Cross-Country Skiing at the Nordic Skiing FIS World Championships 2025

[heywoodu 15,333]

Only 65 athletes in the women's 10k tomorrow, down from 80-85 in the previous two world championships. That means Bruna's chance to get the first Olympic ticket for Brazil if they end up with two is now gone*, thanks to Duda Ribera being young enough to compete in the under 23 world championships and score Nations Ranking points there.

 

*unless there's a wildcard in the World Cup for only her, but that seems rather unlikely and given the circumstances, the federation isn't even going to ask FIS for that.

Edited March 3 by heywoodu

[Swewi 424]

  On 3/3/2025 at 7:27 AM, copravolley said:

Going back to earlier times, what do you think Kalla missed to be able to fight in the overall World Cup with the likes of Bjoergen or Kowalczyk? Sometimes it was hard to understand her small consequences throughout the season and in 2008 it seemed that Kalla could be a dominant force for many years, when she won the TDS in just 20 years!

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I think she had some limitations to be all round and consistent enough. She has good results in classic but her technique was more dependent on good grip then others, which made her results in classical style less consistent.

 

Also she was obviously a good sprinter enough to win an olympic relay and be one of the most successfull team sprinters ever, but in indivual sprints, or in mass starts as most of the world cup races have been she has not been good enough compared to Björgen etc. Better in individual starts and especially freestyle. Around the 2010 olympic she was unbeatable in 10 km freestyle individual start but not at all the same in other disciplines and even if she improved in classic, others cathed her and she lost her advantage as the best technical freestyle skiier as I think she was back then.

 

She has actually a podcast together with Jonna Sundling, Hanna Öberg and Elvira Öberg where they just recently discussed this. Some listeners questioned why the cross country skiiers and in particular some swedish women doesn´t seem to prioritize the world cup compared to the biathles. Also the Öberg sisters questioned that.

 

Kalla said she really tried in the beginning of her career but her only sprint win was in that Tour de Ski 2008 and she had to accept she would be better and wouldn´t have the chance to win the overall world cup and then the championships became more important and she become a bit of a championship specialist, especially in olympics where she is the most decorated winter olympic athlete from Sweden (9 medals). but not so many WC wins.

 

Sundling is a bit similar with the difference that they have different qualities and that Sundling was quite old when she broke through. Much because of many seasons destroyed by sickness and injuries, and she has finally found the recipe on how to succeed at championships and try to avoid the long sickness periods and that she has to try to follow the plan what is best for her even if she pointed out that she felt a bit guilty against the sport when she skips tour de ski and also a few other weekends.
 

[Swewi 424]

  On 3/3/2025 at 6:21 PM, heywoodu said:

Only 65 athletes in the women's 10k tomorrow, down from 80-85 in the previous two world championships. That means Bruna's chance to get the first Olympic ticket for Brazil if they end up with two is now gone*, thanks to Duda Ribera being young enough to compete in the under 23 world championships and score Nations Ranking points there.

 

*unless there's a wildcard in the World Cup for only her, but that seems rather unlikely and given the circumstances, the federation isn't even going to ask FIS for that.

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USA are allowed to start with 5 (Free spot for Diggins) and only Brennan and Sonnsyn to start

[copravolley 317]

Bjoergen also skipped many World Cup seasons to focus on big events: the period from 2009 to 2013. She won the World Cup in 2012, but there were no big events at that time. I don't know if this tactics up was due to the fact that Kowalczyk was a starting machine at that time and even Bjoergen wasn't able to compete with her for the entire season? Or maybe Bjoergen was doing badly at that time and it was necessary to fight for as many World Cups as possible? Bjoergen's only really perfect season was in 2015: winning the World Cup, Tour de Ski + a few medals at the World Championships in Falun. What are your opinions on this topic?

Edited March 3 by copravolley

[Grassmarket 3,608]

  On 3/3/2025 at 7:57 PM, Swewi said:

USA are allowed to start with 5 (Free spot for Diggins) and only Brennan and Sonnsyn to start

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Strikes me that the young skiers like Laukli are overworked this year.  Not getting the top 10s like last season.

[Grassmarket 3,608]

  On 3/3/2025 at 7:59 PM, copravolley said:

Bjoergen also skipped many World Cup seasons to focus on big events: the period from 2009 to 2013. She won the World Cup in 2012, but there were no big events at that time. I don't know if this tactics up was due to the fact that Kowalczyk was a starting machine at that time and even Bjoergen wasn't able to compete with her for the entire season? Or maybe Bjoergen was doing badly at that time and it was necessary to fight for as many World Cups as possible? Bjoergen's only really perfect season was in 2015: winning the World Cup, Tour de Ski + a few medals at the World Championships in Falun. What are your opinions on this topic?

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Kowalczyk definitely did too much, but she did not have the sponsors & had to race for money.

[heywoodu 15,333]

  On 3/3/2025 at 7:57 PM, Swewi said:

USA are allowed to start with 5 (Free spot for Diggins) and only Brennan and Sonnsyn to start

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I wonder if the godawful conditions of the past days and the seriously dangerous track of today have some effect in this very limited start list...

[copravolley 317]

  On 3/3/2025 at 8:02 PM, Grassmarket said:

Kowalczyk definitely did too much, but she did not have the sponsors & had to race for money.

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She was a representative of the typical Russian school - her coach came from the USSR, although he lived in Poland for many years. Not every organism would withstand such competition and training loads but on the other hand Kowalczyk had a bad skier technique (especially in the skate) and had to rely on endurance and strength. 

 

In my opinion, she had sponsors, because Poland is a big country and sponsors can always be found if someone is very successful and Kowalczyk was very successful for many years. She simply operated in such a training and competition regime and couldn`t do it otherwise. She had to starts everywhere, because otherwise her form would be worse. She was not a skier in peak form for 1 event in the season.

Edited March 3 by copravolley

[Grassmarket 3,608]

  On 3/3/2025 at 8:11 PM, copravolley said:

She was a representative of the typical Russian school - her coach came from the USSR, although he lived in Poland for many years. Not every organism would withstand such competition and training loads but on the other hand Kowalczyk had a bad skier technique (especially in the skate) and had to rely on endurance and strength. 

 

In my opinion, she had sponsors, because Poland is a big country and sponsors can always be found if someone is very successful and Kowalczyk was very successful for many years. She simply operated in such a training and competition regime and couldn`t do it otherwise. She had to starts everywhere, because otherwise her form would be worse. She was not a skier in peak form for 1 event in the season.

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She had to pay for all her own trainers & tech staff because the Polish ones were hopeless.  That's why she had to do all the stupid races the Norwegians missed.

[copravolley 317]

  On 3/3/2025 at 9:09 PM, Grassmarket said:

She had to pay for all her own trainers & tech staff because the Polish ones were hopeless.  That's why she had to do all the stupid races the Norwegians missed.

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Just like Swiatek or Sabalenka now