Off-track Skiing World Championship history
Everything
began in the winter of 1997 when Heikki Haavikko was at Iso-Syöte. He
had his forest skis on top of his car and some youngsters were
wondering, what on earth they are for.
In the
spring of 1997 Heikki was cross-country skiing on the swamps of
Liekokylä and was wondering how swamps could be utilized during the
winter. There is plenty of space for people to ski through on these
vast swamps, he thought, and you don’t even need any tracks when you
have forest skis. In the old days there were never any tracks. When
children skied to school they made their way through virgin snow, and
in the evening they used the same track to get back home. So Heikki
spent one week in the wilderness and these ideas evolved in his mind.
But one man couldn’t organize such an extensive off-track skiing event
alone, so he contacted his work associate Antti Härkönen. Antti worked
within forest industry, so he was immediately interested in the idea,
when he heard it. He brought the subject to Pudasjärven Urheilijat, a
local sports club, and introduced Heikki to Heino Ruuskanen. Heino on
his behalf introduced the idea to the municipality of Pudasjärvi. So
already in the autumn of 1997 an organizing committee had been
nominated to take the idea further.
The first
competition was decided to be held at the spot where the whole idea had
been originated in Heikki’s mind at the swamps of Liekokylä. The
amount of participants in the first year surprised organizers
positively, and so the competition has been held every year since. The
popularity of the event keeps growing and every year there are more
participants than before. The media has played an important role on
making the event known.
We are constantly improving the competition by sending feedback
questionnaires to the participants. The place where the competition is
held varies from year to year.
Marko Koivula
2023
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
- Results of teams
- Results of individual skiers
- Results of participants with snowshoes
- Number of participants: 448 (400 with skiis, 48 with snowshoes)
2000
1999
1998
- Number of participants: 128
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