The Olympic spirit is alive and well in the Okanagan, thanks to a record number of Olympians doing their final tune-ups on local cross-country ski trails.
The most heart-warming story comes out of Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre in the North Okanagan.
“We had some Australian juniors here at the beginning of the week, and the Norwegian shooting coach, Joar Himle, was giving them a little bit of coaching advice,” said Julie Melanson, Sovereign‘s communications co-ordinator. “They say that‘s what the Olympics is about: teams helping other teams out.”
Sovereign Lake manager Scott Lemon is spending a lot of time with athletes and their coaches at the two biathlon ranges, getting tips he can pass on to Okanagan athletes. The Norwegian biathlon team has been training there and at nearby Silver Star Mountain Resort for the past two weeks.
“It definitely shows that we have a world-class facility, and we‘ve obviously been recognized worldwide for biathlon,” Lemon said. “Norway, Russia and the Swiss all have medal hopefuls on their teams.”
Melanson added: “It‘s inspiring watching these athletes train because they are so amazingly fit, especially the biathletes since they have so many more elements to deal with. They are not only physically fit, but mentally fit in order to lower their heart rates and do what they do (shoot accurately at small metal discs) in the time they have to do it.”
Age is no barrier. Halvard Hanevold, a Norwegian biathlete, will participate in his second Olympics at the age of 40.
Fans can watch the Norwegian, Swiss and Russian biathlon teams shooting on the lower range from the Sovereign Lake lodge. Local skiers could also see members of cross-country teams from the Czech Republic, Finland, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand on the trails.
“The athletes that respond well to altitude are here,” said Himle. “The athletes that don‘t respond well to the altitude have chosen to stay low.”
The mental preparation is just as important as the physical, he noted. On their days off, athletes have been leisurely skiing the cross-country trails at Silver Star and mingling in the resort village. Athletes will remain at the higher altitude at Sovereign and Silver Star until just before the Olympics.
“The neat thing is we get worldwide attention from them being here,” added Robin Baycroft, Silver Star‘s manager of resort services.
“The fact that the Czech team is here (and) the fact that the Norwegian team is here, those guys are like Sidney Crosby. So, for those countries, they are totally honed in on the fact that their athletes are training at Silver Star Mountain Resort. Where is that? Tell me more about that. Why are they there? Why did they select it?” Baycroft said.
“In today‘s day and age, with social media, they‘re blogging, they‘re twittering, (and) they‘re posting photos and videos of them here, which is just fantastic. Here in Canada, people aren‘t dialed into Nordic skiing that much.”
The presence of the eight Olympic teams – 100 people in total – doesn‘t mean extra work for Silver Star since, like most guests, they are self-sufficient and have their own training regimes.
“Logistics haven‘t been all that difficult. We groom all 60 kilometres of our cross-country network every night anyway. There have been a few interesting things, like sorting out meal plans, but that‘s kind of exciting, too. We‘re helping the Czech team eat healthy heading into the Olympic Games,” Baycroft said.
“We take pride in the Olympic results, regardless of whether they are Canadian or not. We‘ll watch and see how many Olympic medals are won by athletes who trained at Silver Star. We feel we have a bit of ownership of that.”
Nordic manager Glenn Bond meets with the teams during lunch to see if they need anything and to chat about how many medals they hope to win. The Finnish team, for example, is expecting two to six medals.
The German and Swedish teams that trained at Silver Star won 12 medals during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Only one team trained there prior to the 1988 Calgary Olympics.
“There‘s a lot of energy going on up here – definitely some powerhouse nations,” added Bond.
Lukas Bauer, with the Czech team, just won the Tour de Ski, a series of seven cross-country races over nine days. This premier cross-country series is similar to the Tour de France for the world‘s top cyclists.
“He‘s a medal contender in every race he does,” said Bond, adding that Silver Star is getting plenty of media exposure as a result of the Olympic athletes training there.
Most teams are staying 10 to 16 days, resulting in $125,000 in total revenue for the resort. The Norwegian and Czech teams have probably spent the most – $40,000-plus – since they have been in the North Okanagan for two weeks or more. The Norwegian team has also chartered a private plane to Pemberton to get to the Winter Games.
“They are blown away with the conditions. They really like the ski-from-your-door atmosphere. That‘s why they decided to come to Silver Star and Sovereign. They very much feel they are in ideal training conditions,” said Bond.
“It‘s been great weather. They had a week of sun when we were under high pressure last week, and now we‘re getting snow. They‘re happy with the grooming and the variety of trails. The temperature has been ideal for training and enjoyable at -3 C to -5 C, so it‘s easy waxing. For a lot of them, it‘s their first time in Canada, and they are enjoying themselves.”
Local skiers and visitors love to see the Olympic skiers on the trails and in the village, walking around with their jackets adorned with the Olympic rings, said Bond.
In the South Okanagan, nine members of the 16-member Swedish Olympic team, including a men‘s gold medallist in the last Olympics, men‘s coach Joakim Abrahamsson and women‘s coach Magus Ingesson, got high-altitude training at Nickel Plate Nordic Centre, said Nickel Plate head coach Jerome Jang.
The rest of the Swedish team was at Canmore Olympic Park, scouting the trails in advance of the World Cup race Friday and today – the last before the Olympics.
“After Canmore, they will go to Mount Washington, where the Canadian Olympic team is training until just before the Games, to get some skiing in coastal snow conditions,” said Jang.
The Swedish team‘s training routine was to ski two to three hours in the morning (depending on each athlete‘s regime) starting at 9:30 or 10 a.m., then come back for another two- to three-hour session in the afternoon around 4 p.m. Team members stayed in condos at nearby Apex Mountain Resort.
The Swedish team trained at Nickel Plate in 2005 and was impressed with the altitude, the snow, the grooming and the facilities, said Abrahamsson.
“So, instead of joining eight other national teams training at Silver Star/Sovereign Lake, they decided to come to Nickel Plate, where the trails are of equal quality and at higher altitude,” said Jang.
“Two of the nine athletes were here in 2005 and remember Nickel Plate well. The others were impressed with what they‘ve seen.”
