[ad_1]
MINNEAPOLIS — All winter long, organizers of cross-country ski races in this Midwestern metropolis faced insurmountable weather.
Heading into the weekend, Minneapolis hadn’t seen snow in nearly a month, and high temperatures had been above freezing every day since late January.
All of this comes as local nonprofit organization the Loppet Foundation was scheduled to host the first cross-country World Cup competition in the United States in more than 20 years in 2020 following a last-minute cancellation due to the coronavirus.
The World Cup circuit is the highest level of racing in the sport and is held almost exclusively in Europe.
Organizers in Minneapolis borrowed snowmaking equipment from a nearby ski area and built enough snow during a 10-day cold snap to blanket a run-down municipal golf course with swathes of white snow.
But athletes, fans and volunteers were bracing for a decidedly less-than-winter atmosphere for this weekend’s two-day race.
Until Wednesday. It was on the same day that Olympic-level World Cup athletes arrived that a fast-moving storm dumped nearly 6 inches on the city (nearly double the amount of snowfall the entire winter at the airport), turning Minneapolis into a winter wonderland. It’s time to change it. Out event.
Claire Wilson, executive director of the Loppet Foundation, described the storm as a “magical snowfall.”
But, she said, “We were ready to do this yesterday when there was a blanket of snow on the brown ground.”
Most of the World Cup racers arrived in Minneapolis from the Canadian Rockies on Wednesday, and all said they were happy to find fresh snow and attractive skiing at Theodore Wirth Regional Park.
Reactions posted by athletes on social media after the first laps at Wirth included words like “exquisite”, “best city skiing” and “American dream”, filled with eagle and American flag emojis.
“I think it’s really beautiful here,” Lena Keck, a 23-year-old German, said Thursday as she left the trail. And while she said, “It’s a really tough course,” it wasn’t what she or her teammates expected.
“Everyone is surprised,” said Chris Glover, the longtime U.S. World Cup coach. “I think they heard ‘golf course’ and thought it was Boca Raton or something.”
The 3.3-kilometre loop that athletes will ski three times in Sunday’s distance race winds through trees and across open sections of rolling terrain, with views of downtown’s skyscrapers from a high point on the course. .
Scott Patterson, a veteran American who specializes in difficult courses, had an even harder training session on Thursday, but said he found the loop unexpectedly tough, mainly because the fresh snow slowed down his skis. Told.
“It slows you down a little bit on the downhills and you have to work all the way down, which means you fall to the bottom of the next hill and feel like you’re not really recovering very much,” he said. “I definitely found it difficult.”
Patterson and several other Americans skied Thursday wearing newly printed “fan club” bibs featuring the faces of the team’s coaches and ski waxing support staff. This is a unique twist on bibs that were sold with players’ faces printed on them to help American supporters raise funds for the team.
A celebratory mood spread throughout the park on Thursday, as around 700 dedicated volunteers spent the weekend unloading pallets of food and drink, adjusting course fencing and directing traffic.
Organizers have distributed about 30,000 tickets, with many fans eager to see American superstar Jessie Diggins, an Olympic gold medalist who leads this year’s World Cup women’s overall standings.
Diggins, who grew up in Afton, 30 minutes east of Minneapolis, returned to the United States this week for the first time since leaving for Europe in the fall.
Her home is a little too far from town and she has too many family members to visit for her to stay there this week. But she told reporters earlier this week that she would at least be reunited with her husband at the World Cup race hotel.
She says the attention Diggins receives at local events isn’t quite the same as at major championships like the Olympics. But she added that the weekend “comes with a different, special kind of pressure that you feel just as much pressure on, especially given that they lead in the World Cup standings.”
“My goal is to enjoy it and hopefully not get too overwhelmed and not be able to participate,” she said. “It’s definitely going to be a delicate balance, but I’m going to try to achieve it.”
The rest of the American athletes (even those who aren’t from Minnesota) still seem to be soaking in the excitement of a home event.
“The whole time I got here, on the plane, on the bus, people were hearing that tickets were sold out. They sold out really quickly,” said Kristen Bourne, another American coach. “People from different countries have been looking forward to this for a really long time. So I think the stakes are very high.”
German racer Keck said it was his first trip to the United States and the environment definitely left an impression on him.
“Everything is so much bigger than in Europe,” Keck said. “The houses, cars, trucks, and landscapes are so big.”
[ad_2]
Source link
