This weekend Lugnet Venue is hosting Svenska Skidspelen and the FIS World Cup Final in Cross Country skiing. The competitions at the annual Svenska Skidspelen are important test events for the World Ski Championship in 2027. This year there will be a focus to observe the overall infrastructure and spectator flow.
It is the local organization of Svenska Skidspelen with 600 volunteers who conduct the event. For the future local World Ski Championships organization, the event is an important so-called test event. Thomas Andersson, event manager at Lugnet and the former head of arena at the World Ski Championships 2015, will be on site during the weekend.
– World Championships attract a huge number of spectators and it is important to have good plans when it comes to spectator flows. We have an amazing and tight arena with the tracks close to the stadium. Lugnet is a compact arena which is positive but it also gives us some challenges when lots of people are on the move at the same time. This causes some narrow areas and therefore we need to be creative and make a good plan for when all the spectators move from the tracks back to the stadium at the end of the races, says Thomas Andersson.
In terms of competition related matters Lugnet is a world class arena already today. The development possibilities are bigger when it comes to infrastructure and spectator flow and it is in these matters a World Ski Championship differs from a World Cup event:
– At a World Championship the numbers of spectators are much higher than a World Cup. And in addition there will be both competitions at the Cross Country arena and the Ski Jumping arena back to back and a lot of people moving, says Thomas Andersson.
The observations and development possibilities that emerge during the weekend will be important in the process of the future Master Plan for the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships organization.
We are expecting exciting competitions on Lugnet Venue this weekend. The event program includes the classic Sprint on Friday, the 10 km classic distance on Sunday, the 20 km Mass Start freestyle on Sunday before the weekend concludes with the Grate Invitational Supersprint (not included in the World Cup). Jessie Diggins, USA, leads the overall World Cup ahead of Linn Svahn and Frida Karlsson, both Sweden. In the men´s it is all Norwegian in top; Amundsen ahead of Klaebo and Valnes.