From February 23 through February 27, three Craftsbury Ski Club affiliated Junior and U23 athletes competed at the World Junior and U23 World Championships in Lygna, Norway. World Junior and U23 Championships brings together the best cross country ski athletes under the age of 23 from all over the world for a week of highly competitive racing. Fasterskier aptly described the venue with the following “Situated roughly an hour north of Oslo at around 2,000 ft, the Lygna stadium could be described crudely as the middle-of-nowhere. But that would be vastly underselling the venue that hosted the Norwegian National Championships in 2019, which features a stout racecourse and offers classic Norwegian countryside charm.” Part of this countryside charm is the myriad of red houses, which Finn reported that “All of the houses are painted red because copper mining was a huge industry in Norway and copper was used to make red paint.”

The three CSC-affiliated athletes were Nina Seemann, Finn Sweet, and Rena Schwartz. Nina and Rena are currently Dartmouth College student-athletes and Finn attends the University of Vermont. Nina and Finn both competed at last year’s World Juniors in Vuokatti, Finland. Rena is a U23 and Finn and Nina are both in the Junior category. 

Before the racing, many of the athletes attended a preamp in Hafjell, Norway. Many standalone racing trips like World Juniors/U23s have a pre-camp to help athletes get accustomed to the time change, a new training venue, and life on the road. It also gives athletes and staff a chance to get to know each other before the racing begins. Finn said that the pre-camp was “incredible, good food, super nice snow and beautiful scenery.” 

The first race was a 10 classic for the U23 women on February 24, where Rena finished 50th. The classic racing continued on the 25th for the juniors, with Nina finishing 36th in the women’s 5k and Finn finishing 47th in the in the men’s 10k. 

After the classic distance races, freestyle sprinting ensued. On the 26th, Rena was 54th in the U23 women’s qualifier. The next day, Nina was 50th for the junior women. In the men’s race, Finn qualified in 28th and moved up to 19th after placing 4th in his quarterfinal. Finn described this day as his favorite racing moment of the trip saying that the highlight was “narrowly qualifying for the heats in the skate sprint and being able to mix it up with some super fast guys, and being on TV.”

Rena did an excellent job describing the fun atmosphere in Lygna. She said that trails “were perfectly groomed and often wider than roads!” And after skiing these trails, one can enjoy “lots of salmon and chocolate.” Rena explained that “staying at the same hotel as all the other athletes from around the world” was a highlight, as well as “fabulous organizers, wax techs and coaches.” Finally, it was a real treat to have “watching and cheering at the races!”

You can see all of the results here. Huge thanks to Steve Fuller for sharing photos with us!