The entire skiing community including active alpine skiers, snowboarders, ski jumpers, cross-country skiers, and freestylers, from across the globe, as well as former skiing legends has joined forces to create ways for helping Japan in disaster relief efforts to support those affected by the earthquake and the tsunami.

Japan’s biggest recorded earthquake of a 9.0 magnitude occurred on Friday, 11 March 2011, off its east coast. One week after the disaster, the country is battling to avoid a nuclear disaster in the aftermath of the earthquake and the devastating tsunami. According to estimates, 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water.

The lives of many tens of thousands of Japanese have been changed forever as whole villages were swept away by the floods of the tsunami. The whole extent of the devastation in Japan is not yet known but there is clearly a great breadth and depth of human suffering.

This tragedy caused skiers across disciplines — World Cup athletes or recreational – to take on the mission of supporting those suffering. They are all sending out their courage and positive energy to encourage the victims in the affected area.

The Alpine World Cup skiers Akira Sasaki and Kazuko Ikeda Boeker, America’s Olympic champion Julia Mancuso and World Cup competitor Chemmy Alcott as well as former Olympic medalist Jure (Yuri) Franko are at the heart of this mission asking the skiing community to come together and ACT. Just as importantly, they all feel the need to let Japanese friends, sports colleagues and the nation as a whole know that they are all thinking of them and that they are not alone in these difficult times.

Julia Mancuso has decided to pledge 50 % of her prize money from the Alpine World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland and set up the website www.skierhelpingjapan.com for people to make donations and post suggestions of how to help. In the meantime, Alpine skiers including Didier Defago, Ivica Kostelic, Benjamin Raich, Marlies Schild, Christof Innerhofer, Ted Ligety, Manfred Pranger, and others have posted blog entries on the website or on facebook.

Following Saturday’s pursuit races at the Cross-Country World Cup Finals in the Swedish Falun, the American Kikkan Randall and Finland’s Sami Jauhojarevi, both members of the athletes’ commission, got in contact with Julia Mancuso to also get the Cross-Country skiers involved in the ‘Skiers helping Japan’ initiative. After the winner’s ceremony athletes such as Marit Bjoergen, Kikkan Randall, Charlotte Kalla, Petra Majdic, Justyna Kowalczyk, Emil Joensson, Daniel Rickardsson, Jesper Modin and others showed their support by writing messages for the needy Japanese people.

All monies raised will be collected in a Paypal fund and distributed to specific causes, areas, and programs selected by Akira Sasaki, an active Japanese Alpine World Cup skier.

Any money raised by the international skiing community, the World Cup family and fans will be a great inspiration for Japan and especially skiers in Tohoku, the region of the 1993 Alpine World Championships in Morioka Shizukuishi, and Inawashiro, the ski area of the 2009 Freestyle World Championships. Akira Sasaki and Kazuko Ikeda are both Japanese skiers competing on the World Cup tour, who grew up skiing in Tohoku as little boys. These two areas are among the ones suffering the most.

Please join the international athletes on Facebook and post your comments of encouragement at “Skiers Helping Japan” or “Skiers for Japan”.

If you don’t have a Facebook account, please send an email with your message to info@prospot.si and your message will be posted for you.

FISalpine.com
Tuesday 22 March 2011

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