Yukoners are lining the roster for the national cross country ski team.

For the 2017/18 season – an Olympic season with the Pyeongchang Games in February – five Yukon skiers have been named to the national team, Cross Country Canada said they week.

Natalie Hynes will be representing the junior national team and Graham Nishikawa will be a guide on the para nordic national team.

Three skiers were named to the senior national team with Knute Johnsgaard on the World Cup A team, and Dahria Beatty and Emily Nishikawa on the World Cup B team.

“It’s great. It’s always an honour,” said Nishikawa, a 2014 Olympian, of being renominated. “The coolest part is having so many Yukoners on the national team.”

Nishikawa’s training will stay largely the same this upcoming season, but joining her from the U25 development team will be Beatty, who had a breakout season on the World Cup tour with three top-30 results.

“It’s always awesome to be renominated to the team,” said Beatty.

The nomination to the World Cup B team also guarantees that she’ll be racing on the World Cup tour as soon as it begins.

Johnsgaard, who went from the U25 development team to the World Cup A team – the highest position on the national team – likely has his historic bronze-medal relay performance from the Ulricehamn, Sweden world cup.

It was Canada’s first-ever men’s relay podium performance.

“It was surely almost all because of that,” said Johnsgaard of his nomination.

With the move to the World Cup A team, he will also have a new coach.

“It’s really good to be back on the team and back in Canmore and back in the groove,” he said.

Both Johnsgaard and Beatty have made the qualification standards to be part of the Olympic team. However, nothing will be made official until their nominations closer to the Games.

Yukon skiing head coach, Alain Masson, said that this is the most Yukoners the national team has had in some time.

“There’s often one or two, but to have that many is rare,” he said.

The national team members are important role models for the local skiing community. They never forget their roots, often mentioning how much the support from Yukon means to them and making trips back to Whitehorse from where they live and train in Canmore, Alta.

The current crop of Yukon skiers can see that with hard work, it is possible to make it all the way to the national team,” said Masson.

Five years ago, it was likely possible to predict which Yukon skiers would be on the national team, as they were posting strong results at a national, junior and U23 level.

“We knew there was a strong wave,” he said.

For the future, Masson said that Hynes “has been really strong the last few years.”

She was unavailable for comment.