FALUN, Sweden (AP) The U.S. cross-country skiers are showing off some funky dance moves to get fans back home excited about the world championships.
The American team spent three weeks producing a four-minute video with the men's and women's cross-country skiers dancing in the snow, moon-walking in ski boots and lip-syncing to ''Uptown Funk'' by Mark Ronson. It was choreographed by reigning team sprint world champion Jessie Diggins, who said the team wanted to ''share our passion with the rest of our fans back in the U.S.''
It seems to be working. Less than a day after being uploaded on Wednesday evening, the video had been viewed more than 250,000 times on the team's Facebook page.
The Nordic skiing world championships began Thursday with individual classical-style sprint races. Diggins said the U.S. team started filming its video in Davos, Switzerland, three weeks ago, then continued shooting scenes during a World Cup meet in Ostersund, Sweden, this past weekend before wrapping it up in Falun.
Diggins took dance classes as a child and choreographed the moves, while men's skiers Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell did the video editing. It also features some of the team staff and a cameo by Swedish sprinter Emil Jonsson, who had the Americans over for dinner in Ostersund one night.
''It's great team bonding, especially when people are getting nervous about worlds,'' Diggins told The Associated Press. ''We'd have dance practice in the hallways and meeting rooms for weeks. I'd wake up and come outside in the morning and the boys would be out in the hallway on their own practicing. It was so cool.''
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Online:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=853794857995096&set=vb.124575080917081
