (CR) due to lack of snow on the ski jumps.

In Park City, Utah this weekend, the Continential Cup in nordic combined will get underway. It will mark Steamboat Spring’s Todd Lodwicks’s return this season in trying to make his fifth Olympic Team in Vancouver. The jumping (HS134m) will be held at Utah Olympic Park and the cross-country will be conducted at Soldier Hollow, in nearby Heber City. Teams from around the world are present. In addition to Lodwick, Carl Van Loan will attempt to challenge for another Olympic team berth along with the likes of Taylor Fletcher, Nick Hendrickson, Brett Denny, Alex Glueck, Willy Graves, Alex Miller and Park City’s Eric Camerota. The trial round will start at 10am (MST)

Canada will also be represented by Barrett Martineau, Alex More, Sebastien Dandurand, Alex Barton,  and veteran Jason Myslicki, who has already been selected for the Canadian Olympic team.

By Peter Q. Graves