FIS News
Q&A with Satu Kalajainen
Satu Kalajainen (FIN) is the chair of the FIS Sub-Committee for Cross-Country Youth and Children’s Questions which consists of 18 members. In today’s FIS Newsflash, she talks about the work of the Committee, the future of Cross-Country Skiing and her role as a FIS SnowKidz judge.
How long have you been involved in the Sub-Committee?
I have been involved since the beginning when the FIS Sub-Committee for Cross-Country Youth and Children’s Questions was founded in 2007. At that time, I was leading the Finnish Ski Association’s Cross-Country Youth and Children matters working group and was appointed to chair the Sub-Committee. It was a huge honour and pleasure – it still is.
What are the main goals of the Sub-Committee?
Our main goals are sharing best practices, gathering and sharing material, getting everyone involved in meetings and to promote “World Snow Day” and “Snowkidz” with existing or new activities, and bringing to the table hot topics that need to be discussed. It is about trying to raise the profile and appreciation of youth and children’s skiing.
What are the biggest projects the Sub-Committee has been working on?
The biggest project is the Cross-Country Cross (XCX) competition, which is a sprint like competition that features various elements on the course such as jumps and turns. We hope to bring it to each country as part of a training DNA to improve youngsters’ technical skills and to hopefully implement it as part of the standard competition programme. The Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer 2016 have included the XCX for Cross-Country Skiing on the programme.
How do you see the future of Cross-Country Skiing? Is the discipline growing well compared to other sports?
That is a tricky question. Of course I would like to say YES it will boom, but it will depend on us. We must create attractive competition models for children (XCX is a good example), we must bring children to the snow, we must get better and more clever at social media usage (ski clubs!), and we should be able to create Cross-Country Skiing as an “elite” discipline; not elite as a costly sport but because it is healthy, environment friendly and a family sport. We are losing to team sports is my view, so how can we modify Cross-Country Skiing to become more like a team sport? It is do-able, we just need to look at it from a new and different angle.
You are also one of the judges of the FIS Snowkidz Award. What does FIS Snowkidz mean to you?
I think it is a brilliant idea that children’s skiing has been branded and so much material is available to support activities. The main thing is that there are many different kinds of activities. No one should be afraid to arrange an event which is not particularly exposing Snowkidz creatures but remembering at the same time that FIS as a Federation brings certain prestige to the arena. More and more events are branded under the Snowkidz label and we should not forget to keep involving SnowKidz in World Cup events too. Kids need idols and we need to get athletes involved to host the kids. Everyone has a part to play in this.
Source: fis-ski.com
How long have you been involved in the Sub-Committee?
I have been involved since the beginning when the FIS Sub-Committee for Cross-Country Youth and Children’s Questions was founded in 2007. At that time, I was leading the Finnish Ski Association’s Cross-Country Youth and Children matters working group and was appointed to chair the Sub-Committee. It was a huge honour and pleasure – it still is.
What are the main goals of the Sub-Committee?
Our main goals are sharing best practices, gathering and sharing material, getting everyone involved in meetings and to promote “World Snow Day” and “Snowkidz” with existing or new activities, and bringing to the table hot topics that need to be discussed. It is about trying to raise the profile and appreciation of youth and children’s skiing.
What are the biggest projects the Sub-Committee has been working on?
The biggest project is the Cross-Country Cross (XCX) competition, which is a sprint like competition that features various elements on the course such as jumps and turns. We hope to bring it to each country as part of a training DNA to improve youngsters’ technical skills and to hopefully implement it as part of the standard competition programme. The Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer 2016 have included the XCX for Cross-Country Skiing on the programme.
How do you see the future of Cross-Country Skiing? Is the discipline growing well compared to other sports?
That is a tricky question. Of course I would like to say YES it will boom, but it will depend on us. We must create attractive competition models for children (XCX is a good example), we must bring children to the snow, we must get better and more clever at social media usage (ski clubs!), and we should be able to create Cross-Country Skiing as an “elite” discipline; not elite as a costly sport but because it is healthy, environment friendly and a family sport. We are losing to team sports is my view, so how can we modify Cross-Country Skiing to become more like a team sport? It is do-able, we just need to look at it from a new and different angle.
You are also one of the judges of the FIS Snowkidz Award. What does FIS Snowkidz mean to you?
I think it is a brilliant idea that children’s skiing has been branded and so much material is available to support activities. The main thing is that there are many different kinds of activities. No one should be afraid to arrange an event which is not particularly exposing Snowkidz creatures but remembering at the same time that FIS as a Federation brings certain prestige to the arena. More and more events are branded under the Snowkidz label and we should not forget to keep involving SnowKidz in World Cup events too. Kids need idols and we need to get athletes involved to host the kids. Everyone has a part to play in this.
Source: fis-ski.com
