Canada's brightest prospects are set to be coached by De Nys, who was the senior development team and women's World Cup coach on the national team from 2004 to 2014.

He is set to leave his role as head coach and programme director at Sovereign Lake Nordic Club that he has held over the last four years and is due to start his new role on August 13.

"Eric's extensive coaching experience and positive track record working with developing cross-country skiers in Canada speaks for itself so we are thrilled to have him back working with our national ski team programme," said Stephanie Barrette, chief executive of Nordiq Canada.

"World-leading coaching is core to the rebuild of our national programme on the trail to 2022 and beyond.

"Eric is an extraordinary talent whose athletic background, coaching acumen, from the club to Olympic level, and leadership skills will play a critical role in developing our athletes into medal contenders internationally."

De Nys was pivotal to the improvement of the women's team at Cross-Country Ski World Cup races in the build-up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics; and went on to be head coach of Winsport's Junior Cross-Country Academy for one year before leading the redevelopment of Biathlon Canada's national team as its high-performance director for two years.

"I am very excited to return to Nordiq Canada to help build a strong high-performance pathway for our young athletes across the country," said De Nys.

"I believe my knowledge of the system, along with my experience and tremendous passion for coaching athletes at all levels across the country will be valuable in working with the staff in place, and all of our high-performance partners, to shape a promising future for the sport in Canada.

"These athletes deserve a strong pathway to support their pursuit of excellence.

"My first priority will be to meet, and develop relationships with the athletes and coaches in the system, to immediately start working together as a team establish a programme that will provide us with a road map guiding us back to the Olympic and World Championship podiums."

De Nys has represented Canada as a coach and technician at three Winter Olympics, seven World Championships and seven Under-23 and Junior World Championships.