THUNDER BAY -- Last weekend’s World Cup Finals races on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City will live long in the memories of Canadian Nordic skiers and fans, including the group of eight young Thunder Bay skiers who were part of the Canadian team.
These races were a rare chance for 29 Canadians to race against the world’s best skiers on home soil. Among the Thunder Bay skiers was veteran Bob Thompson (NTDC TBay), who had already spent a good part of the season in Europe competing on the World Cup circuit. National Ski Team member Katherine Stewart-Jones (NTDC TBay), and Evan Palmer-Charrette (Lappe/NTDC TBay alumnus) also took part, and were part of team Canada at the World Nordic Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austria in February. Allanah Maclean (Lakehead University/NTDC TBay alumnus), a first-year student at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, as well as teammates Annika Richardson (Lappe/NTDC TBay) and Sadie White (Big Thunder/NTDC TBay) were building on World Cup experiences from previous years. They were joined by first time World Cup skiers Graham Ritchie and Julian Smith (NTDC TBay).
The weekend featured three days of racing, with an exciting skate sprint event on Friday, a mass start classic race Saturday, and a pursuit start skate race on Sunday to close out the World Cup season. About 75 men and 75 women competed on tough, rolling trails on the scenic Plains of Abraham.
Conditions were challenging all weekend because of the rain that fell for several days leading up to the event. Temperature fluctuations made for icy fast tracks. Many of the Canadian skiers had tough races on Friday and Saturday, including a big pile up off the start in the women’s race on Saturday. A number of the Thunder Bay men went off-course on a fast downhill curve as well, although it wasn’t only the young Canucks who found the conditions difficult. Many of the best skiers in the world, including Jessie Diggins of Minneapolis and Federico Pellegrino of Italy, also found the ditch during their races.
Sunday’s skate pursuit race however, told a different story. The sun was shining, the snow was hard, and in front of a boisterous crowd, many of our skiers moved up in the standings, highlighted by Stewart-Jones posting the 31st fastest time in a field of over 70 women. Most of the Canadians still finished towards the back of the pack, but they looked more at home than they had earlier in the weekend.
While these World Cup races were new for many of the Canadian skiers, they were the last in the historic and decorated career of Alex Harvey, the best skier to ever wear the maple leaf. Despite the fact that it had been a difficult season for him, fans showed up by the tens of thousands on the Plains of Abraham to cheer on the “Prince of Quebec”. And the Prince did not disappoint.
After a solid 11th place in the sprint on Friday, Alex put on a show for his hometown crowd. He captured two silver medals in as many days, first in the 15km classic mass start race, then finished his career by outsprinting Russian Alexander Bolshunov for the silver medal in the 15km skate pursuit race. He narrowly missing out on gold as Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo took the top spot on the podium. Crowds lined the entire course all weekend, making it easy to tell where Harvey was by the roar from the fans. Overcome with emotion, a tearful Harvey was embraced by his father Pierre, himself a decorated World Cup skier, before stepping on the podium for the 32nd and final time of his career. Chants of “One More Year!” erupted from the thousands that watched the podium ceremony. Alex waved to the crowd, thanked everyone for their support one more time, and that was it. So ended the career of the best Canadian skier ever.
The young team Canada skiers, who grew up watching Harvey and had now shared a World Cup start line with him, watched him retire, thus leaving a huge hole in Canadian cross-country skiing. For most of them, the weekend had not gone their way in terms of results. The gap between their results and Harvey’s seemed massive. The days before, their comments were of the “really tough”, “worst qualifier ever”, and “humbling” type.
But, having watched Harvey make Canadian ski history, then say goodbye, it became very real - it is their turn now. While their weekends didn’t go as they hoped, there also were some inspiring moments - Stewart-Jones had her second best ever World Cup result. Ritchie skied a very strong race on the final day until he broke equipment. Yes, it was humbling, but by the end of the day, they were talking about what they need to do to close the gap. Instead of fixating on what they hadn’t been able to do, the talk was about what they could do next, how to get better. How to get the next generation closer to, and ultimately on to the World Cup podium.
They know they won’t get there tomorrow, they know that the gap they have to bridge is big - but they are going to give their all to get there. The torch has been passed. Canadian skiing legends Devon Kershaw, Lenny Valjas, Beckie Scott, and now Alex Harvey are gone. As a country, we can no longer count on them for our top performances on the world stage. It’s time to get back to work. And many of the young skiers will be back in Thunder Bay in a month to continue that work.
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