During the season, it has become a rule rather than exceptions that several of the largest Swedish stars are over World Cup competitions.
In the last competition, in Italian Cogne, for example, six of the seven best (placement was missing in the overall World Cup) Swedish ladies and two of the top three.
Among those who instead chose to train for the World Cup were, among others, Frida Karlsson, Ebba Andersson and William Poromaa.
FIS manager disappointed
And although the many Swedish dropouts stand out, a number of other stars were also missing in Cogne’s World Cup competition, including Norwegian Therese Johaug and Johannes Hösflot Kläbo.
But that so many stars noble the World Cup is something that is criticized by a number of profiles.
– I wish everyone would be here and go against each other. That’s the point of the World Cup: that everyone is here, says Finnish Jasmi Joensuu, who tops the women’s sprint cup.
Michal Lamplot, who is the length manager of the International Ski Association (FIS) is also disappointed.
– One of our goals is to have as good a World Cup as possible, with as many as possible of our biggest stars. So it is unfortunate when many people skip World Cup competitions, not only here in Cogne but also other competitions, he tells SVT Sport, and continues:
– That so many are missing has a negative impact on the World Cup.
“Wouldn’t be good”
A change that many that SVT talked to is a slightly more airy World Cup schedule, but it is not something that the FIS manager believes in.
– After the tour before the World Cup we have three weekends without a World Cup. Adding another one, it would not be good. January-February is usually when winter occurs in Europe and the time of year when people want to look at skis, he says, and adds:
– So I don’t see any potential for more vacant weekends. But this is something we need to discuss this spring.