Louis Bouchard is confident that Nordic Canada will be flexible when it comes to shaping the national teams in April.
Cross-country skaters must collect 22 FIS points on the World Cup circuit or sign two of the World’s Top 20 points to receive their card from Sport Canada, which provides them with funding.
“These are good standards, but you have to adapt when an exceptional situation like an epidemic occurs,” said Louis Bouchard, technical director of the Pierre Harvey National Training Center (CNEPH). Due to the pandemic, our athletes are deprived of 80 percent of their chances of running. These criteria should be applied, but under normal circumstances. I am not afraid that the new leadership of our union will adapt. “
She recorded her best performance on the World Cup circuit with a score of 23H At the 10 km freestyle swimming race in Fallon, Sweden on January 29, Cendrine Browne collected 12 FIS points since the start of the season with only two races scheduled before returning home. There are no points awarded in the World Cup.
“Sindrine has proven since the beginning of the season that she occupies her place in the team and will prove that more if she continues on the same path at the end of the year,” Bouchard said. We cannot build the future of our sport without taking into account the present. “
Sanity
Given her experiences over the past two years where she has been banned from the national team for various reasons, Brown is more cautious than her coach. “I seek to get two of the top 20 in the world because I can’t count on the federation,” she says. “I’m not counting on them to amend the standards as we saw last year after canceling the final stages of the World Cup in Canada. I want to meet the criteria. I’m really happy to add 30 kilometers for free.” In the last World Cup this season in Switzerland. “
The 27-year-old has qualified for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games and wants to continue until 2022 in Beijing, but the financial reality complicates her existence. “It’s impossible to play the World Cup season without a degree,” she says. I’m having a very good season and I’m still improving despite all I’m told, but I’m one of the few in the ring who doesn’t have a card. “
Fundraising
“If I don’t return to the national team, I will have to turn to the fundraising campaign to survive like this year, to follow Brown who will participate in his first world race, today in Oberstdorf, Germany, as she takes the start of the ski race. The ski community believes in me across.” The country is in Canada as the sponsors believe in it, otherwise it will be impossible to continue my career. I hope the culture in Nordic Canada will change, but I don’t see it at the moment. “
Brown is far from giving up. “I came out stronger with everything that happened to me. I now have more tools in my safe.”