PI gets junior event for ’09 County will see flurry of action

PRESQUE ISLE – Central and northern Aroostook County will be busy in March 2009.

Two weeks after the Maine Winter Sports Center announced that it will stage a biathlon World Cup event in March 2009 at the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent, officials from the Nordic Heritage Sport Club said Thursday the Nordic Heritage Center has been awarded the 2009 USSA Cross Country Junior Olympics, which will take place the same month.

Now, MWSC officials have to work with the USSA (U.S. Ski Association) to make sure the two events aren’t scheduled at the same time – there just aren’t enough hotel beds between the St. John Valley and central Aroostook County to house everyone if the events were the same week.

“Having this a couple of years from now gives us an opportunity to have a dialog with the U.S. Ski Association to try and make sure that there is a gap,” MWSC president Andy Shepard said. “Clearly we wouldn’t be able to hold both of these on the same weeks. I don’t see that as being a big issue. It’s just a discussion we have to have. But I think it’s clear to say that Aroostook County will be a hopping place in March 2009.”

The World Cup is scheduled to begin March 12, 2009. Dates for the eight-day Junior Olympics haven’t been worked out yet as USSA and MWSC officials are trying to work around the World Cup. Those dates are typically set one to two years before the event and are decided based on the sport’s international calendar.

Max Saenger, the outgoing MWSC vice president for economic development, estimated the economic impact for the area at about $1,920,000.

“This can be a real boost for our local tourism businesses, [and] extend their season if it’s [been] a short season or really ramp it up and make March one of their standout months,” he said.

Nordic Heritage president Melanie Stewart said the Junior Olympics could bring around 420 skiers, ages 14 to 19, to Presque Isle. Many of the current U.S. national team members and Olympians have competed at the Junior Olympics.

The event draws college recruiters from all over the country.

“Far and away JOs is the most incredible event in the sport of cross country in the United States,” said USSA head development coach Matt Whitcomb, the brother of U.S. standout and former MWSC team member Kate Whitcomb. “… A huge percentage of the athletes that are successful at JOs go on to ski at very competitive colleges, many of whom will get scholarships.”

Considering the coaches, chaperones, parents and spectators who will accompany the athletes, Stewart said the event could bring upwards of 700 people into the area, which is more than double the number here for last year’s world junior biathlon championships.

The Junior Olympics rotates sites each year between five of the USSA regions. This year’s competition was held March 5-10 in Soldier Hollow, Utah. The 2008 Junior Olympics will be in Anchorage, Alaska.

The Nordic Heritage Center submitted its bid for the event in December, 2005.

Each of 10 regional divisions can qualify up to 42 athletes (21 per gender) for Junior Olympics. The athletes qualify through a points system, which in the Eastern region is the eight-race, season-long Eastern Cup. There are also automatic qualifiers, including members of the world junior biathlon championships and world junior Nordic combined championships teams, who can count above the 42-person limit. The New England region had around 18 automatic qualifiers this year, according to Jim Rodrigues, the New England Nordic Skiing Association event director.

Not all the regions fill their 42-athlete quota, while some will go over because of the automatic qualifiers.

This weekend’s U.S. cross country championships will be a test run of sorts for the Junior Olympics, Rodrigues said. The Nordic Heritage Center has never held a race with a mass start, in which all competitors start at the same time. The site will get a test in that Sunday in the marathon competitions.

The Junior Olympics will feature four races – a sprint, classic, free skate and relay – for each gender.