Cross Country Canada is proud to announce the selection of the cross-country skiing forerunner teams chosen to participate in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. 

Forerunners have the important job of pre-skiing the competition course prior to each Cross Country and Nordic Combined event.  Their task ensures that the ski course is skied in and fair for all competitors, and with the history of snow falling fast and furious in the Callaghan Valley, their job may be more important than we initially realize.

The Olympic forerunners have been selected from a pool of Canadian athletes based on an application process (main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=5612&lan=0) that factored objective criteria along with answers to essay questions and prior race performance.  Great efforts were made to select athletes that geographically represented Canada, while also taking into account gender equity.  Representation of a variety of competitive ski clubs across Canada was also a determining factor for selection.

We were also looking for athletes who might benefit from the experience of attending the Olympics in their quest to become future Olympians. Therefore, athletes needed to show a commitment to their racing career, support the Canadian race circuit and development system, and show potential through last year’s race performance.  Essay questions asked how the forerunner athletes would share their Olympic experience with their club, region and division.

The task of selecting the Forerunner athletes was extremely difficult given the number of applicants meeting the criteria and the limit of 27 athletes to be selected. This forerunner group will be deployed over two separate periods during the Games. The following athletes and alternates are selected:

Week #1 (Feb 9^th to 20^th):                                    

Week #2 (Feb 21^st to 28^th):

Alternates:

Thank you to all who have applied.  If you have further questions please contact:

jcunningham@cccski.com or lpatterson@cccski.com