Vasaloppet China | |
---|---|
Status | active |
Genre | sporting event |
Date(s) | January |
Frequency | annual |
Country | People's Republic of China |
Inaugurated | 2003 |
Website | www |
Vasaloppet China (Swedish : Kinavasan) is a cross-country skiing competition held in the beginning of every year in Changchun, China. Originally held in 2003, [1] it has been a part of Worldloppet since 2014. [2] The competition is named after Vasaloppet in Sweden. The event takes place in Jingyuetan National Forest Park. [3] [4]
Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province in China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a sub-provincial city, comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 county-level cities. According to the 2020 census of China, Changchun had a total population of 9,066,906 under its jurisdiction. The city's metro area, comprising 5 districts and 1 development area, had a population of 5,019,477 in 2020, as the Shuangyang and Jiutai districts are not urbanized yet. It is one of the biggest cities in Northeast China, along with Shenyang, Dalian and Harbin.
Vasaloppet is an annual long distance cross-country ski race held on the first Sunday of March. The 90 km (56 mi) course starts in the village of Berga, just south of Sälen in western Dalarna, Sweden, and ends in the town of Mora in the central part of the province. It is the oldest cross-country ski race in the world, as well as the one with the highest number of participants.
Jilin City is the second-largest city and former capital of Jilin province in northeast China. As of the 2020 census, 3,623,713 people resided within its administrative area of 27,166.37 square kilometres (10,488.99 sq mi) and 1,895,865 in its built-up area consisting of four urban districts. A prefecture-level city, it is the only major city nationally that shares its name with its province.
The Worldloppet Ski Federation is an international federation of long distance cross-country skiing events whose aim is to promote cross-country skiing through ski races. The federation was founded on 10 June 1978 in Uppsala, Sweden.
Justyna Maria Kowalczyk-Tekieli is a Polish cross-country skier who has been competing since 2000. Kowalczyk is a double Olympic Champion and a double World Champion. She is also the only skier to win the Tour de Ski four times in a row and one of two female skiers to win the FIS Cross-Country World Cup three times in a row. Kowalczyk holds the all-time record for wins in the Tour de Ski with 14, and had 29 podiums in total. She also won the Vasaloppet women's edition in 2015. She was voted the Polish Sports Personality of the Year a record five times.
Nils Emanuel Karlsson, better known as Mora-Nisse, was a Swedish cross-country skier. Karlsson won gold in the 50 km event at the 1948 Winter Olympics and nine Vasaloppet victories.
Bernt Assar Rönnlund was a Swedish cross-country skier. Rönnlund's biggest success was at the 1962 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Zakopane where he won two gold medals and a silver (50 km). As a result, he earned the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal that year for his championship successes. Rönnlund was the anchorman of the Swedish 4 × 10 km relay team at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, bringing the team from fourth place to victory. Rönnlund also won the Vasaloppet in 1967 and the 50 km event at the Holmenkollen ski festival twice. For his cross-country skiing successes, Rönnlund was awarded the Holmenkollen Medal in 1968.
Sven-Åke Lundbäck is a former Swedish cross-country skier. He competed at the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics in the 15 km, 30 km and 4 × 10 km events and won a gold medal over 15 km in 1972. He was close to a bronze medal in the 4 × 10 km relay in 1972, but fell near the finish; he had another fourth place in the relay in 1980.
Cristina Paluselli is a former professional Italian cross-country skier.
Daniel Tynell is a Swedish retired cross-country skier who won the ski marathon Vasaloppet three times, in 2002, 2006 and 2009, and came in second in the 2010, 2011 and 2013 marathons. Tynell also won the König Ludwig Lauf, an event that is part of Worldloppet Ski Federation, twice. He represented the ski club Grycksbo IF.
Stanislav Řezáč is a Czech long-distance cross-country skier competing in the Worldloppet Ski Federation series of races.
The National Winter Games of China is a nationwide Chinese winter sports competition typically held every 4 to 5 years in conjunction with the National Games of China. The 2016 games featured 1,388 participants from 52 delegations, including Hong Kong and Macau. The 2020 winter games, which were to take place in February in Inner Mongolia, have been postponed to 2024 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Elin Ek,, is a Swedish cross-country skier. She participated at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin. Elin won the Tjejvasan in 1999 and 2006. and the Vasaloppet main women's event in 2007. She also won the women's Worldloppet in the 2006/2007 season.
Susanne Nyström, born 29 December 1982 in Laisvall, Sweden is a Swedish female cross-country skier and nurse.
Lars-Arne Bölling, born Lars Arne Torsten 6 October 1944 in Sörsjön, Sweden, is a Swedish former cross-country skier competing for IFK Mora and Orsa IF at club level. He won Vasaloppet in 1970 and 1972. He became Swedish national champion in the 15 kilometers race in 1970, and in the 1973 30 kilometers race as well as the 1970 and 1971 50 kilometers races. He was also part of the IFK Mora team winning the Swedish national relay championship in 1970-1973, and in 1974 he won the same relay title with Orsa IF.
Lars Frykberg is a Swedish former cross-country skier. He won Vasaloppet in 1982, while competing for IFK Mora in a competition where Jean-Paul Pierrat from France first reached the finish, but was disqualified for changing skis.
Competitive cross-country skiing encompasses a variety of race formats and course lengths. Rules of cross-country skiing are sanctioned by the International Ski Federation and by various national organizations. International competitions include the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and at the Winter Olympic Games. Such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic (in-track) and freestyle events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing. It also encompasses cross-country ski marathon events, sanctioned by the Worldloppet Ski Federation, and cross-country ski orienteering events, sanctioned by the International Orienteering Federation. Related forms of competition are biathlon, where competitors race on cross-country skis and stop to shoot at targets with rifles, and paralympic cross-country skiing that allows athletes with disabilities to compete at cross-country skiing with adaptive equipment.
Örjan Blomquist was a Swedish cross-country skier, specialised at long-distance races during the 1980s. Competing for IFK Lidingö at club level, he shared the victory at Vasaloppet 1988 together with his brother Anders Blomquist. Örjan Blomquist also won Worldloppet in 1985.
The Gatineau Loppet, earlier known as Rivière Rouge, Gatineau 55 and Keskinada Loppet, is an international cross-country ski competition where close to 2,500 skiers of all ages and levels come together on the trails of Gatineau Park, in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. A member of the Worldloppet league, it is part of a circuit of the 20 biggest cross-country ski races around the world, including the Vasaloppet in Sweden, and La Tranjurassienne in France. The Gatineau Loppet takes place over a weekend in February, with 8 cross-country ski races, 3 snowshoe races and 3 fat bike races. It has been held since 1979, and has been part of Worldloppet since then.
Jingyuetan National Forest Park is a forest park and tourist attraction in Changchun, Jilin. 18km southeast of the city, the park covers over 100 square kilometers. The park was created in 1934, approved as a forest park in 1989 and the lake was listed as a key national scenic area in 1998. According to the government of Changchun, the park is the largest man-made forest in Asia. The man-made forest had an area of 1,000 hectares in the 1930s, but by 2015 the area was around 10,000 hectares.