After the women’s 50 km race in Holmenkollen, the fierce work of the athletes and the small number of athletes spoke volumes.
Roope Visuri,
Laura Arffman
The 50 km race in Holmenkollen showed again on Saturday why the fifty is called the hardest distance in the World Cup. On Saturday, the women competed in Oslo for only the second time in history in the world cup under fifty.
In Finnish terms, many athletes were tough. Krista Pärmäkoski suffered from a big cramp in his leg after the competition, and was unable to walk away from the competition venue under his own power. Pärmäkoski was naturally unable to come to the interview, but later communicated that he fell during the competition and that’s how the problems started.
The Finns who visited the interview point, on the other hand, told Urheilu about their hard fight. Johanna Matintalo complained of cramps in his extensor muscles. He said that in the middle of the race he was thinking about how to get off the track.
Debuting in the World Cup Kati Roivas on the other hand, he threw up in the middle of the race. He had problems with the absorption of fluids.
Kerttu Niskanen had vomited last year at Holmenkollen, but this time experienced “just a little darkening”.
Responsible coach of the Finnish women’s national team Ville Maunuksela revealed the background of the problems in an interview with Urheilu.
– Women in their fifties have been skiing very little. Fifty is also always such an enigma journey. Even if you’re in really good shape, you may experience cramps or fluids may not be absorbed as desired.
– There are many more variable factors in a fifty-kilometer race compared to a ten- or twenty-kilometer race.
However, Maunuksela considered it a good performance that three Finns reached the top ten. Kerttu Niskanen was fifth, Johanna Matintalo eighth and Krista Pärmäkoski tenth.
– All the women said that they ran out of energy at the end. Of course, we skied at high speed the whole time. In the beginning, ten women ran away, Maunuksela said and recalled the top name of the World Cup Jessie Diggins of fate.
Diggins froze quickly and finished behind Pärmäkoski in 11th place. Swedish Frida Karlsson skied to an overwhelming victory with a margin of over a minute over the others.
– Diggins was on the yo-yo after fifteen kilometers. In that sense, a fast pace was kept. Frida could only afford to put in one gear harder, Maunuksela stated.
Diggins was really in pain at the finish line after Pärmäkoski.
– I had cramps for the whole second half of the race. I was in real trouble, Diggins explained to Expressen.
The disappearance of the skier is bitter for the international federation
Only 39 athletes took part in Saturday’s competition. Already last year, the women’s 50 kilometers, then in free skiing, suffered from a large loss of participants. At that time there were only 32 competitors. The small number of participants has drawn criticism. This year, the differences also grew big.
All Finns who competed on Saturday told Urheilu that they are ready to ski 50 kilometers again.
Women have been able to ski 50 kilometers after the International Ski Federation FIS wanted the same competition distances for men and women. Before the decision, for example, the Norwegian broadcasting company NRK news from the survey, according to which only a very small percentage of women would like such long trips.
Last year, the low number of participants was explained by the previous World Championships in Planica and the fact that many people wanted to rest after the World Championships. Even now, for example, Krista Pämäkoski wondered before Saturday whether fifty kilometers is the right place on the competition calendar and whether it could be the last race of the season.
For example, many skiers investing in sprints missed the 50 km race, because on Tuesday in Drammen, Norway, a traditional skiing sprint is contested, and the final weekend of the World Cup also starts with a sprint in Falun, Sweden, on Friday.
Maunuskela thinks it’s nice that women also have a long distance like 50 kilometers in the World Cup.
– Now it’s about whether this is the right place for 50 kilometers? Is it a reasonable solution for women to ski a couple of sprints? This has certainly affected the number of participants, Maunuksela said and saw that sprinters prefer Drammen.
– If the games were the other way around, the situation would certainly be completely different. There would be more participants in women.
Maunuksela sees the large differences as logical, because even at thirty kilometers they will occur when the pace is maintained at the top.
– Maybe the 50th place in the World Cup calendar should be reconsidered, Maunuksela criticized.
The men’s 50 kilometers (p) as a joint start will be skied at Holmenkollen on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. follows the events in this article.