Nordiq Canada Cross-Country team selections 2021/22
Apr 22, 2021·Cross-Country
Nordiq Canda released the team selctions for the upcoming highly-anticipated Paralympic and Olympic year. 12 Cross-Country athletes from across the country were named to the National Ski Team program. The senior squad will be composed of four women and five men, while one woman and two men will make up the junior program. One female under-23 and one female junior National Ski Team positions currently remain open and will be filled from targeted domestic race results from events in November 2021 and in January 2022.
Dahria Beatty (Whitehorse, YK) an Olympian veteran in the program, who will be counted on to guide the young squad on the trail towards the 2022 Games. The 27-year-old Beatty, who capped off her 2021 season with a career-best 15th place distance result in Switzerland, represented Canada at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang.
Eight other athletes who took turns celebrating personal best finishes last season on the Senior Team include:
Cendrine Browne (Saint-Jérôme, Que.) – a 2018 Olympian, Cendrine enjoyed a breakthrough season with three, top-30 finishes at the 2021 World Ski Championships, highlighted by a 23rd place result in the skiathlon.
Antoine Cyr (Gatineau, Que.) – after teaming up with Graham Ritchie to finish seventh in the team sprint at the senior World Ski Championships, the 22-year-old Cyr rattled off a couple of top-30 finishes on the World Cup.
Rémi Drolet (Rossland, B.C) – the anchor of Canada’s historic silver-medal winning relay team at the 2020 Junior World Ski Championships, Drolet competed at both the under-23 and senior World Championships. He finished 18th in the 15-kilometre race at the under-23 World Champs.
Pierre Grall-Johnson (Ottawa, Ont.) – skied to an 18th-place finish at the under-23 World Ski Championships this year.
Olivier Léveillé (Sherbrooke, Que.) – will take his first strides into the senior ranks after coming off a historic bronze-medal finish at the Junior World Ski Championships. The 20-year-old was just the third Canadian ever to win an individual cross-country ski medal at the Junior World Champs where he finished third in the 10-kilometre skate race.
Maya MacIsaac-Jones (Athabasca, Alta.) – one of Canada’s top sprint racers, MacIsaac-Jones rejoins the National Ski Team thanks to an impressive 18th-place sprint finish at the World Cup in Ulricehamn, Sweden.
Katherine Stewart-Jones (Chelsea, Que.) – consistently placed in the top-30 on the World Cup stage, highlighted by a 17th place finish in a 10-kilometre mass start race in Sweden.
Graham Ritchie (Parry Sound, Ont.) – celebrated a stellar seventh-place finish in the World Championship Team Sprint with Antoine Cyr in addition to a solid 17th-place finish in a World Cup sprint race in Sweden.
A trio of young Canucks will make up the junior program including: Jasmine Drolet (Rossland, B.C.), who enjoyed an 18th-place finish at the 2021 Junior World Ski Championships; Tom Stephen (Calgary, Alta.), who made his mark on the international stage with three top-12 finishes at Junior Worlds including a fifth-place result in the 30-kilometre mass start; and Xavier McKeever (Canmore, Alta.), who has been steadily developing through Canada’s national ranks.
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