Sweden and the beginning of the World Champs

With the opening ceremony complete and the King of Sweden offically opening the World Champs I am finially ready to race here in Europe.

[The Kiwi flag flying infront of a large crowd at the opening ceremony]

My lead in began on Sunday with an ambitious plan, to race a World Cup only 48 hours after arriving in Europe. While my flights were all very smooth and I was able to make it to the World Cup location in Ostersund without any problems I struggled with my energy levels and found racing pretty tough but it was great to get the experience of top level racing under my belt and help ease the butterfly's before we race here in Falun.

[Racing into the stands in Ostersund - Photo Cred Salomon Nordic]

Unlike New Zealand where Nordic skiing gets almost no exposure these championships are a huge deal for the European fans. Falun where the championships are being held is an amazing venue. The main stands are huge and the town seems really excited for the championships to begin. The Swedish and Norwegian fans are numerous and extremely passionate. They have sold out of tickets for many of the races here and are expecting over 200,000 fans to line the tracks. I am sure they will make a lot of noise and create a great atmosphere when the real racing starts tomorrow. In addition to the many live fans the event is being broadcast across the globe to a viewer audience of over 500 million. I have already been interviewed several times by various TV broadcasters. Regretfully most of these interviews are focused around the fact that I am the only skier from New Zealand and until Friday (when Alexei arrives) I am here alone, quite a contrast to Norway and the other larger nations who have massive waxing trucks and huge numbers of staff and multi million dollar budgets to support their athletes. I hope by the end of the week it is the speed of my skiing rather than the small size of the NZ team which is is attracting attention. Many people have herd of the Snow Farm in some capacity and a couple of Swedish fans were asking me about the Merino Muster so hopefully we see a few more faces for our own race latter this year.

Racing wise, first up is the sprint, not my favourite event but it should be good to blow out the cobwebs and ensure all of my systems are in place and working well before Saturday's 30km Skiathlon. Its extremely unlikely that I will make it past the qualification round (top 30 qualify for the heats) but the good news is that the course goes up several large hills. This plays into my strengths as a classic skier so hopefully I can make those skis stick on the tough climb and put down a fast time.

[Its not all glamorous. The joys of FIS supplied accommodation, boiled hot dogs, a fried egg and fried potatoes for dinner tonight, not exactly what a sports nutritionist would reccommend as a pre race meal]

Hope everyone is as excited in New Zealand as Sweden is to follow the racing here. While I dont think Sky Sports covers nordic skiing yet :(, you can follow the championships with several apps one of which has live video streaming from the event. Just search for Falun 2015 in the app store.

Looking forward to the big show!!

Yours,

Andy