Four Yukon athletes from Whitehorse’s Cross Country Ski Club have been selected by Nordiq Canada to join the national team set to compete at the 2025 Nordic Junior and FIS U23 World Ski Championship in Italy.
Minty Bradford, Constance Lapointe, Sonjaa Schmidt and Derek Deuling are Yukon’s qualifiers to join Canada’s national team of 20 athletes after emerging as front-runners during trials held in Thunder Bay, Ontario, from Jan. 2 to 6.
Bradford and Lapointe will compete in the World Junior Ski Championship event, while Schmidt and Deuling are set to take on the World U23 Ski Championship event.
Canada’s national team is scheduled to compete at the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) events in the Italian alpine municipality of Schilpario from Jan. 24 to Feb. 10.
During the trials, 16-year-old Bradford placed third in the FIS U20 Women’s 10-kilometre category, finishing behind 20-year-old Ontarian Clara Hegan. Lapointe, also 20 years old, finished seventh behind British Columbian Maeve MacLeod.
Schmidt slid into first place in the FIS U23 Women's 10-kilometre event on Jan. 5, defeating her British Columbian competitor Amelia Wells by one minute and 31 seconds. Deuling clinched second place in the FIS U23 Men's category, missing out on the top spot to Ontarian Maximillian Hollmann.
Bradford made her debut appearance on the world stage in South Korea when she competed at the Youth Olympic Winter Games on Feb. 1, 2024. She joined fellow Canadians on the national team, ranking sixth against 24 national teams.
Similarly, Lapointe began her international competitive skiing career in 2024, competing at the FIS Women's 1.3-kilometre Sprint Qualification Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska, where she secured a second-place finish.
Schmidt and Deuling are regulars on the international FIS circuit. Schmidt recently competed at the FIS Cross-Country World Cup events across Europe during the 2023-24 season. Deuling took on the US Super Tour at the beginning of the 2023-24 season, followed by the Canadian Continental Cup and FIS World Cup events in Switzerland and the U.S.A.
Nordiq Canada picked its national team skiers for the upcoming events by looking at who won trial races, including short sprints and longer distances up to 20 kilometres, according to the selection criteria document. If an athlete wins more than one race, Nordiq Canada does not replace them with the second-place finisher.
Nordiq Canada assembles its national team by including at least four athletes in each gender and age group. When choosing between sprinters and distance skiers, the national sporting body looks at which athlete can bump up the team’s overall results.
Contact Jake Howarth at jake.howarth@yukon-news.com
