The opening ceremonies of the World Para-Nordic Skiing Championships have been moved indoors.
The decision was mainly due to the -30 temperatures Prince George has experienced over the past 10 days as festivities have been transferred to the PG Conference and Civic Centre from Canada Games Plaza.
Kevin Petterson with the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club believes the venue change won’t take away from the celebration.
“We’ll have just as much magic indoors as we had planned for outdoors. We see this as a good way to make sure we’re taking care of our guests and not putting them through any undue stresses or anything like that.”
The ceremony is now at 7 pm, pushed back an hour from its original start time outdoors.
Pettersen tells My PG Now they were prepared for the elements.
“We were taking into consideration the athletes who have to compete for the next day but also the spectators, volunteers, guests and everything like that. We made the decision early to move it indoors.”
Athletes from 19 countries are scheduled to participate beginning Saturday running thru until Feb. 24th at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club on Otway Road.