Park City's Lance Swedish telemark skiing. Photo: courtesy of the Swedish Family

SWITZERLAND — Telemark skiing’s International Ski Federation (FIS) World Championships were held at the end of this season in Murren, Switzerland, in the shadow of the famed iconic Mounts Eiger and Jungfrau.

The last chapter of the season was unforgettable in many ways. Switzerland, Norway and France were the winners throughout the week. But all teams and athletes are winners in the end for what they have accomplished with elegance and with the most beautiful state of mind as for Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, USA, Slovenia, Sweden, and others.

“My first FIS Telemark World Championships was an unbelievable experience, and its no question that being in Mürren – the most beautiful place I have ever been – played a significant role in that,” Sam Garber (USA) said to Sam Decout of FIS. “It was great to be able to reconnect with many old friends and meet new ones.”
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“I feel honored to have raced this week with my longtime American teammate Jeffrey Gay in his last World Championships, along with Amélie Wnger-Reymond, Béatrice Zimmermann, Kathrin Reischmann, Bastien Dayer, Gaëtan Procureur, and Christoph Frank,” Garber said. “All of these remarkable athletes were present for my first World Cup starts back in 2018. It was even more special to be there with Per Olav and Ruedi for their last races as well. The competition and community that the best telemark athletes in the world brought to Mürren is exactly the motivation all of us need, in order to put in the hard work that is required of us to come back stronger next season! Thanks to GB coach Seb for bringing this international team together!”

Garber placed 27th in the Men’s Sprint event.

In the Men’s Classic competition, Jeffery Gay finished 17th representing the USA. In the FIS Junior World Championships for Telemark, which was held concurrently at the same venue, USA the Women’s Classic had Elizabeth Pouezevara finished in 7th place, she was also 17th in the Sprint Race.

In the Men’s Parallel Sprint, Gay was 28th and Garber 32nd. In the Women’s Parallel Sprint, Pouezevara competed up from Junior to Senior and still placing an impressive 20th. In the Mixed Team Parallel Sprint, the Team representing USA, comprised of the three above-mentioned athletes finished out the Telemark World Championships with a placement tied for 5th with Sweden, Great Britain and Switzerland.

The technical delegate at the World Championships was American Kenneth Gay.

The global telemark community has spent decades communicating to the Olympic Movement that its inclusion in the Games would behoove sportsmanship, spectacle, and spectatorship.

Park City’s Lance Swedish has been tele skiing for almost 40 years and is a Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) DECL (divisional examiner and clinic leader) for both Alpine and Telemark. Swedish, his father Jerry, and his wife, Maria, all work as ski instructors at Deer Valley Resort.

When asked about steady participation numbers in Park City and inclusion in the Olympics he told TownLift, “With new advances in Telemark equipment, NTN (New Telemark Norm) boots and bindings for example, Telemark is more fun than ever. It would be great to see Tele in the Olympics, after all Telemark is how skiing began.”