Ski Orienteering
''Skiing on the narrow snowmobile tracks running wildly through an untouched forest covered in the white coat. It is only you and your skills which decide if you lose or win. It is only you and your brain which decide whether you have fun or a goose skin.''
That is my definition of ski-orienteering. But let's make it clearer for those of you who are not so familiar with this amazing sport.
The International Orienteering Federation has officially four disciplines: Foot orienteering, ski orienteering, mountain bike orienteering and trail orienteering. The first foot and ski orienteering competitions were held at the end of the 19th century. Mountain bike and trail orienteering are rather more recent formats that evolved during the last decades.
Ski Orienteering combines navigation and cross-country skiing. The athletes read a map and make hundreds of route choices on a course while skiing at full speed. It means high physical endurance, strength, excellent technical skiing skills, the ability to choose the best routes and mental strength are required. Ski orienteerers ski across rough terrain with a dense network of snowmobile tracks and cross-country ski tracks. Skiers aim to visit control points marked on the map in the given order as fast as possible. The fastest one wins.
Check this video to get a clearer idea what I am talking about :)
Every competition takes places in a different place. Athletes are not allowed to enter the competition area before races. This means athletes don't know before the start how the ski track network looks like. All the tracks are drawn on the competition map. Each competitor gets the map at the start and places it in his mapholder. Since that moment his time is running.
The starting location is marked on the map with a red triangle. Control points are marked with red circles and a finnish is marked with a red double circle. There are also contours, vegetation and civilisation objects drawn on the map so that the athlete has all information he needs to make the best route choices all over the course.
Do you know any sport where motion athletes meet elite athletes in the same competition? Where young kids from the age of six compete as well as eighty years old ambition guys? Welcome to (ski) orienteering, the sport for everybody! In this sport, there is a class for everybody. Every class has a different course with different control points and the physical and technical level is adapted to each class. This means there are a lot of athletes and control points in a forest. It makes the competition much more interesting because you can not just hang behind any other athlete (well, sure you can but it might happen to you that you and up at a control point which is not yours, good luck to find yourself then ;) ). There is an electronic device on each control point which marks you have found that control point. If you don't find all your control in the right order you will be disqualified.
Courses don't have any stated length, however winning times are estimated. It is 13minutes for sprint (both men, women classes), 45minutes for middle distance (both men and women classes). 85minutes for long distance for women and 100minutes for men. When talking about relay, there are three women running in one team (three men in men's class) and they all should have equal legs taking approximately 33minutes. Mixed relay is runned by one woman and man in each team and both of them should have a course about 7minutes long. Each of them runs this long leg three times, which means totally six legs per team.
As in other sports the most important competition for ski-orienteerers is the World Championship. It is held every odd year and about 30countries take part. European Championship takes place every year. Then, there is a World Cup which is held every even year and has about ten races per season. Junior World Championship is held every year and is the most important competition for junior athletes. Youth classes focus on the European Youth Championship which is the highlight of the ski-o season for their age per annum.
Of course, the Ski-O Comitéé aims to get our sport into the Olympic programme for the Winter Olympic Games. They have been putting a lot of effort and they are on a very good way. There is a huge chance ski-orienteering could become an Olympic sport and be a part of the Winter Olympic Games in 2026. You can read more about it here
