Canadian University Nordic Ski Team Pushup Competition

The Canadian Nordic Ski Team Competition was a fantastic success!

Overall it seems like teams found this a fun way to stay engaged and connected. It was especially nice to see so many alumni doing pushups for their university teams.

We hope this generated awareness and interest in University nordic ski teams in Canada!

To all the high school skiers out there - keep skiing! Take if from us - it will make your academic and social experience at University much better (and don't worry, University ski teams do a lot more than pushups). Check here for a list of University teams and contacts.

Here's what the final numbers looked like:

• 13 Canadian University ski teams took part

• 252 athletes, alumni and coaches (113 women, 139 men) participated, collectively doing 9394 pushups in 250 minutes across the country.

• Waterloo, uOttawa, McMaster, and U of T had alumni from the 80's dropping down and doing pushups for their team!

• Special mention to the Augustana team, which was composed of 100% alumni skiers who impressed with the number of pushups.

The sum of the top 6 total pushup reps for each team are noted below. Congratulations for Carleton University Ravens for sweeping every category and having the greatest number of participants!

This is a friendly competition among Canadian University/College nordic ski teams (athletes + alumni, & coaches can compete) involving pushups completed in 1 minute, scored cross country running style (add up reps of the top 6 on each team).

• Organize and bring together Canadian University/College Nordic Ski Teams for an “event” that all teams can take part in regardless of their training/team status in the pandemic.

• Provide an opportunity for athlete motivation, team goal setting, and something positive, concrete, and achievable amidst a lot of uncertainty.

• Promote University nordic skiing at a time when high school students are planning for next year, and encourage continued involvement by reaching out beyond current athletes (alumni).

• Why pushups? COVID has created different team dynamics, including students living away from the team (studying from home online), or cancelled or limited group training - but athletes/coaches/alumni can still be part of their team and contribute from anywhere!

Canadian University Nordic Ski Team athletes, coaches, and team alumni.

The top 6 can be athletes/coaches/or alumni. Reach back as far as you can to get your alumni involved!

WHICH TEAMS ARE TAKING PART IN THE PUSHUP COMPETITION SO FAR?

1. Carleton Ravens

2. Club de Ski de Fond de l'Université de Montréal

3. Guelph Gryphons

4. McGill Martlets

5. Laurentian Voyageurs

6. McMaster Marauders

7. Nipissing Lakers

8. Queen's Gaels

9. UBC Thunderbirds

10. University of Calgary Dinos

11. uOttawa Gee-Gees

12. University of Alberta Augusta (Alumni) - (no current commitment from current U of A Teams)

13. University of Toronto Varsity Blues

14. Waterloo Warriors

No interest to date: Laval, Bishop's, Lakehead, U of A current team, Trent - if you are on one of these teams or were an alumni and want to participate, contact your team to organize and confirm participation with uOttawanordiq@gmail.com.

It could be hard for teams to reach all alumni - so please share and help spread the word!

Teams should rally athletes, coaches and reach out to alumni. Alumni - if you don't hear from your teams - get in touch with them!

Pushups can be performed anytime between Nov 14 and Nov 22, 2020.

This can be a socially distanced team event (following COVID protocols) and/or virtual or both - whatever works to capture max participation - be creative!

We’re interested in the max number of pushups in 1 minute.

1. Count # of full pushups in 1 minute. Any breaks must be in plank position .

2. ✅Pushup Form: think moving plank - 1 rep is as follows:

   1. plank position

   2. lower chest to ground or very close to ground keeping the body in a straight line until elbows/arms form 90 degree angle or less.

   3. extend back to plank position.

   4. ❌ What does not count? While this is all for fun, we still want to honour a half decent pushup! If the arms don’t go from a straight (180 deg) to 90 degree angle (or close to 90!) at elbow, the pushup rep doesn’t count.

3. Videos: Athletes/team need to have a video of the pushups - and videos should be available for viewing (videos will also be good for promo!). An easy way is to set up a Google Photo Album since this can be easily shared and viewed.

4. Entering the #'s. Nominate a student (or coach) to verify the pushup reps and enter the info on this sheet. Although there’s a week-long window, try to enter any results as they come in. Let uOttawaNordiq@gmail.com know who your team leads are and we will give them editing privileges for their team sheet (entry works better on laptop than mobile).

SCORING

1. Team leads/coaches are responsible for verifying correct pushups and entering names and reps on this google sheet.

2. Categories will be as follows:

   1. Top 3 women’s teams

   2. Top 3 men’s teams

   3. Team with greatest number of participants (athletes/coaches/alumni) that participated

   4. Best pushup photo or video

   5. Team with the alumni from the earliest year/decade

PRIZES?

Bragging rights and social media recognition!

1. Can participants count for more than 1 team if they’re alumni? No - choose your allegiance!

2. Our team is new and/or too small - we tried and don’t have enough athletes/alumni/coaches to get 6 male + female participants. Your final ranked person can count for the missing athletes/coaches/alumni (i.e. if a team only has 4 women, the pushups of the 4th ranked (i.e. 20) would count for #5 (=20 pushups) and #6 position (= 20 pushups).

3. I’m an alumni and want to do pushups for my University team - who do I contact to participate? Check out the sheet below and get in touch with the team contacts.

4. Can a participant try more than once between Nov 14 and Nov 22? For sure! But just put 1 final result in the scoring sheet.