Nordic Racers Ski Club:
Lifetime Achievement Award

Recipients: Sigge Bjorklund (2006) | Per Gaarder (2007) | Sam Robbins (2008) | Bill Cooper (2009)

The Nordic Racers Lifetime Achievement Award is given in recognition of Nordic Racers who have made significant and lasting contributions to the growth and development of cross country skiing.

2009 Recipient: Bill Cooper

2008 Recipient: Sam Robbins

Sam Robbins began his skiing life while a member of the British Army. Skiing was an adventure training plan derived to avoid regular army activities and was apparently a much better alternative. In 1967/68 Sam became a member of the Regiment X-C Ski Team and was able to enjoy touring Europe and particating in ski races.

Sam came to Canada in 1980, began skiing again around 1983 and joined the Nordic Racers shortly after. He became club president in 1989 and served for four years. During that period the club ran the Jeep Eagle Ski Nationals. The idea started with the Vachon Cup, $250 in the bank, and a “kiss and a promise” to all the suppliers. The race proved to be a success among many challenges and the end result was a profit that has provided the seed money for many of the subsequent club endeavours.

Sam has served as the Lower Mainland chapter chairman for CCBC, was newsletter editor for CCBC magazine and is responsible for designing the famous “Catch Us If You Can” posters.

He is a Level 4 official and has helped our sport immeasurably with his volunteering. He has taught numerous Officials courses, served as Technical Delegate for many loppets, been assistant TD at the Canada Winter Games, volunteered at two World Cups and of course has handled timing for many races and trained many others in aspects of race timing. He continues to be a valuable volunteer each year at Manning Park and the Cariboo Marathon (which he has skied in or timed since 1983). He has volunteered this year at Callaghan Valley for the races running up to 2010 and will be an Olympic Volunteer in 2010. We are lucky to count him as a member of our ski club!

2007 Recipient: Per Gaarder

A Nordic Legacy

Per and Eva Gaarder began cross-country skiing as children in their native Norway. They moved to Ontario in 1969 and skied in competitions there, as well as encouraging their children to become active in the nordic sport. They became more involved with the skiing community as their children did.

In 1975, the family moved to BC and in 1976, Eva began to spend her winter weekends driving 7–8 teenagers, including their son Eric, up to Manning Park in the Sigge’s van. She would spend the weekend at the park, helping Sigge coach the kids. After a couple years, Per joined them and began coaching too. They managed to get some kids onto the BC team, most notably Mark Jundgedijk and Art Thomas.

In the ’70s, they were also involved with Sigge’s start up of the Nordic Racers Club, which was created to give the Lower Mainland a more ‘racing focused’ club.

During the 1981–82 season, Per became the CCBC chairperson, a post he held for 5 years. In 1984, he also served a year as the CCC chairperson, helping to bring the organization through a time of crisis. During this time, he and Eva went to Norway and brought back the first high-performance coach for the Canadian National Team. After his year as chairperson, Per remained active with CCC, serving on their Advisory Committee.

In 1990, Per was the second-ever recipient of the Dave Rees Award from CCC, which is awarded to ‘any man or woman who has made a long-term, outstanding commitment to the sport of cross-country skiing in Canada’.

Per was involved with the Nordic preparation for the Olympic bid, as a technical advisor, along with Georgia Manhard from CCBC and the chairperson from CCC. Now that the Games are coming to Vancouver, he’s working with the legacy group.

Per has coached kids onto both the BC Team and the National Team. He previously coached the Nordic Racer Juniors for a number of years and is once again coaching our most promising Juniors today. He hopes that, in the future, the Nordic Racers and the Hollyburn Jackrabbits will succeed in working out a system where young Lower Mainland racers can train with all their peers, as he believes that is the best way to produce high-calibre athletes.

Per and Eva’s involvement with cross-country skiing has wound down from what it once was but Per is still working on the 2010 legacy project and is still coaching. As well, they are still enjoying an active lifestyle together. This past winter they did the Marcialonga Loppet in northern Italy — 70 challenging kilometres with 5000 participants over 98,000 truckloads of snow brought in for the race. Next year, they plan to attend the World Master Championships in Iowa.

Nordic Racers would like to thank Per for his contributions to the sport of cross-country skiing and to let both him and Eva know how lucky we feel to still have them as members of our club.

2006 Recipient: Sigge Bjorklund

Highlights