Whistler World Cup Qualification
by Bryan Fish
We departed Anchorage, Alaska after delays and cancellations to US Nationals. It was good to get the skate race and classic sprint in, but everyone was hoping for more events to be held due to all the previous cancellations of SuperTour events.
US SuperTour standings after the US Nationals selected the athletes to compete at the Whistler World Cup scheduled for January 16-18th. The modified West Yellowstone SuperTours and the two US Nationals competitions were the only events the athletes had to prove themselves. US National events score double points, so these two races weighed heavily on selection criteria. It was great for those that took full advantage of these few opportunities and unfortunate for those that might have had an off day at US nationals. It seems ironic that athletes train for years to get such an opportunity but selection be based on such as small sampling. That is just how it played out this year. What else can anyone do? All in all, I was very happy how decisions were made about the events. There were a lot of cancellations, but the cancellations had the athletes’ best intentions. Sending out athletes in dangerously cold temperatures and less than marginal conditions would have been worse.
