This decision enraged TV viewers and skiing stars – the Finnish boss responds to harsh Tour de Ski criticism | Sport

The cross-country Tour de Ski tour saw colorful, emotional and surprising competitions. For Finns, the highlights were Perttu Hyvärinen the first career victory in the World Cup as well Kerttu Niskanen two competition wins and third place overall.

It can be considered a surprise, for example, that the Norwegians only got 12 of the 42 possible podium places in the Tour’s races.

On the other hand, the Tour de Ski received strong criticism from TV viewers, athletes and national team managers.

Among other things, the hard-to-follow race format with bonus seconds and starting order, the almost historically high number of interruptions and the many kilometers traveled during the tour were driven from Toblach to Davos and back to Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Read more: Comment: A strange sight after Kerttu Niskanen’s party – all these things went wrong at the Tour de Ski

Why the hell a joint departure?

The last stage of the Tour, which ended with the dreaded final climb of Alpe Cermis, drew special criticism.

It was contested as a joint start. Consequently, the times of the last stage were added to the times of the overall competition. Winner of the overall women’s competition Jessie Diggins was sixth in the last stage. Men’s overall champion, Norway Harald Östberg Amundsen was fifth in the last stage.

The unanimous opinion was that the last stage should be skied as a chase, in which case we would start the journey with differences according to the current overall situation. In this case, the first person to cross the finish line would also be the winner of the overall race.

It would also be easier for viewers. Even now, the graphics of the international TV broadcast showed incorrect interim information about the overall race, which was infuriating According to Expressen spectators, narrators and commentators as well as athletes after the race.

Krista Pärmäkoski lost to Sweden in the overall competition Linn for Svahn just two seconds. He stated to Viaplay that he could have closed the gap on the final climb. It annoyed Pärmäkoski that he didn’t know the time difference on the way.

– It would also be nice for an athlete to know when crossing the finish line whether they can raise their hands or not. For example, Kepa (Kerttu Niskanen) asked me how many people he was in that tent.

Swedish Calle Halfvarsson the opinion did not remain unclear. He considered the tour “miserable” and hoped for more races and a longer tour. According to him, the Tour has no future with the present.

– I hope that the International Ski Federation would listen to the athletes, the media and everyone else. Everyone wants the chase back. If they don’t listen and learn from there, I’ll be surprised. Then the wrong guys work there, Halfvarsson seethed.

The Finnish boss thinks the chase is better

Finn Martti Uusitalowho is one of the FIS vice-presidents of the International Ski Federation, says he understands the criticism of the Tour.

He says that competition forms and formats are prepared in sport committees, in this case the cross-country committee. The presentations are then brought to the FIS Council, which usually does not intervene in the presentations, as it trusts that the experts in each sport have the best view of their sport.

– I personally agree, having followed the race, that the format of the joint start was neither easy nor clearly understandable. As a chase start, it would certainly have been more interesting and there would have been much more drama, says Uusitalo about the Tour’s climax.

The discussion about the background of the joint start race returns to the discussion about the change in skiing that has been going on for years. Especially under the conditions of television, there has been a desire to make skiing more fast-paced with sprints and joint start races, so that long races and the intermediate start format are seen less often.

– The duration of the pursuit race is somewhat longer, which is why FIS, together with the television companies, prefers shorter formats. But I agree that it eats up the optimal (Tour) format as it is. I will definitely raise this matter in the government, that this kind of development is not in the interests of the species.

Where could you find an audience on the spot?

According to Uusitalo, it is clear that traveling combined with short recovery periods is critical.

– Athletes and coaches bring them up, there’s a reason. These are also things that have been reviewed and approved by the sport committees. If there are any changes to the calendar, they will be presented to the committees in the spring. Of course, a compact whole is the best of all, Uusitalo reflects.

With the Tour packed into a tight period, it is difficult to avoid traveling back and forth, unless you only compete in one country, Uusitalo sees. It is not in the interests of the national associations.

– There is certainly work to be done on the calendar. It must be remembered that the localities must be such that the facilities are at a sufficient level.

Even before the start of the tour, it was said that on the Italian side the games were free, but it was still known that the number of spectators would be non-existent.

– It’s always a challenge in these skiing sports when you go to the mountains, to places where there are basically no big crowds. It is not easy to get people to gather there, unless you are in the vicinity of big cities. Especially in Central Europe, where cross-country skiing is not the number one sport, admits Uusitalo.

– For a long time, it has been thought about how to get suction and kick to cross-country skiing in Central Europe. When you looked at the result strips now, there were a lot of Central Europeans in their early twenties. As such, there are skiers there at the moment, but there is no direct sage stone except that the sport must be made attractive.

An additional challenge of the last stage of the Tour is that the start and finish are located in different places.

– Skiing is such that it’s easy to watch on TV, especially that last stage. There are challenges in the format that should be made to support the fact that the public comes to the place. There is currently no direct answer.

In addition to Halfvarsson, who shared rude comments, other Swedish skiers also hoped that Tour would be even tougher. Teemu Pasanen stated to Sanomi that he hopes for more exceptional race formats for the Tour, because there are enough sprints and 10 kilometers in the normal World Cup.

For example, in previous years the Tour started with a few kilometers long prologue. This time, in the minds of many, the highlight of the Tour was the Davos sprint.

– The sprint in Davos was damn great, flamethrower and all. More like that! It would be important to get more viewers, Hyvärinen summarized his feelings for Sanoma.

Uusitalo points out that all countries always have their own wishes. In southern Europe, sprint cannons are enough, while for Finns, long distance traditional skiing is always fine.

All of a sudden, Uusitalo doesn’t need big changes to the whole of the Tour in the big picture.

– I personally see the Tour as a whole very interesting, especially on TV. It’s pretty balanced for you.