Nordic ski center gaining spotlight County athletes get spots on top teams

There’s an old adage that states “old diamonds don’t lose their shine; the light just has to hit them at the proper angle again.”

In Aroostook County, an area also known as “The Crown of Maine,” the light is coming from the Maine Winter Sports Center.

Entering its fourth season in existence, the fledgling Nordic ski training center boasts two world-class venues, one in Fort Kent and one in Presque Isle. The center has already brought five national championship races and two North American Championships to northern Maine, and is now poised to host the entire skiing world.

The MWSC’s 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent will be the site of a Nordic biathlon World Cup event in early March of 2004, and The Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle will host the 2006 World Junior Biathlon Championships.

The biathlon, which combines the skills of rifle marksmanship and cross-country skiing, is the most popular winter sport in Europe. Each of these events will put Aroostook County in the spotlight when hundreds of the world’s best skiers, thousands of spectators, and millions of domestic and overseas television viewers focus on the area.

While the ski facilities may be MWSC’s calling card, they are certainly not the organization’s sole purpose. There are 61 skiers who are members of one of MWSC’s four ski teams, with the majority of skiers hailing from Aroostook County.

The Youth Team and the County Team are each composed of athletes between ages 12 and 20, and all of the athletes are from Aroostook County. According to MWSC Chief Operating Officer Max Saenger, these teams are the building blocks upon which aspiring young skiers base their future.

“Ideally, skiers on these teams will eventually move on to our Regional Team as their skills progress, and then on to the Continental Team and the U.S. Ski Team,” said Saenger.

County Team coach Will Sweetser agrees.

“It is entirely within the realm of possibility that a skier from Aroostook County will someday participate in a World Cup event,” he said.

At this time, four of the eight Regional Team members and three of the eight Continental Team members are from Maine. Four of those Maine skiers are from Aroostook County.

While it will be months or years before the world comes to northern Maine, MWSC officials have a number of impressive events planned for this winter.

The Peoples Festival at Fort Kent, slated for mid-January, will feature some of the top young biathletes in North America as they contend for spots on the United States and Canadian national junior biathlon ski teams. Presque Isle will be the site of the Banknorth Nordic Heritage Sprints Dec. 30-31 as well as the Banknorth Nordic Heritage Spring Series in late March. Up for grabs in each of these races is $4,200 in prize money for the top male and female finishers.

“For the December event, we’re expecting some of the best junior athletes in New England, along with the University of Vermont and Middlebury College ski teams, all the college ski teams from Maine, the Alpina/Madshus Factory Team, and members of the U.S. Development Team and the U.S. Ski Team – 300 athletes in all,” says MWSC event manager Max Cobb.

Sprint racing “is relatively new to the sport of cross-country skiing” and is very similar to “a tennis ladder or a track meet,” according to Cobb. Racers compete in a series of heats until the four fastest skiers advance to the final.

There will be some highly contested heat races on the afternoon of Dec. 30, but “the most exciting stuff begins around 6:30 [p.m.],” says Cobb. The national anthem will be played, and a fireworks display will follow.

Then, four finalists from each of the four divisions (junior men, junior women, senior men, and senior women) will toe the line to determine the fastest overall skiers.

Contestants expected to be in attendance include 2002 U.S. Olympian Aelin Peterson and MWSC Continental Team member Dave Chamberlain, a native of Bethel. Winners in the men’s and women’s senior divisions will each take home $1,000 in prize money.

Factor in recent improvements to the facility’s lighting and sound systems, plus the play-by-play analysis of Olympic winter sports announcer Chad Salmela, adds Cobb, and “this event should be a fantastic experience for spectators.”

For more details on this event, log on to MWSC’s Web site: www.mainewsc.org.