Photo courtesy of US Ski and Snowboard
Jessie Diggins skiing
Following the trend set by Super Bowl LII, the WNBA All-Star Game, and the X Games this past summer, the International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup is yet another star-studded sporting event that’s chosen a home in the North.
In March 2020, the Loppet Foundation in partnership with U.S. Ski & Snowboard will host the final event in the competition’s sprint races. This is the first time in 19 years that the Cup has graced the trails of the U.S.
Bringing the event home started as a dream of Olympic Gold Medalist (and Afton, MN native) Jessie Diggins. She enlisted the help of the Loppet Foundation to make it reality—an organization which has been tirelessly grooming Minnesota’s backyard into a prestigious winter sporting locale.
“The Loppet has helped put Minneapolis cross-country skiing on the map, and Theodore Wirth Park offers the best trails in our state,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. For its part, the park’s new Trailhead, nearly a decade in the making and recently debuted this summer, is part of the Park and Recreation Board’s ‘Master Plan’ to make Minneapolis a hub for winter endurance sports.
But the ultimate hope of Frey, Diggins, and others, is that hosting the Cup will inspire the local community to fully engage in the outdoors, even during the winter months. As with Super Bowl LII, the city plans to orchestrate local happenings leading up the main event—though nothing as extreme as the Nicollet Mall Bridge—to further energize crowds. According to Diggins, there’s no better (or more Minnesotan) way to embrace winter than through sport and hospitality.
