Pole, Russian Earn First-Day Wins
January 22, 2008
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Canmore World Cup Coverage Special to CrossCountrySkier.com See the rest of our coverage

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Afterwards – The Tower of Babel

One cannot help but observe that this is indeed the World Cup. Everybody speaks a different language. Some of it is funny and some of it is admirable considering how hard it can be to travel, compete, and then try to utter something sensible in front of strangers in a strange tongue.

Upon being asked informally while out on the trails “what do you think of Canmore?” several racers from several countries have all used the same pat response either in broken English or their native tongue, “it’s good.” One gets the feeling that any World Cup host country could be substituted into the same question and the same answer would result. If pursued in questioning, many male Italians do concede that they miss their food and mothers at home.

Any one of the quotes from the top three women from the post-race press conference serves as another instance. These women are asked to say something in a second language while still exhausted. Kowalczyk’s response was transcribed directly, “I’m here for the first time but I very liked [the course]. I’ve been sick but everything is good now. This course was very good for me.”

In the post-race men’s press conference, the Russian Pankatov was doing his best in English to express himself. There was an interpreter who did her best and two coaches who occasionally blurted out Russo-English phrases to add to the process.

Things then turned to Di Centa who musically rattled away on his cell phone to what must have been an Italian reporter back in Italy. He then spoke through an Italian coach who spoke some English. The Italian Olympian gave kudos through his coach to the groomers here at Canmore, saying that he likes to drive the grooming machines at home and he really respected the job that the groomers did here in Canada today.

Teichmann, who looks like a college football tight-end, stared stoically into space until it was his turn to answer questions. In German accented English he explained that he had great kick in the classic segment of the race but, correspondingly, his glide suffered and, consequently, he worked very hard to keep in contact with the leaders during the skating leg.

The question “how do Canmore’s trails compare to other trails?” has come up several times. The response is always the same – that they are good, hard, maybe among the hardest, and they are firm and well groomed.

Tomorrow are the classic sprints and Americans can anticipate the performances of Kikkan Randall and Andrew Newell, both of whom have excelled in the discipline. Randall became the first American woman ever to win a World Cup event in a December 2007 sprint in Russia. As the Italian good luck saying goes, ‘in boca lupo’!