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Nordic squad boosted with new Cross-Country talent

Ten athletes named ahead of 2022-23 season, including three transfers from Canadian to British system

With the countdown to the start of the 2022-23 season well underway, GB Snowsport are delighted to confirm the addition of three new athletes to the GB Nordic Squad for the coming season, joining seven returning names in a ten-person Squad.

Last year’s World Cup Squad of James Clugnet, Andrew Musgrave, and Andrew Young are joined by 21-year-old Joe Davies, who joins the British team after five years in the Canadian system having banked three top-10 finishes last season in FIS level races including a third place in Fairbanks, USA, in February.

Clugnet, Musgrave, and Young, who all travelled as part of the Team GB squad for the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, can look back on some exceptional race results in the 2021-22 season, including three World Cup top 10s for Andrew Musgrave (4th: Oberstdorf Stage World Cup, 15km Free Mass Start, 6th: Oslo World Cup, 50km Classic Mass Start, 10th: Falun World Cup, 15km Free), and a best ever British Team Sprint result for Andrew Young and James Clugnet, with 6th place at World Cup Dresden.

A three-athlete Continental Cup Squad sees Gabriel Gledhill and Hamish Wolfe return alongside Sophia Wilson, who also joins the British programme having previously represented Canada in FIS, Nor-Am, Juniors and National Championships competitions, with a brace of promising top-20 results in her last races in April in Taivalvaara, Finland. Gledhill will be looking to build on a season which included two podiums in Juniors races in Ostersund, Sweden, in December while Wolfe banked his best result in the same month with a top-30 10km Freestyle finish in the Idre FIS races.

Three skiers have also been confirmed for the Performance Squad, with Beinn Horsfall and James Slimon both returning alongside Tabitha Williams, the team’s final transfer from the Canadian set-up. Horsfall’s 2021-22 season saw him bank nine race finishes including two at the FIS U23 World Ski Championships in Lygna, Norway, while Slimon recorded numerous race finishes including three at the Junior World Ski Championships in February. 17-year-old Williams joins the team fresh from a hugely encouraging season including top-20 finishes in Juniors and FIS races in Klosters, Switzerland, in February and the first FIS Cup points of her career at January’s Nor-Am Cup races in Canmore Nordic Centre, Canada.

Sophie Keeling, GB Snowsport Olympic Team Manager, said:

“Despite facing a really challenging summer, the Nordic team, coaches and support staff have really pulled together through the pre-season and have put themselves in great shape for the 2022-23 season.

“Nobody is under any illusions that the Cross Country season is one of the most challenging calendars in world sport, but we’re absolutely confident that the ten skiers we have in the Squad have the talent and the capability to continue building on the encouraging performances of the past few seasons.”

Andrew Young, World Cup Squad Member, said:

“Obviously preparation for this season hasn’t been what we’d have liked with all the challenges we’re facing, but we’re all absolutely committed to showing the world the talent that we’ve got as a nation competing at the very top of Nordic skiing.

“For myself, Andrew, and James, it’s great having Joe join us in the World Cup Squad this year and I’m sure the other squads are really going to benefit from having Sophia and Tabitha joining up with them too.”

The Nordic season gets underway in Ruka, Finland, on 25-27 November 2022.

World Cup Squad

• James Clugnet
• Joe Davies
• Andrew Musgrave
• Andrew Young

Continental Cup Squad

• Gabriel Gledhill
• Sophia Wilson
• Hamish Wolfe

Performance Squad

• Beinn Horsfall
• James Slimon
• Tabitha Williams

Header Image: Andrew Musgrave in the Men’s 15km Classic at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on the 11th February 2022 at Cross Country Centre in Zhangjakou, China. Photo by Sam Mellish / Team GB.