Feb 13-18: Youth Olympic Games, Lillehammer, Norway

Annika Richardson of Hollyburn in B.C. and Levi Nadlersmith of Manitoba's Downtown Nordic will be representing Canada at the 2nd Youth Olympic Games. The events will be held in Lillehammer, Norway, site of the 1994 Olympics. 

Racing starts on Saturday with a new event called Cross-Country Cross:

"The Cross-Country Cross Free event is very similar to the Sprint, but the competition course features several technical elements (e.g. jumps, turns, etc.) to test the skier's abilities. The Cross-Country Cross Free events are skied in free technique; the skis are prepared with only glide wax and forward motion is created by using the edges of the skis, also called skating.

The Cross-Country Cross Free event begins with individual time trials (qualification) on the competition course with a 10- to 30-second interval start. The fastest 30 competitors advance to the three semi-finals of 10 competitors each. The top two finishers in each semi-final heat and the next four fastest competitors from the semi-finals advance to the final of 10 competitors.

These videos show sample formats from the Norwegian Championships:

The races continue with classic sprints on Tuesday and skate distance races on Thursday.