Nordiq Canada announces cancellation of several cross-country events due to COVID-19

CANMORE, Alta. — The Canadian world championship cross-country ski trials and the Canadian Ski Championships have been cancelled as part of Nordiq Canada’s changes to its 2021 calendar caused by COVID-19 pandemic. 

Canada’s governing body of cross-country skiing announced the cancellations Monday.

The world championships were originally scheduled for Jan. 7-10 in Whistler, B.C., while the Canadian Ski Championships were scheduled for March 14-20 in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

Nordiq Canada also said all FIS-sanctioned domestic cross-country ski events scheduled across Canada for the 2020-21 season are cancelled, and the 2021 World Para Snow Sport Championships scheduled for Feb. 7-20 in Lillehammer, Norway have been postponed to January 2022.

The organization said the decisions to cancel the events were difficult, but made with the long-term health of athletes and staff in mind.

Nordiq Canada added it hopes to send competitive teams to World Cup events and the world championships events this winter.

“COVID-19 is the most challenging competitor we have faced as a sport organization which is obviously forcing alterations to our plans on a daily basis,” Kate Boyd, high-performance director of Nordiq Canada, said in a release.

“After weighing all of the risks and opportunities for athletes throughout our high-performance community with our partners, while also following the direction provided by Canada’s Sport Medicine Advisory Council, we want our community at large to “Do Local” this year – train at home, and compete in local races if it is deemed safe to do so by government and health officials – in an effort to do our part to help stop the spread of the virus while keeping our sport, and Canada going.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2020.

The Canadian Press