World Juniors 2023
As an athlete, I am accustomed to the intense training, competitions, and pushing myself to my limits all to better myself each and every year in order to perform on the international stage. But for the first time, I was on the other side of the fence. This year I found myself commentating at the 2023 Cross Country Skiing World Junior Championships in Canada. Although my year has looked a little different I have found one thing to be consistent: my drive to be a part of the ski community in whatever capacity I can. In this blog post, I am excited to take you behind the scenes of my experience. Specifically, how I found motivation to cope with my rehab while providing support to my friends, teammates and sport.
From Athlete to Commentator: My Experience at the 2023 World Junior Championships
As a four-time world junior competitor and medalist, I am well-versed in cross-country skiing in world junior championships. However, this year, my attendance at world juniors looked a little different than in years prior. In the last few years I have been struggling with a long term hip injury. This past year, I decided to get an invasive surgery and commit to the long road of recovery to ensure my longevity as an athlete. I knew going into the 2023 World Juniors that I wanted to be there to cheer on my best friend Xavier McKeever, as well as the rest of my Canadian teammates.
When I got the call to ask if I was interested in commentating at Whistler (the location for the 2023 world junior championships) I was thrilled to be given the chance to help out in some way. At first, I was hesitant. I had never done any commentary work before and was unsure how to navigate this new role. However, after some encouragement from my teammates and friends, I decided to take on the role and do my best.
Getting to Whistler was tricky with the unpredictable challenges that always come with a travel day. And managing to get time off school ( I am currently in my third year of engineering at the University of Calgary.) I tried to limit the amount of time I would be away from school so I decided to book a flight to get there the day before the first race. This flight was also only 2 hours after my last class of the day. So I had to quickly rush to the airport to check in and drop off my bags. I made my way to the terminal where I waited. It snowed about a foot all over Calgary and was still snowing heavily. My flight got delayed an hour, then 2, then 3, then 4, then 5. Eventually they canceled the flight after 5 hours in the airport. So I head to go home and return the next day to catch a flight at 5AM.
The Line to get my checked bag after the cancled flight
As soon as I got to the venue I was charged with the energy of the event and was excited to step into my new role. From the commentary area, I was able to watch the races unfold in real-time, providing insights and analysis to viewers all around the world on the live broadcast. While the role was challenging, it was also incredibly rewarding to see how much people were enjoying and benefiting from the commentary.
I found that communicating with athletes from all around the world was the most challenging yet rewarding part of the job. From getting the right questions in to trying to work with the different amounts of English that some of them spoke. It was a privilege to get to be on the other side of these races, as I got to interview so many great athletes, from the underdogs to the favorites.
Interviewing Izabela Marcisz after her race
Overall, my transition from athlete to commentator at the World Junior Championships was a unique and eye-opening experience. Not only did I learn a lot about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into putting on a major skiing event, but I also gained a newfound appreciation for the sport. Most unexpectedly, my time as a commentator helped me discover new ways to approach recovery and healing after injury - by finding other ways to stay involved and engaged in the community.
An Inside Look at the Cross Country Skiing World Junior Championships
As I arrived at the World Junior Championships, I had a ton of excitement and anticipation. It was a huge deal for Canada to host this event, and I had always dreamed of competing internationally on home ground. However, now I had the chance to be involved in a different way, helping out with the event.
It was a strange feeling seeing all the nations at a venue that would be a typical race site. It almost felt like a very intense NORAM. Coming from the past 4 World Juniors, the Canadian world juniors team would travel weeks before the event to get ready and show up at a very foreign venue for the team to compete. Often we were in places we had never been before, in a different time zone, with foreign food and languages. But this year, things were different. The venue was somewhere where all of the Canadians were very familiar with. We had all been here numerous times, some of us even grew up racing at this venue. This familiarity caused a shift in the atmosphere. It was evident that the stress was high on the team to perform well. We had come off of a strong streak of performances at world juniors and the team and coaches naturally wanted to impress on home turf. Most nights would end with a Call of Duty tournament to relieve some of the stress before the next day of racing for the team. Some of these nights would include challenging the USA team or Swiss team to a round or two of search and destroy (They almost always won).
Unexpected Recovery: How My Commentary Experience Helped Me as an Athlete
At the end of the week, I learned a ton about racing and had a chance to see things you sometimes miss when you are racing. Like the amount of time the coaches and wax tecs had to be at the race site for; or the early mornings the volunteers had to put in. Me being included in that group now was difficult. I could no longer sleep in like a racer and arrive at the race site at the crack of noon, spend 3 hours there and then head home. It really gave me an appreciation for all the hard work that goes into a race.
In past world juniors I had been so focused on racing and performing that I have missed some things going on in the event. And overall what it takes to put on an event of this caliber. Having the experience to be able to come to a world juniors and not have the stress of racing and performing gave me the eye opening experience of appreciating world juniors and what they represent. The best talent in all of the world is working to perform for their country on the international stage. Especially having an outside perspective getting to watch my friends and teammates race. From watching their race preparation, warm ups, and everything in between it really made me appreciate the dedication to the sport each of my teammates have. Overall, it was an awesome experience and I really appreciate the opportunity I got. Watching my team race gave me a lot of motivation to continue my rehab, while allowing me to see where I want to get back to. Giving me a reason as to why I am doing all the rehab to bring my body back to high performance.
Having the opportunity to be at a world juniors event at home was a once in a lifetime experience and I am so grateful that the Canadian Government, BC Government, Nordiq Canada, donors / sponsors, and Black Tusk Nordic Events put all the effort in to make the event a success. It was an honor to be able to help with the commentary and be part of the atmosphere.
