Pro Team Director Season XIV – Nominee #3 Marek Pazderský

by Leandro Lutz • 29.03.2023
The third Pro Team Director of the Season award nomination goes to Marek Pazderský. Get to know more about the eD system Silvini Team Pro Team Director.

Summit 2 Senja on Sunday, April 2, will end Ski Classics Season XIV. Five Pro Team Directors have been nominated for the award of Best Pro Team Director of the Season. 

The award recognizes Pro Team Directors with extraordinary directorial skills, unwavering dedication, and unconditional love for long-distance skiing, working correctly to develop Ski Classics. 

In Season XIV, five nominees will be presented during this week. They are all in the race to win the award. Nominee #3 is Marek Pazderský, the Pro Team Director of the eD system Silvini Team.

Marek Pazderský lead the Czech Pro Team eD system Silvini Team. His dedication and commitment to his Pro Team are remarkable. Marek is the Pro Team Director that has been doing the job longer than no other, already managing the team, bearing the same name, since the second season of Ski Classics. He shows incredible passion for the sport and is an essential ambassador in a key market of cross-country skiing.

In a recent interview, Marek shared his thoughts on what motivates him in his role, how he wants to develop the sport, and his challenges.

Marek Pazderský, the eD system Silvini Team Pro Team Director, finds his biggest motivation in helping others achieve their dreams. Having succeeded as a young skier, he now helps other skiers accomplish the same.

“The main motivation is to help other people achieve their dreams. I raced when I was young, achieved some success, and gradually started helping other skiers to achieve the same. And that’s in the position of a serviceman, organizer, manager, or coach. Our team is singular; it is made up of an amateur “race team,” which travels around Ski Classics and important races in the Czech Republic. The other part is made up of amateurs who enjoy skiing and want to improve,” says Marek and continues about the Pro Team:

“So, for the race team, I want to achieve the best possible position and for the rest of the team to awaken the desire to improve their skills. When all of this is successful, I consider it my success, and I am very happy, which motivates me to continue working for the team.”

From a Pro Team perspective, Marek wants to provide conditions for all skiers to keep improving. 

“I’m trying to provide conditions for all the skiers so they can keep improving, which means learning the servicing position, finding new waxes and methods, finding more money in the budget so more servicemen can work, or we can go to more races. Also, ensure we have quality skis, boots, and poles to be competitive. I am looking for gaps in training and diet while also looking for resources and time to do more sports camps. Everything depends on the amount of funding, which is getting harder and harder to come by, so we can’t afford to sign foreign athletes. Here is the biggest potential for improvement of the whole team.”

eD system Silvini Team at Bad Gastein Pro Team Tempo Season XIV. Photo: Magnus Östh/Ski Classics


Marek’s most enjoyable aspect of his job is skiing, which he loves.

“I love this sport, and this job allows me to ski almost every day, be out in nature, and get to know new places and people. And then, as a true egoist, I have to answer that I am immensely fulfilled by the success of my athletes and their smiles and hugs at the finish line because I know they are happy about it themselves,” and continues about the most challenging for him:

“Be far from family. This job is lovely but time-consuming, and I have two young boys who cry at home when their dad is away. On the other hand, it’s lovely to see them playing waxing and wanting to go skiing every day too, which is what I motivate them to do with my job. Then, when things don’t go well, it’s still tough to accept failure and learn from it. Sometimes I take everything too personally, and after a long night, I don’t sleep and look for how to do better next time.”

Regarding Ski Classics and the future ahead, Marek sees Ski Classics as an excellent venture that started timidly but has developed over time into a project that sets the direction and achieves great success in a demanding media world and manages to attract more and more athletes and spectators every year.

“Previously, long-distance skiing was just a sort of complement to skiing or an extension of a sporting career, but thanks to Ski Classics, long-distance skiing has become much more popular, and it is wonderful to see that more and more athletes are taking up the discipline from an early age.” 

Marek is working hard every day to one day bring long-distance skiing to the same level as classic skiing in the Czech Republic.

“We still have a long way to go in the Czech Republic, there are many people with outdated views, but I am working hard every day to one day bring long-distance skiing to the same level as classic skiing.”

Jiři Pliska and Václav Sedláček, eD system Silvini Team, at Bad Gastein Pro Team Tempo. Photo Reichert/NordicFocus.


Pazderský sees the future of Ski Classics in even more professionalization, a potential transfer market like in football, where the best will go to the bigger and successful teams, and the smaller teams like his will show new talents whose transfer will help finance the skiers of smaller teams.

“We can’t forget to connect with tradition and mass participation of amateurs; without them, it will be just World Cup races. We already have a lot of races where amateurs can’t compete, and that’s a shame. My next vision is a normal stage race for ten days straight, like the Tour de France in the long-distance races or including one extreme race like the 220km race in Sweden.”

Marek believes ecological activities, global warming, the difficulty of travel, the problem of doping, possible global conflict, a significant financial crisis, or a pandemic like Covid are the biggest challenges Ski Classics has ahead as a sport.

Finally, Marek is proud that his team still sticks together despite the challenges they faced this season.

“In the beginning, everything looked good, a lot of new skiers, competition in the team, new skis, good preparation, and at the very first race, 8th place in the teams. A dreamy start, but it was replaced by misfortune when most of the athletes had Covid, some of them repeatedly, sometimes our skis didn’t work, sometimes the service failed, and when everything was fine, we fell and broke our poles.”

 “If you don’t do well, you don’t do well. On the other hand, I’m proud that we still stick together, like each other, and are all motivated to show that our previous successes were not accidental. We have the ability to not only repeat them but also to improve them.”

eD system Silvini Team. Photo: Magnus Östh/Ski Classics


Next up is Reistadløpet on April 1 and Summit 2 Senja on April 2. The events mark the 13th and 14th Ski Classics stages and the final weekend of Season XIV.

The Season XIV of Ski Classics Pro Tour consists of 14 events on 10 event weekends in 6 different countries. 

Ski Classics Pro Tour Season XIV (2022/2023)

  • Event 1: December 10, 2022 – Bad Gastein PTT, Bad Gastein, Austria, 15km
  • Event 2: December 11, 2022 – Bad Gastein Criterium, Bad Gastein, Austria, 35km
  • Event 3: December 17, 2022 – La Venosta Criterium, Val Venosta, Italy, 36km 
  • Event 4: January 14, 2023 – Pustertaler Ski Marathon, Sexten, Italy, 62km
  • Event 5: January 15, 2023 – Prato Piazza Mountain Challenge, Niederdorf, Italy, 32km
  • Event 6: January 21, 2023 – Engadin La Diagonela, Engadin Valley, Switzerland, 48km 
  • Event 7: January 29, 2023 – Marcialonga, Trentino, Italy, 70km
  • Event 8: February 12, 2023 – Jizerská50, Bedřichov, Czech Republic, 50km
  • Event 9: February 18, 2023 – Grönklitt Criterium, Orsa Grönklitt, Sweden, 50km
  • Event 10: February 19, 2023 – Grönklitt ITT, Orsa Grönklitt, Sweden, 12km
  • Event 11: March 5, 2023 – Vasaloppet, Sälen-Mora, Sweden, 90km
  • Event 12: March 18, 2023 – Birkebeinerrennet, Rena-Lillehammer, Norway, 54km
  • Event 13: April 1, 2023 – Reistadløpet, Setermoen-Bardufoss, Norway, 40km
  • Event 14: April 2, 2023 – Summit 2 Senja, Bardufoss- Finnsnes, Norway, 68km

More information about the Ski Classics Pro Tour you can find at skiclassics.com.

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