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Organizers laud Sea to Sky Nordic Festival as huge success

Hundreds of volunteers daily made hosting event possible
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The Sea to Sky Nordic Festival was the product of a one-of-a-kind alignment for Canada's Nordic sports organizations that allowed all four sports — cross-country, biathlon, ski jumping and Nordic combined — to host their national championships over a two-week period at Whistler Olympic Park. But if events lined up this one time, then with a little work they could align once again.

WOP is the only venue in Canada that can host all four events at this time of year, drawing roughly 900 athletes to the region from March 16 to 30.

John Heilig, manager of Nordic sports at Whistler Olympic Park, said the event was a huge undertaking.

"It was at the point where our capacity could just handle it, it was definitely a big deal for us," he said. "The volunteer engagement was the biggest part, we had something in the neighbourhood of a couple hundred volunteers every single day making a big contribution into this. They helped make this event a huge success."

Heilig said they created a committee a year ago to start preparations for the events, and it was gratifying to see it all come together. He's heard nothing but compliments from sports organizations, and pledges to return in the future for events and high performance training camps.

But as for the chances that we'll see another Sea to Sky Nordic Festival with all of the national sports organizations taking part, Heilig said that would be a challenge.

"The reality is that this is something that can only happen every three or four years if the schedules line up," said Heilig. "Ski jumping could come here every year, and they probably will. But biathlon and cross-country rotate their nationals so that one year it's in the east, the next it's in Central Canada, and so on. A lot of places want to host these events, so this was the kind of opportunity you're not going to get every year. If we can do it every four years... then that's probably the best we can do."

That's not to say that Whistler Olympic Park won't host any more big events. On Saturday, June 23, the venue will play host once again to a Tough Mudder competition, an event that drew 16,000 athletes in 2012.

As for winter sports, Heilig said they've spoken with Own the Podium and other sports organizations, and there's interest in bringing World Cup and NorAm Cup events to Whistler Olympic Park in the future.

In that sense, the nationals were a great training exercise. Hundreds of volunteers and officials were trained in the lead-up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and events like the nationals keep those people involved and keep their skills sharp.

Heilig said organziers had no idea what would happen to their volunteer base after the Games, but they were gratified to see that it's still going strong.

"If we're going to host World Cup events, or anything at that level, we're going to need to continue to develop a good group of volunteers, and I was extremely impressed with the volunteers we had and their ability to step in and run these kinds of events," he said.

In the run-up to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Heilig said there is a lot of interest in the facilities. He's expecting to host training camps for athletes through late May or early June WOP closes to the public April 7), as well as late November once there's enough snow to offer on-snow training. Ski Jumping is planning a camp in Whistler in late November, and other national sports organizations are also planning to stop in Whistler at some point — with early openings and a coastal snowpack similar to Sochi, the Callaghan Valley is a perfect place for athletes to train for the Games.

Heilig doesn't have final numbers yet, but said skier numbers at WOP are up over last year. The only season where numbers have been reported was 2010-2011 with over 30,000 skier visits. Numbers from 2011-2012 will be released by Whistler Sport Legacies (WSL), which manages the venue, in the next few months.

"There's been quite a bit of growth in Nordic sports in general — cross-country is definitely growing and there's a lot of demand for biathlon," said Heilig.

"It's drawing more people in, and so we've had quite a big year with more people skiing than in the past."

Hosting 900 athletes plus coaches and family members was a huge undertaking.

According to WSL spokesperson Patricia Leslie, the Whistler Athletes' Centre and Athletes' Lodge were sold out every day for two weeks, as well as three unoccupied townhomes that were created for athletes living in Whistler long term. That works out to around 160 individuals a day.

The economic impact of the festival is unknown, but the Executive Suites hotel in Squamish, one of the official accommodation providers, was busy.

"We had team B.C., Team Ontario and Team Quebec," said Jared Sissons, general manager of the hotel and chair of Tourism Squamish. "We were one of the host hotels, and I think that certainly helped our occupancy."

Sissons had the opportunity to speak to sports organizations, and has heard that many are planning to come back to train.

Overall, Sissons said that Whistler Olympic Park has been positive for his hotel, which is located near the northern end of Squamish.

"We were very successful offering a Nordic rate this year, and had a lot of cross-country skiers come up and utilize the resort," he said. "Really, we're just as close to the Olympic Park as Whistler is, so we're seeing the advantage of having a lot of cross-country skiers here. It's definitely growing."