'Team Avalanche' unites cross-country skiing Olympic hopefuls from small countries

Indian skier Bhavani Thekkada's lower leg was a mess at a race weekend in Finland — think blisters and blood. She turned to ''Team Avalanche'' on WhatsApp in search of ointments.

''I couldn't find anything in the shop, so I just put a message in the group and there was this guy who said, ‘Hey I'm in Ruka, I have antibiotic ointment with me,'" Thekkada explained. "Then he comes and gives me the medicine. That's really nice.''

The WhatsApp group with the catchy name is comprised of cross-country skiers who spent the past year or so trying to qualify for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. They're from non-traditional winter sports countries and mostly operate independently, so having a community to lean on can be helpful.

Trinidad and Tobago's Nick Lau started it as a forum ''for random tips and advice'' for all the ''small nation'' athletes he kept meeting at ski races.

''For this sport, some of us, we had absolutely no upbringing in the culture, like a Norwegian would,'' Lau said. ''Some people have no idea what FIS (the governing body) is, and how does it relate to my being able to ski or not. What is a FIS license? Do I need a license to go to a race?''

It's evolved into a place where athletes coordinate travel and training plans and join forces to defray costs, like for a waxing technician. There are more than 60 members and more than 40 countries are represented.

They might ask about crashing in a spare bedroom, as Thekkada did for a recent trip to Norway.

Who are they?

They're from places including Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa — some have qualified for Milan Cortina, others not.

They're a smart bunch — working in fields including medicine, architecture, media, finance — and some have enough financial independence to help make it work. Some are dual nationals, many are in their 30s.

Regina Martinez of Mexico is an emergency doctor at a Miami hospital. The 45-year-old Lau is a former FIFA executive. Dylan Longridge of Ireland is a geophysicist specializing in the field of unexploded ordnance detection.

Matt C. Smith of South Africa is an entrepreneur and public speaker who has been chronicling his journey — and turning the spotlight on others, too — on his social media platforms.

''Everyone is intelligent, everyone is driven, everyone is trying to achieve things, because this is a very untypical, untraditional thing to do," the 35-year-old Smith added.

Mexico's Allan Corona, who like his good friend Smith was doing triathlons before taking up skiing, moved to Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic — his wife is Norwegian and drives an ambulance.

''I did not know really what cross-country skiing was previously to moving here,'' Corona said.

He took up Norway's beloved sport as a change of pace, participated in a few races, and then got a call from Mexico's ski federation telling him he's eligible to compete at the 2023 world championships. Corona described the race as ''humbling'' but motivating: ''I got hooked at that event.''

Corona and Smith will compete in the 10-kilometer interval start at the Olympics next month.

Athletes had to satisfy two criteria to reach the Olympics: unlock a quota spot for their country — either the world championship in early 2025 or at a recent series of World Cup races; and maintain a good average score in sanctioned races through a complicated points system.

Lau said he and others in the Avalanche group successfully lobbied to get the World Cup races added as qualifying events — after what he described as limited opportunities in the pandemic-hit previous cycle.

''We escalated this quite a lot,'' Lau said.

That doesn't mean it's easier. In fact, the points calculation has become tougher.

Smith said that in some past cycles, before he took up the sport, it was possible to ''game the system'' by competing in low-profile races in random spots like Kazakhstan to earn better points.

Expensive endeavors

Costs each season, Corona estimated, include 12,000 euros ($14,000) worth of skis and poles. Boots cost 1,000 euros and you need three pairs. Coaching runs at least 100 euros per hour in Norway. Traveling to a race will cost 1,000 euros per weekend for flights and other expenses, he added.

Smith estimates he's spent about $100,000 of his own funds to achieve Olympic qualification.

''I'm quite proud to say that I've funded this myself, through my own work and my own businesses," he said. ''I've never asked for financial help or sought after it.''

Smith has been dubbed a ''ski-fluencer'' in Norwegian media because of his podcasts and social media posts about skiing.

What's next?

Lau, who grew up in Texas, advocates for easing some barriers to Olympic qualification. Like Thekkada, Lau didn't qualify for Milan Cortina.

''This is the irony. The IOC and the global sport community and even FIS, they are reaping the benefits of years of development,'' Lau said. "The fact that you have people from the Caribbean, from Africa, from Asia now excited about skiing — you could view that as a success of development activities. But what are we doing now with all that energy?

''I think that's where we're a bit stuck and policy now need to be reviewed and strategies need to be adjusted.''

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