Canada's best cross-country skiers hit the trails at Lappe Ski Centre

Some of Canada's best cross-country skiers are hitting the trails at the Lappe Ski Centre over the coming days, hoping to earn a chance to represent the country at some upcoming international competitions.

The Lappe Ski Centre is hosting both the 2025 Nordiq Canada Selection Trials, with spots on Team Canada for the World Juniors, World Under-23 Championships, and World Ski Championships, all of which will take place in Europe.

"It's huge for them," said Stephanie Marler, the event's chief of competition. "They've been preparing for years for this."

"Those athletes that are hoping to go to Europe to represent Canada have been on their training plan since May of this year focused on this event," she said. "So they've had some races in advance of this, but they've been sort of more preparatory races. But this is the big deal for for all the athletes that are here."

Also taking place at Lappe on the weekend is the second Ontario Cup competition of the season, which has brought in the province's top skiers.

"It's really exciting for the young athletes that will be participating in that event to be able to be skiing at the same time on the same trails as some of the top athletes in Canada," Marler said.

The event got underway on Tuesday, with skiers getting two days of training in before the competition began.

"Because of the low snow, we're on a pretty short, difficult course, so they're out there trying to get their legs under them to figure out what that's going to look like," Marler said. "Thursday at noon, we run the first of the qualifying rounds for the Nordiq Canada Selection Trials."

"It's a sprint classic Sprint event, so we have 200 athletes that will go in the first qualifier and then 30 athletes, men and 30 women, will advance into the heats."

"The heats are really exciting to watch, so if anybody wants to come out and watch, Thursday at (2 p.m.) is a great time to be out here."

The trails run from Jan. 2-6, with training starting earlier in the week; a full schedule is available online.

One of the athletes competing is 19-year-old Clara Hegan, who's from Ottawa but trains with the National Team Development Centre in Thunder Bay.

"I grew up skiing with my family," Hegan said. "My dad was also a ski racer, so I guess I kind of followed in his footsteps."

"Really, I just love being outside," she said. "I love just like training with my friends and working towards a goal, I guess. But really it's the community that that's kept me here."

Hegan competed at last year's World Junior's in Slovenia.

"It takes a whole lifetime of training really," she said of succeeding in cross-country skiing. "Throughout the year leading up, making sure you're following your training plan, hitting your hours."

"We do a lot of hours, like up to 20 hours a week sometimes, of training, and endless technique work," Hegan said. "Just making sure you're sleeping well and eating well and everything."

"It's really your whole life that you have to dedicate to this race."

On the men's side, Thunder Bay's Max Hollmann — who trains in British Columbia — was also getting ready for the trials, with hopes of earning a spot at the U23 and world championships.

"I just try and remain calm like it's just another race," the 22-year-old said. "I got back from the World Cup two weeks ago over in Europe."

"Those races are a little bigger, so I'm kind of looking forward to just having a little more chill vibe," Hollmann said, adding that the event at Lappe is "more important, debatably, because it's going to determine where I am for the rest of the season. But it's a little more relaxed being at home on the home trails."

And those trails are ready to host the big event, Marler said.

"We've had some warm weather here in Thunder Bay, and rain," she said. "It actually did not rain out here at Lappe, so we're very lucky."

"There's been an awful lot of shoveling by many dedicated volunteers," Marler said. "We're getting feedback from athletes that the trails are in good condition, much better than they were expecting."

And plenty of volunteers are chipping in to make sure the event runs smoothly.

"This is actually a relatively-long event for volunteers," Marler said. "It's five days of racing. That's equivalent to hosting a ski nationals here, five days of racing."

"Normally an event that we host would be two or three days, so we have some volunteers that are committed to all five days and other volunteers are committed to two or three," she said. "They'll be out here supporting the athletes. They've been out here already shoveling, some of them, and this community just comes out."

"The ski community, and the community at large, comes out to support the events out here and it's really amazing."

One of those volunteers is Anna Nelson, one of the co-chiefs of venue.

"It involves mostly behind-the-scenes stuff," she said. "The stuff that you don't think of when the races have going on."

"Getting all the wax trailers set up, and everybody organized and their place," Nelson said.
It involves exciting things like porta-potties and dumpster bins and all that kind of stuff."

"Nothing's related to the actual race itself, but hopefully helping the athletes and coaches and everybody be well prepared and set up for it."

Nelson said her family has a long history of volunteering at Lappe, and she has two young daughters who ski with the Lappe team; Nelson herself also skies recreationally.

"Seeing the athletes who are here fulfilling their dreams, whatever that means to them, is pretty amazing," she said. "It's one of those things that brings a lot of joy."

"Yes, it's a lot of work for everybody involved, but I think events like this would never be able to happen without the volunteering."