It was a good year for young competitive Nordic skiers this past winter, despite the unusually warm conditions.
The 2023-24 season was one for growth for most of the programs, with 25 youth skiers registering, explained Tristan Sjoden, head coach for Skier Development Programs at Phoenix Nordic Ski club. This past season also marked an inaugural year for a racing team involving students between the ages of five years and 14.
“The kids did really well, with lots of firsts for everybody,” Sjoden said. “All of them made some kind of progress, whether it was a first race or first time on the podium.”
Among the accomplishments were racers taking silver and bronze at the Kootenay Cup nordic ski races, he added. Natalie Sjoden took home a gold medal at the Blackjack Kootenay Cup near Rossland, and Max Graham took home Bronze at that same event. Natalie also went to Kimberly for the Kootenay Cup there and took home a gold and silver medal at the races during the weekend events including skate and classic skiing.
Closer to home, racers were at the first-ever Phoenix Loppet At the Marshall Lake Nordic Ski Area. Racing team member Marcus Graham won the 1 km skate ski race. Sloane Fostev, one of the youngest members of the development program, showed off his talent winning the 1/2 -kilometre race.
Also in the Phoenix Loppet, Lyla Slatnik won best costume, consisting of fairy wings, which Sjoden said was impressive for her dedication to wearing it for her entire run.
Lyla also was with her brother, Oscar Slatnik for the Troll Loppet organized by the Castlegar ski club.
It wasn’t all about racing, Sjoden said. The program also held an orienteering program alongside skiing.
Even though there was little to no snow in the valleys and lower elevations throwing off some people’s motivation, Phoenix Nordic is lucky enough to be in the higher elevations.
“Because of the warm winter, people weren’t in the skiing mode early on,” he said. “It didn’t really affect us because we were able to ski most weekends, unlike a lot of other places. We are lucky because we are at a higher elevation.
“It was a slow start, but we usually start in January. We had a lot of races to go to in the Kootenays.”
They are going to continue to build this year with plans to expand the Phoenix Nordic Loppet to be a bigger event, hopefully attracting skiers from across the province, he said.
Training is already underway with dryland programs. Registrations are open at Phoenixnordic.com.