The FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships 2021 has finally found its home – fingers crossed.
It was an unusually long and dramatic story: two initial locations in Poland had to withdraw even before Covid-19 pandemics in favor of Zakopane. Then Zakopane asked FIS to move it’s hosting bid to 2022.
Then there was a bit of confusion when FIS officially named the Italian town of Pragelato as the JWC’21 – unbeknownst to the Italian hosts.
Finally Viokatti stepped in and saved the day. Unlike fairly exotic Zakopane and Prageloto, the Finnish town is a total mainstream location for the most if not all elite skiers, not the least because of its ski tunnel.
Lahti, Finland was the location of JWC 2019 ( junior ski jumpers and Nordic combiners will compete there in 2021 again – Vuokatti is for cross-country ski races only)
We said it before and we say it now: Junior World Ski Championships is, perhaps, most underapreciated cross-country ski competition in the world: gone are the days when ” Junior” meant years before the Olympic medals: Ustiugov, Klaebo, Bolshunov were crushing the competition at Juniors – then immediately went to star among the ” grown-ups”. The xcsking is becoming younger and younger. And the prestige, the investment into the event is growing by year – just look at those superfancy wax trucks many a team now send to Juniors. This season might not be an ideal time to travel – but do start harassing your sports television at home demanding a proper broadcast. We know we will!
