THE Kangaroo Hoppet, a 42 km ski marathon, is the southern hemisphere's largest annual international snowsports event and is held annually at Falls Creek on the fourth Saturday in August.
In normal (pre COVID) times the Hoppet, along with shorter 21km and 7km events, attracts more 1000 skiers from all around the world – but what about this year?
Who will be in the start field for the event?
Along with the usual collection of local Australian recreational skiers, state and national elite athletes and ski marathon tragics from around the world, we have a few special guests who will be making an appearance.
Elite skiers from the USA.
And do we mean elite!
Leading the list is Jessie Diggins, 2022 American Skier of the Year, gold medalist at the 2018 Winter Olympics, silver and bronze medals at the recent 2022 Winter Olympics, and in 2021 the number one ranked skier in the FIS Cross Country World Cup.
And then we have Julia Kern who podiumed in the 2019 sprint World Cup in Slovenia.
Also on the front row of the Hoppet start will fellow USA athletes Katie Feldman, Jake Aldicoff and Peter Wolter.
Beijing 2022 Australian Winter Olympic cross country skiers.
Phil Bellingham (Sochi, PyongeChang, Beijing), Casey Wright (PyeongChang, Beijing), Lars Young Vik (Beijing) and Seve de Campo (Beijing) are our current Australian Winter Olympians who have entered this year's Hoppet.
Triple J Drive Time Team.
Yes! You read that right.
Triple J Drive Time hosts Hobba and Hing have entered in the Hoppet, and will be accompanied by an ABC TV production team to record their exploits for an upcoming TV special.
Thirty Hoppet skiers.
Now this is an interesting phrase.
Does it really mean that only 30 people can start in the event? No!
Before our lives were so rudely interrupted by the plague we were on track in 2020 to hold the 30th Kangaroo Hoppet, and there was a list of all those folk who had completed all 29 editions of the Hoppet, and the race organisers had even gone to the trouble of ordering a few boxes of special commemorative caps bearing the number 30 in a large font size.
Well the list still exists, the caps are the Hoppet storeroom, and we hope that most of the skiers on the list are also still with us – and will turn up for the post race celebrations.
There are 28 skiers still on the list and, while I am not going to name them all, special mention should be made of Marg Hayes who is the only woman on the list.
Marg has been chasing Worldloppet ski races around the world for many years and has seven Worldloppet Master medals to her name.
Now these medals are not easy to get, as each one represents completion of 10 different international ski marathons (and for ski marathons 42km is just the minimum distance, most are longer with Sweden's 90km Vasaloppet at the top of the list).
Do the maths and you get 70 ski marathons.
And just so that multiple Hoppet skiers who have not yet made it to 30 do not feel left out we also have some equally special caps, in different colors of course, with 20 and 10 on them for those skiers who have completed the appropriate number of events.
And 'No'. If you have completed 30 events you will not get a 20 and 10 Hoppet cap as well.
Basically all those who have completed 10 or more Hoppets will get a cap with the number rounded down to the nearest 10.
Finally, the usual last paragraph.
There is still time to be part of the action at Falls Creek on Saturday, August 27.
With the option of skiing 7km or 21km instead of the full 42km there is no excuse not to be part of the action.
Even better, the early bird entry rate is available until August 13 at www.hoppet.com.au
