For the first time ever, the FIS World Cup will take place in Scotland.
Starting in 2020, Edinburgh will host the start of a brand new FIS Ski Tour. The stages of the new tour will take place primarily in Norway and Sweden, but Edinburgh is proposed to host the prologue.
“A new tour in a part of the world with an extreme interest in cross-country skiing will be fantastic. It will give us an opportunity to showcase our sport in a way that can contribute to boost the entire sport. Running the prologue in Scotland is an important part of inviting more countries into the world of cross-country skiing,” says Aage Skinstad, Norway’s representative in the FIS committee.
The proposed tour will take place over two weekends in February, and will consist of stages in locations such as Östersund (SWE), Åre (SWE) and Trondheim (NOR), as well as a boarder-crossing stage from Sweden to Norway. However, the details are still being determined.
“We are looking forward to finalize the details for the various stages in terms of distances, classic and free technique, and I think this will be an exciting addition to the World Cup schedule,” Skinstad says.
Norwegian national team director Vidar Løfshus is equally excited about the new tour.
“I know our athletes have been dreaming about skiing a tour series event on home turf. At the same time, this is a great opportunity to showcase other sides of our sport to an international audience. And finally, I hope this tour can open up new ways to collaborate with our neighbor rivals on the course,” Løfshus says.
Norway and Sweden jointly presented the bid for a new cross-country ski tour starting in 2020 at the FIS board meeting in Zürich last week.