"We want to develop the long-distance skiers of the future"

Ski Classics

“We want to develop the long-distance skiers of the future”

by MÅRTEN LÅNG/Leandro Lutz Translation • 13.06.2023

Photo: Team Ramudden

For the coming season, Team Ramudden has started a team focusing on the Swedish national long-distance skiing races. The first training camp takes place this week, and the seven skiers are presented.

Team Ramudden announced a new project in May, a Swedish long-distance skiing team. This week the group meets for a training camp that will be shared with Team Ramudden’s Pro Team:

“Two of the camps during the base training season will be shared. This is important both to be able to learn from each other and also to create the Ramudden spirit around which we build the team. And we must see ourselves as one team, not two separate ones,” says Jonatan Engdahl, responsible for Team Ramudden’s national team.

The team will consist of seven skiers (see below) aged 20-25:

“Basically, the entire team will have their base in Östersund, which means they can train and develop together,” says Engdahl to Langd.se.

The team’s goal for the upcoming season is the national long-distance cup 157 XCC Originals (the winter race program has not been announced yet):

“But we also have the ambition to use some of the summer roller skiing competitions to create lessons we can take into the winter. Vaajmarathon and Alliansloppet are the competitions that we have already settled.”

What is the goal for the long term?

“We see an increasing interest in long races among younger skiers. We have seen in many skiers that the long races make you train differently than before and that you ‘break’ your normal training pattern. The goal is that one of our young skiers can try out a race in Ski Classics as early as next winter and that someone will be able to step up to Ski Classics fully by next year,” says Engdahl and adds:

“In the long term, we want to develop the long-distance skiers of the future. We have seen that Herman Paus (in Team Ramudden’s Pro Team) started to bet on long races at a young age, and he has set the standard for how to double pole uphill. It’s a great development in long-distance skiing.”