Category: Events

2026 New England Orienteering Championships

October 10-11, 2026

Hosts: New England Orienteering Club (NEOC)

Up North Orienteers (UNO)

Program:

  • Saturday: Classic at Joe English Reservation 
  • Sunday: Classic at Groton Town Forest

The New England Orienteering Championships brought 150+ athletes from near and far to the beautiful Northeast, where races were technically challenging, beautiful, and extremely enjoyable. 

Event website

Results, Maps, and Media

Photos by Bridget Hall here.

Photos and videos by Riley Family available in this album.

Videos:

https://youtube.com/shorts/esJCwJ70Fpk
https://youtube.com/shorts/CRUz7edJy2Q

Edited by Oriana Riley

2026 Masters Nationals Event Recap

September 25-27, 2026

Host: Northeast Ohio Orienteering Club (NEOOC)

Program:

  • Friday: Corn Maze Challenge at Derthick’s Farm and Corn Maze
  • Saturday: Masters Nationals Day 1 at The West Woods, Geauga County
  • Sunday: Masters Nationals Day 2 at Big Creek Park, Geauga County

This year’s Masters Nationals (what used to be the Classic Champs) took place east of Cleveland, with challenging courses, glorious weather, and a bonus corn maze orienteering race! At this event US Champions are crowned in each age class based on the combined total time for two days of classic racing.

Event website

Winners in F65+, from left to right: Sue Kuestner (bronze), Pavlina Brautigam (gold), and Peggy (silver) Dickison. Photo by Stephanie Ross

Photos by Nadim Ahmed

Results, Maps, and Media

Photo album by Nadim Ahmed

Photos from NEOOC

Video from the corn maze

Short interview with event director Jonathan Boyer about corn maze orienteering

All results from host

Orienteering’s Olympic Ambitions and How You Can Help

A note from OUSA President Tori Campbell

Following up on my last note about Orientación México, the International Orienteering Federation’s new 2026-2030 Strategic Directions mark an exciting shift: a renewed push to bring orienteering to the Olympic Games.

While that might sound like a long shot, the landscape is changing fast. Better TV coverage, improved drone technology, and a growing international competitive field (especially outside Europe) make our sport more broadcast-friendly and globally viable than ever. Sprint Orienteering is a prime candidate for the Summer Games, while Ski-O continues to gain traction for the Winter Games.

How does this impact Orienteering USA?

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Orienteering at the 2026 Scout Jamboree

Setting an orienteering course on a reclaimed coal mine presents some unusual challenges. At the
Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia, many of the terrain features that normally give an
orienteering map its character simply aren’t there.

That was one of the challenges faced by Orienteering USA at the 2026 National Scout Jamboree,
held July 22–31 at the Summit. More than 400 starts were recorded on three courses: White for
beginners, Yellow for intermediate orienteers, and Green for more experienced orienteers.

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2026 Deschutes Daze Event Recap

August 6-9, 2026

Host: Columbia River Orienteering Club (CROC)

Four events over four days, with one NRE and the annual Western States Orienteering Championships.

This year’s Deschutes Daze was impacted by wildfires and associated smoke in the area, with several venue changes. The event was able to take place, with four days of orienteering made possible by some last-minute course setting heroism on the part of the organizers!

Event website

Photos by Robert Rodriguez

Results, Maps, and Photos

2026 World Orienteering Championships Recap

July 7-11, 2026

This year’s the World Orienteering Championships took place in Genova, Italy. As a Sprint WOC, the schedule consisted entirely of urban sprint discipline races: Sprint, Knock-out Sprint, and Mixed Sprint Relay.

Top photo by Alexis Leonard. Remaining photos by Evalin Brautigam and Alexis Leonard.

Meet the team on the US Team blog!

Photos from all events from Alexis Leonard

2026 Junior World Orienteering Championships Recap

June 29-July 4, 2026

The US sent a full team of six young men and six young women to this year’s Junior World Orienteering Championships, which took place in Karlskrona, Sweden.

Read all about the event from the athletes’ perspective in the US Orienteering Team’s blog.

Sprint and Sprint Relay

All photos by Evalin Brautigam

The 2026 JWOC competition week kicked off with the Sprint competition in Trossö, the historic centre of Karlskrona. The courses proved challenging, as the organizers used artificial barriers to make selecting a route a little bit tricker.

The Mixed Sprint Relay is a race between teams of four athletes–two women and two men—in a fast, head-to-head competition with a total winning time of under one hour. The top US team was USA 2, with Sophie Howes, Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck, Mikhail Biryukov, and Anna Green, coming in 48th.

Long and Middle

The individual forest races took place in typical western Swedish terrain, which is to say that it was pretty tough! The women faced a 9.9 km course and the men a 12.6 km course, and the transition from sprint the day before to a long day in the forest was a challenging one for many.

Relay

The final race of 2026 JWOC was the forest relay, which consists of teams of three men and three women, racing separately. The best US women’s team finished 24th , while the best US men’s Team finished 21st.

2026 Pacific Northwest Orienteering Festival Event Recap

June 12-21, 2026

Photos by Robert Rodriguez, Amy Winston and John Crowther

Results, Maps, and Photos

46th Annual West Point NRE Event Recap

April 18-19, 2026

Organizer: US Military Academy Orienteering Club (USMAOC)

Saturday venue: Camp Buckner / Round Pond

Sunday venue: Round Pond / Black Rock Forest

Each year the cadets from the USMA Orienteering Team host an NRE weekend, inviting civilians from all over to enjoy (or curse) the hilly, rocky, and navigationally challenging terrain in the Hudson Highlands. This year’s event didn’t disappoint, with beautiful weather on Saturday and cold, chilly rain on Sunday to provide an extra challenge.

Photos by Griffin DeFoor, Ann MacMullan, and Tori Campbell

Results and Maps