A Drumheller area man is going up against the world this coming week as he competes in the Alberta World Cup Masters Cup Nordic skiing event.
Gary Chambers, who is an avid skier, saw the opportunity to sign up as the event is being held in the province.
“It is being hosted in Canmore. It is kind of an interesting event, it is not often held in North America, it is most often in Europe, with skiing not being a mainstream thing here,” Chambers explains.
The event was scheduled for last year but didn’t go ahead because of the pandemic. The event starts March 4, and it is a full week of skiing events for masters athletes. These are often former high-level competitors or professionals who have continued with the sport. Events start for competitors at the age of 30, all the way up to 80. There are about 600 competitors expected to compete.
Chambers is competing for Canada on a team out of Calgary called the Space Dogs Ski Club.
“I have been training all year for it, and this will kind of be the peak of it. The events I am doing are the 30 kilometre classical race, which is the traditional Nordic skiing with tracks, and the 30 kilometre skate, or free technique,” he said. “The following Friday, I’ll be racing in the free technique, which is a 45 kilometre event,” he said.
He is racing in the 45-49 age increment, and this is his first time racing in the Masters.
“It will be a new experience. Usually, you have a lot more logistics and travelling for doing an event like this, but considering it is being hosted in our backyard, I thought it was a great opportunity to see how I stack up with competitors from around the world,” he said.
Chambers has spent the last few years coaching a masters team out of Bragg Creek and also trains with a team. He is also a level four trainer.
“I spent a lot of time teaching courses for people who want to be instructors,” he explains. “That’s actually what I did before I got into real estate… and the last couple of years I just shifted to that side again, it’s fun,” he said.
To prepare, he has been busy training on a strict regimen working out six days a week, mostly on snow.
“The schedule is pretty steady. I’m doing about 150-180 kilometres a week of training,” he said.
“I feel pretty confident from a domestic standpoint, like where I would be comparing times with others. The real variable that is interesting to an event like this is you don’t know who is going to turn up and where. Every week at the Nordic Centre, you see ski team jackets from the States and through Europe, a lot of teams you don’t see before because it is an international event. You are getting competitors that could be ex-pros from Norway, for all you know. You could get anyone at the starting line.”
