POSTED: August 31st 2010
NewsUpdate
Ski orienteering sets its sights on the 2018 Winter Games winning post
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT / Sports Features Communications
HELSINKI, Aug 31: Ski orienteering is the latest sports discipline targeting Olympics entry at the Winter Games of 2018 - which will be staged in PyeongChang, Annecy or Munich.
The International Orienteering Federation has make a formal application on behalf of ski orienteering on the basis of its claim of considerable growth over the past few years. That progress has been enhanced by the inclusion of the sport in the Asian Winter Games and the CISM World Military Winter Games.
Some 35 nations are expected to participate in the World Ski Orienteering Championships in Sweden next March.
Ski orienteering combines extreme physical fitness and cross-country skiing skills with the ability to navigate and make difficult route choices at high speed. The events can be organised in cross-country skiing and biathlon arenas and do not require the creation of any permanent infrastructure.
Media friendly
IOF president Åke Jacobson said: "We have developed and tested new spectator and media-friendly formats. Sprint and sprint relay are intensive competition formats and well suited for TV. We have also addressed other development aspects such as the universality of the sport.
"The geographical footprint of ski orienteering is comparable to most other sports on the Winter Games programme."
The IOF athletes’ commission for ski orienteering has been closely involved in the development of the new formats. Chair Eivind Tonna said: "Sprint and mixed sprint relay have proved attractive competition formats which appeal to the athletes as well as to spectators and media.
"Our events fit nicely into a 45-minute TV broadcast and the latest technology - GPS tracking and biometric data - brings the drama of the competition to the spectators.”
Keywords · Ski orienteeering · IOF
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