HISTORICAL: Quebec Notes
Canadian Masters’ Cross Country Ski Association: Brief Historical Background
The following has been taken from Jean-Yves Desrosiers’ archives. This information does not cover all of the events that have been taking place since this wonderful adventure started back in 1980.
In September 1980, William D. (Bill) Gairdner and Jan D. Hansen created the Canadian Masters’ Cross Country Ski Association, the first of its kind to ever be created in the world. Bill Gairdner became its first president. Dave Rees became its first vice president and Jan Hansen, director for the Quebec province division. This came about as a result of a few meetings held during the preceding months, especially during the international competition that took place in Morin Heights.
The triggering event was the veteran skiers’ international competition organized by Jan D. Hansen at the Viking Club in Morin Heights (north of Montreal) in the winter of 1980. Keeping in mind the interests of 30+ year old participating skiers, it was suggested that such competitions be held on a regular basis and that some type of organization be created to take care of skiers who are at least 30 years of age.
Another annual international competition took place in 1982. It was first known as the Cross-Country Skiing Masters World Championships. These championships later became known as the Cross-Country Ski Masters’ World Cup upon the request of the International Ski Federation.
The following are dates and places when and where some of the competitions took place:
1982 Uppsala (Sweden)
1983 Telemark (Wisconsin, United States)
1984 Holmenkollen (Norway)
1985 Hirschau (West Germany)
1986 Lake Placid (New York State, United States)
1987 Kuusamo (Finland)
1988 Seefeld (Austria)
1989 Mont Sainte-Anne (Quebec, Canada)
1990 Ostersund (Sweden)
1991 Toblach (Italy)
During the 1982 international competitions held in Uppsala (Sweden), talks went underway between the participating countries concerning the possibility of the creation of a cross-country ski masters’ world association and, also, about bringing cross-country skiing to the attention of people who are 30+ years of age. This came about rapidly and the association was created by Bill Gairdner and Jan Hansen who became respectively the first president and vice-president.
Starting in 1985, the World Masters Cross-Country Ski Association and the International Ski Federation began talks which brought about the affiliation of both organizations. Then, in each country, the national associations joined with the competitive ski associations. This brought about a standardization of the rules that deal with how the competitions should be held.
The national associations and the World Masters Cross-Country Ski Association were already working on building up their membership. They were also busy organizing competitions and other activities. This made it possible for the competitions to be held in other countries … especially in Canada … organized for those participants considered as master skiers. For its part, the Canadian Masters’ Cross-Country Ski Association set up divisions in several provinces, one being Quebec. As of September 1980, the Quebec division was presided over by Jan D. Hansen, who became its first director/promoter. Actively involved in the Viking Club and in provincial competitions, this Norwegian succeeded in putting together the first small group of Masters skiers.
Between 1983 and 1989, Jean-Yves Desrosiers replaced Mr. Hansen. At the same time, he was also involved with other cross-country skiing activities and organizations … notably in the Quebec City region.
In 1983, Jean-Yves Desrosiers and Lucien Maheu (from the Ookpik Club) created a regional cross-country skiing masters committee (region 03). They hoped that theirs would influence the creation of others in various regions of our province.
After having recruited somewhere around 300 members, the Region 03 Masters Committee quickly became the most important committee in both the province of Quebec and in the rest of Canada. Because of its large number of members and activities … and, also, because of its dynamic attitude … the committee became the leading expert when it comes to the Master skiers from Quebec Province and from the rest of Canada. Even though the province of Quebec’s division allowed the recruiting of members from other regions, it did not succeed (until 1990) in creating regional committees with people as implicated as those in the Quebec region. Fortunately, one could find in some participating regions Masters who could contribute a lot to the growth of the Quebec cross-country Masters skiers.
As of 1983, the Quebec Province Division and the Region 03 Masters Committee started taking care of organizing the regional and provincial competitions, as well as the Canadian Masters’ Championship being held in Quebec Province. They also assisted those master-skiers who wished to participate in both the Canadian championship held outside of Quebec Province and the Cross-Country Ski Masters’ World Cup held each year in a different country.
Both the Quebec Province Division and the Region 03 Masters Committee initiated, negotiated and put together the file re the Cross-Country Ski Masters’ World Cup which took place at Mont Sainte-Anne in 1989. This is the second time that Quebec Province won the right to hold this event … it had already been won by Jean-Yves Desrosiers back in 1986 … both wins approved unanimously by the World Cross-Country Skiers Association. In 1986, the Association withdrew its decision because of the problems the Quebec Ski Federation had with holding this event … because of this, the competitions were held at Lake Placid in 1986.
To this day, the growth of the cross-country skiing masters movement never seems to cease ever since Alois Voitchovsky took over the Quebec Province Division in 1989.