will show the skiing Ruka World Cup live on its channels from 25 to 27 November. See all the broadcast information at this link or at the end of the article. Live broadcasts also in Puhe.
Two significant changes were made to the Skiing World Cup this season, when the number of points awarded for competitions and the lengths of competition distances were changed.
The change in World Cup points in particular does not excite the top skiers of the Finnish national team Iivo from Niska, Krista Pärmäkoski and Kerttu from Niska.
– We have talked within the team that the World Cup is a hard work cup this year, Pärmäkoski stated.
This season, World Cup points are awarded to 50 skiers instead of 30, and the importance of victory, at least in terms of points, is reduced. Previously, the winner received 100 World Cup points, the runner-up 80 points and the third-place winner 60 points. Now the difference between the first and the second is only 5 points, the winner and the third place only 10 points.
International Ski Federation (you switch to another service) wanted with the change to get skiers investing in normal trips to participate in sprint races as well.
According to Pärmäkoski, the change has sparked a lot of discussion among national team athletes. He believes that skiers who usually ski normal distances have an interest in sprinting and vice versa.
– I will certainly ski some sprints, but whether I will ski all of them remains to be seen, Pärmäkoski said, and Kerttu Niskanen is also on the same lines.
– You have to make a choice, whether to bet on the overall competition or, for example, the value competition. It’s hard to ski all the competitions this year.
Both Pärmäkoski and Niskanen are aiming for the World Championships in Planica this season. In the World Cup, they invest in the Tour de Ski at the turn of the year, but the overall cup gets less attention.
Merciless change does not motivate Iivo Niskas
In Iivo Niskanen’s opinion, the change in points does not increase motivation towards the World Cup, rather the opposite. The change favors a lot of competitive athletes, but is merciless towards, for example, those athletes who miss or have to miss the games.
Just before the opening of the World Cup in Ruka, Niskanen, who fell ill with the corona virus, stated in an interview with Urheilu that his World Cup season was practically a “smooth”.
– With the renewed points system, you can be in the top three, as long as you ski as much as possible, and you may not even be the absolute best skier. You get a lot of points even for tenth place, Niskanen lamented in an interview at the national team camp in Olos.
Like his brother, Kerttu Niskanen believes that the points system will radically change the overall cup. When the season is over, there may be some surprising names at the top of the Cup.
– There might be an interesting top 3 in both men and women in terms of the overall race. Let’s see if this new points system will continue or not, he said.
Extended trips please Kerttu Niska, Iivo Niskanen wants permanence
Another significant change concerns the competitive distances skied in the World Cup, as both women and men ski the same distances. This season, we mainly ski sprints, 10-kilometer and 20-kilometer distances.
Iivo Niskanen’s bravura trip, 15 kilometers on traditional skiing, is on the program only at the Tour de Ski. The women’s 30-kilometer race, which is traditionally held at Oslo’s Holmenkollen after the world championships, is 50 kilometers long this year.
Iivo Niskanen does not like constant changes, because in his opinion they bring challenges to both spectators and athletes.
– Let’s hope that now that we have settled on this system, we will go with this as long as we can ski competitions. Let’s keep the trips at least the same, that there will be some sort of routine. I am very much against the idea of changing the long traditions that our sport has had with such rule changes, Iivo Niskanen said.
Kerttu Niskanen and his coach Juho Mikkonen again, they are excited about the travel changes, because extending the journeys serves Niska.
– It doesn’t hurt at all, on the contrary! I am one of those who have given the thumbs up to that reform, Niskanen stated.
– The competitions in the 20s are very different from the competitions in the 10s and 15s. Completion time takes about an hour, and from the beginning of the season, the twenty races are skied almost every weekend. They start to burden, and not everyone can take them, Mikkonen reminded.
In the first three race weekends of the World Cup, there are three distances on the program: either a sprint or a mixed relay, 10 kilometers and 20 kilometers. Even on the weekend of Davos, just before Christmas, there is a 20 kilometer race.
– It is really interesting to see if the athletes start to choose the games and how the athletes are able to recover from one weekend to another, Mikkonen reflected.
At the starting line, you don’t see who is missing
This season’s competitions are also affected by the fact that the International Ski Federation has continued to ban Russian and Belarusian skiers from participating in all competitions. Last season, in the Cup between the countries, Russia was third after Norway and Sweden, while Finland finished fourth.
Natalia Nepryaeva won the Women’s World Cup overall and the Tour de Ski, on the men’s side Alexander Bolshunov was second in both the Cup and the Tour.
In Iivo Niskanen’s opinion, with the absence of the Russians, placings in the top 12 are easier to achieve, but the impact in prestige competitions is smaller than in the World Cup.
– Russia is a very strong country in men’s skiing, so it does leave a big dent in the competitive setup. It will inevitably affect the course of the joint start races, said Niskanen, who has often collaborated with Bolshunov in joint start races.
On the women’s side, the situation is different anyway, because Therese Johaugin after leaving the race tracks, the playing field is completely open.
– At that point, when you’re standing on the line, you don’t think about who is out of the race, Kerttu Niskanen said.
Both Niskanen and Pärmäkoski believe that the battle for prize positions will be extremely tight this winter. This time there is not as clear a pre-favorite for normal trips as there has been in previous years.
– Now that the locomotive is missing, Johaug, I believe that the games will be tactically different. It also enables different athletes to cope, Pärmäkoski estimates.
Ruka World Cup broadcast information
Friday 25.11.
10.47 Sports studio TV1 & Areena
10.55 Skiing, sprint qualifying TV1 & Areena
12.10 Combined M, hill section TV1 & Areena
13.25 Skiing, sprint TV1 & Areena
15.55 Combined M, skiing section TV1 & Areena
17.40 Hill jumping M, qualifying TV2 & Areena
Puhe from 12:05
Saturday 26.11.
10.05 Hill jumping M, HS142 TV1 & Areena
10.55 Sports studio TV1 & Areena
11.55 Cross-country skiing, 10 km (p) TV1 & Areena
13.25 Combined M, hill section TV1 & Areena
14.25 Skiing M, 10 km (Fri) TV1 & Areena
16.15 Combined M, skiing section TV1 & Areena
Puhe from 9.55 am
Sunday 27.11.
08.25 Hill jumping M, qualifying Arena
09.57 Sports studio TV2 & Areena
10.00 Hill jumping M, HS 142 TV2 & Areena
11.55 Combined M, skiing section TV2 & Areena
12.55 Cross-country skiing, 20 km (v) TV2 & Areena
14.25 Cross-country skiing M, 20 km (v) TV2 & Areena
16.10 Combined M, hill section TV2 & Areena
Puhe from 9.55 am
You can find the arena broadcasts at this link.