Up North: Duluth welcomes Olympic hopefuls to Spirit Mountain

At Spirit Mountain on Sunday the Duluth SuperTour Cross Country Ski Races took place, with the purpose of finding the U.S. Skiing Team for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

"This venue itself is one of four events that are being used for Olympic selection, so this is the first time that we have had a U.S Super Tour here in Duluth in a long time and they are doing an excelent job," stated U.S Ski and Snowboard Development Manager Brian Fish.

One of the individuals who made the event possible by creating the course, was U.S Ski and Snowboard Association, Chief of Competiton Gary Larson.

"This is the first race in the country for the current ski season, and to have a international race we kind of stuck our necks out and the snow makers here at Spirit Mountain did a great job," Larson exclaimed.

The workers and volunteers at Spirtit Mountain made it their priority to make the best experience for racers from, Alaska, Montana, Utah and beyond, including athletes from Canada, and even Europe.

"What we try to do is bring our athletes together in an enclusive enviorment and have the athletes be able to see first hand that oppurtunity from going from the lower levels to being able to see the top level of the sport," continued Fish.

With about 300 of the best winter sport athletes all meeting at Spirit Mountain, Chief of the Organizing Commitee Siiri Morse says the race puts Duluth on the map.

"These Midwest kids, if they want to go race and compete with these very good elite athletes they have to travel East or West. So this is a great oppurtunity for our Duluth kids, but also for the kids regionally so its fantastic," Morse added.

The SuperTour continues next weekend at the Birke Trails in Cable, Wisconsin.