NDC-Thunder Bay names 14 skiers to 2016-17 squad

THUNDER BAY -- Annika Richardson represented her country at the Youth Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway this past winter.

She also qualified for the world junior Nordic championships in Romania.

With those standards on her resume, the 18-year-old Vancouver native likely could have written her own ticket and joined just about any cross-country ski club in the country.

She chose the National Development Centre-Thunder Bay, but despite her credentials was waiting on pins and needles to learn whether or not she was one of the 14 athletes selected to train with the team in 2016-17.

“April was a bit of a waiting game. I’d applied to the centre and we were waiting for the high-performance meetings to happen and I wasn’t letting myself be excited to be with the centre yet because I didn’t know if it was going through,” Richardson said.

“Once I got the call … and heard who was on the team, I was just getting excited to be a part of such a big group of girls for training partners as well as all the guys and their experience, the new coach and refreshing the training location.”

This year’s team, which will start training immediately, is a mixture of young and old, with plenty of experience and local faces in the latter category.

The men’s side is headed by longtime veteran Michael Somppi, entering his seventh year with the team. He’ll be joined by returnees Angus Foster, Sam Greer, Evan Palmer-Charrette, Julian Smith, Bob Thompson and rookies Fergus Foster and Levi Nadlersmith, who also skied at the Lillehammer Youth Olympics.

The women’s team is led by veteran Alannah MacLean of Sudbury, Thunder Bay’s Sadie White and Mia Serratore and Quebec’s Katherine Stewart-Jones.

Richardson and Kenora’s Lisle Compton are the freshmen skiers making the cut.

Woodstock, Ont.’s Thompson, in his fifth year, said having a team like the NDC squad is invaluable to top-level skiers.

“If you’re serious about pursuing skiing, you’re looking at the training centres,” said Thompson, with an eye to making the Canadian Olympic team in 2018. 

Thompson said his goal this year is to lead the NorAm standings and earn his way into World Cup events and a shot at a world under-23 berth in Park City, Utah.

“And I want to get results that could pre-qualify me for the Olympics in 2018.”

White, whose goal is to qualify for the senior national women’s team, said she likes learning from the best in an atmosphere of athletes who want the same things in the sport.

“It helps us push each other to become better athletes because at the end of the day we want to become the best skiers we can be, break onto the national stage, compete at the Olympics, be at the world championships and be surrounded by people who have that same goal,” said White, one of five NDC-Thunder Bay skiers to ski at the most recent world junior/under-23 championships.

The team also announced Monday Steinbach, Man.’s Tim Wintoniw has joined the club as an assistant under head coach Timo Puiras.