The Game
An electrifying sport for participants and spectators alike, Ski Cross features four to six skiers racing simultaneously down a technically demanding course, which resembles a motocross track. Participants navigate man-made and natural rollers, jumps, banked turns and tabletops at speeds in excess of 70km/h, in a single elimination format where the fastest two skiers to cross the finish line in each heat, advance to the next round until the final heat determines the winner. This combination of terrain and format are guaranteed to make Ski Cross a full-on thrill ride for all involved.
It’s Birth in Canada
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), recognizing it’s exciting potential, has inducted Ski Cross into the Olympic Games, where it will make it’s debut, as a full medal sport, in Vancouver 2010. Canada, being among the most proactive ski nations, has formed one of the first national organizations for governing Ski Cross. This organizations’ immediate objective is the achievement of medals in 2010 with the ultimate goal of seeing Ski Cross become a vital discipline in Canadian winter sport.
Coming Soon
Given the relatively tight timeline to the Olympics our immediate focus is on obtaining as many medals as possible in 2010. By providing athletes with a well defined organizational structure comprised of physical training and nutrition programs as well as on-hill training facilities and the best equipment and technology available, the aim is to provide the athlete the freedom to focus and excel in their sport with the least amount of distraction.
The Gear and the Brains
Ski Cross has established a strategic partnership with the Own the Podium project (OTP), a select group of Canada’s leading researchers from a diverse cross-section of fields brought together to assist our nations best athletes by providing the most state of the art technology available. Through this partnership it is our collective goal to place Canada on the top of the podium at the Vancouver Games.
Where it’s at
Having recently completed our training camps at Farnham Glacier, in the mountains near Radium, British Columbia, COP and Australia the team is now busy hard at work training in weight rooms and on running tracks across Canada with some of the best physical trainers in the nation. The coming Ski Cross Season starts in early January 09 in St. Johann, Austria.
Face Time
We are seeing a great deal of interest in Skier Cross from network sport programmers. As a direct result of the elimination style format the interest in the sport has steadily grown in the last couple of years. Both the ESPN X-Games and the Honda tour have helped to elevate the prominence of the sport and as a result the audience is growing.
Future Goals
Where We’re Going
Looking beyond the games, Ski Cross has the ability to unite the industry to one goal, promote the enjoyment of alpine winter sport. It is our ultimate mandate to see the sport thrive at an international level as well as at the national grassroots and cultivate a renewed public interest in alpine skiing. Working closely with The Honda Tour out of the U.S. our aim is create a complementary, yet competitive, tour that will bring the festival atmosphere back into the sport while showcasing some of the most extreme and talented athletes on snow.
Media and Events
We envision a series that will focus not only on the larger destination resorts but hold events at many of the smaller feeder hills across the country. Ideally, we would partner this with one of the major music television broadcasters and hold the events close to urban centers to maximize participation. By partnering with a music broadcaster we are able to ensure the festival atmosphere and garner access to an important demographic as well as drive more people to the smaller locations identifying the relevance and importance of smaller ski destinations.
Shout out to the Sponsors
As the interest in Skier Cross grows so does the marketing potential. Individual athlete sponsors along with team sponsorship, events and cross promotion all become important and lucrative properties for partners to get their brand out in the public eye. This increased potential to target a large cross section of the audience is an area that we want to offer to prospective partners.
(NOTE this information was taken from the Canadian Ski Cross Website at http://www.ski-cross.ca/ )