Telemark World Cup - Racing Spirit and Art Combined
 by Sam Decout

Telemark World Cup is all about combining the spirit of telemark with the search for ultimate speed and efficient performance. Technical knowledge about skiing in general, and telemark in particular, is key to performing well at the World Cup level. With better, expanded media exposure, everyday telemarkers and skiers are starting to look closely and appreciate what it takes to succeed at this standard.

The roots of telemark skiing began with racing and competition. Downhill, jumping, and skating being the perfect ingredients to highlight the versatility and nordic origin of this elegant turn. Always spectacular, especially the Parallel Sprint event, where racers perform a balancing act—much like everyday telemarkers—but with judges scrutinising style and specific gate rules, all the while being timed to a hundredth-of-a-second alongside an army of solid athletes ready to do the battle. 

It’s like a local race or a telemark gathering but with the best freeheeler’s in the World. The athletes are focused on the results certainly, but other factors come into play. Each racer is also testing themselves. There is no comfort zone in telemark and a turn is always a challenge married with hazard. That’s the paradox of telemark skiing: a mix between the “no comfort zone,” the pain, the pleasure, while still abiding elegance. Telemark will always be full of paradoxes—like in terms of media exposure. Here is an art with hippy roots where people don’t want to be mainstream, in an alpine dominated world. At the same time, we wish Telemark to be recognised as a full-fledged discipline taken seriously on the world stage. At this point FIS Telemark World Cup is basically a professional sport practiced by amateurs. Indeed all the racers on the circuit don’t earn money from telemark racing—they are either students, or work regular jobs. The dedication and commitment to compete in these circumstances is commendable.

Telemark is a sport with no compromises and sacrifice is a big part of the game. You don’t do it for glory. You do it for the beauty of the sport. For all these reasons, the World Cup is the perfect opportunity to explore the human powered spirit of telemark. This is what we try to highlight on the FIS Telemark social networks.

Performance and results matter but it’s not the only thing. There is a historical aspect that comes into play. Most of the racers live for the sport and have a deep knowledge about skiing, from alpine, to nordic, to ski jumping, to backcountry skiing. There is no other winter sport for which you have to master so many techniques. Then we come to the coaches behind each team. They are often compared to wise men, or Guru’s, using everything in their means to give their athlete’s an edge. Take Sébastien Mansart (GB team coach) for example. He was a ski jumper on the French National Team, as well as a Telemark Racer for over 20 years. This kind of blend is fantastic. The reasons cited above are why the World Cup deserves a better audience and interest from all the winter sports disciplines.

A joie de vivre is mandatory to achieve a good race result. In the finish area in Passy Plaine-Joux (FRA) I heard Noé Claye (FRA) talking on the team radio to his teammates after his run: “Guys, the track is rad, it was so excellent! You can go ahead and push hard till the end!” No pain, No gain—the reward is the pleasure and the quest for the beauty of the gesture. Penalties play an important role and can be the difference between a podium spot or a top ten finish. In the past was a period where some racers were flirting with the alpine style, but this has mostly come to an end. Nowadays everybody respects the style and a proper telemark turn. One thing is certain however: there are differences between teams in the way they work the skis in the giant slalom (GS), the jump, or the skating section. With a little knowledge one can easily recognise the French, German, British, Norwegian, or Swiss tele DNA. Part of this has to do with coach diversity. For example, Annette Schmidt, one of the two German coaches is also the former coach of the women’s National Ski Cross Team. Julien Annequin (French team coach and retired after the 2021 World Champs) comes from moguls.

Trym Nyygard Loeken (NOR) is the Black Beast of the nordic section of the Parallel Sprint, honoring the nordic roots of telemark. The diversity of different styles affirms the fact that telemark will always be powered by human feelings and passion for the sport. Telemark is a technique where you can inject a lot of your DNA, your being, inward and inside, the turn. This intimacy follows you outside of the gates, even completely off the snow, and into your life.

The FIS Telemark World Cup is currently dominated by the Swiss Team (CH), with Amélie Wenger-Reymond, Béatrice Zimmermann, and Martina Wyss leading the overall World Cup Women’s standings; with Bastien Dayer and Nicolas Michel two of the top men. Johanna Holzmann (GER), Jasmin Taylor (GB), Argeline Tan-Bouquet (FRA), Noé Claye (FRA), Trym Nygaard Loeken (NOR) and Jure Ales (SLO) are challenge these leaders, hot on their tails. This year, Switzerland’s Amélie Wenger-Reymond and Bastien Dayer (CH) have been unstoppable. The French Men’s team have been putting pressure on the Swiss as of late in an effort to bring back the WC Globe to France, a rivalry spurred-on by the Lau Brothers era and successes of the last decade. Beyond rivalry between the gates, the athletes race together as a clear community where friendship and fair play is natural and ingrained—like every telemark community in the world. In this spirit, we started a series of background athlete racer portraits, under the maxim, “We Race Together” to shine a bright light on the cast and characters of FIS Telemark.

As far as the FIS Telemark Disciplines go, the Classic remains the Queen of telemark races. But saying that, the Parallel Sprint is probably the most spectacular. Showcasing telemark skiing one racer after the other is great, but head to head it’s even better. You never get bored while watching. In Oberjoch (GER) we witnessed an epic Men’s showdown with the Final between two good friends, Lopez of France and Nygaard Loeken of Norway. Before the start of the final they both were clearly on the same page with an agreement of fair play until the finish. The final was intense going into the loom (the hairpin banked turn). Here in the loom, Lopez crashed hard, tearing his ACL. Lopez didn't reach the finish line but Nygaard Loeken waited for him as he was evacuated via snowmobile. It was an emotional poignant moment between the two racers—a race keeping in spirit with the roots of telemark—epic from beginning to end. A true head to head with two gentlemen of telemark. Freeheeler’s doing it with style on and off the course.

Amateur Freeheeler’s can be skeptical about telemark racing. It is understandable for some to have a hard time identifying with “racers in tights.” Hippy roots vs Skin-tight suits seem polar opposites, but it need not be. Like the saying goes: clothes don’t make the man, and telemark racing is just telemark. Telemark under the FIS banner is aiming to integrate all telemark audiences into a worldwide telemark image as a whole. Telemark Racing is a microcosm of all that is telemark, a righteous slice of all you experience in your telemark life. Racers may experience everything faster but one thing is for sure: they honor the original form of telemark, and respect all styles of telemark skiing and skiers, regardless of whether they race or not. The World Cup spirit is contagious, and the detectable signs are: smiles for miles.

Different yet the Same: all dropping knees under the banner of the most exciting turn in ski history.

Article Initially released in the Telemark Journal International - Volume 3