In Finnish cross-country skiing circles, the years 1993, 2003 and 2013 are not fondly remembered. Krista Pärmäkoski is very much on guard to ensure that 2023 does not continue the series of cursed triple years, writes journalist Atte Husu.
The Tour de Ski continues on Friday with traditional sprints. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena and the app at 1:20 p.m.
When Krista Pärmäkoski reached the podium for the first time in the World Cup on New Year’s Day in 2011, few were surprised. Even though it was an athlete who had just turned 20 years old, everyone who followed skiing knew his potential.
The last 12 years have not left the success-hungry breed cold. Pärmäkoski is by far the Finn with the most podium finishes in individual World Cup competitions between 2011 and 2023 – to be precise, his 31 podiums make up 32.2 percent of all Finns’ top 3 finishes.
Pärmäkoski has also run in prestigious competitions: five of the 12 medals have come from individual competitions, the rest from relays.
During Pärmäkoski’s active career in the adult series, he has only achieved five individual medals Iivo Niskanenwhich has been overshadowed by Niskanen’s two Olympic victories and the world championship.
After the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Niskanen has borne the greatest pressure of success in all prestigious competitions, because the yardstick has been winning.
Principally by Marit Björgen and Therese Johaugin therefore, year after year, Pärmäkoski has been offered a maximum of a silver medal, which he has won three times on personal value race trips.
After the Norwegian duo left the race tracks, the table has been set with normal trips for the new winners.
Spearhead
The World Cup season crossed the halfway point on Wednesday in terms of normal distances: nine races behind, eight to go.
On Wednesday in Oberstdorf, the most important competition for Finns was proven in terms of preliminary settings for the Planica World Championships starting at the end of February.
In Pärmäkoski’s second consecutive second place within two days, it was not only the manner, especially the initiative in tearing the top group apart, but also the fact that the result came in free skiing.
If the final ascent of the Tour de Ski is left on its own merits as a completely different approach from a regular skiing competition, the last time Pärmäkoski was on the podium in a skating competition was in December 2018.
When the holiday has passed, the result has also come. From the main event of the 2018–2019 season, the World Championships in Seefeld, Pärmäkoski would have returned home with a precious metal, but Sweden’s Frida Karlsson decided to shock her competing sisters by rising from the junior series directly to the adult medals.
Since then, Karlsson has become known as a skier who, at his best, was the most viable threat to Johaug’s dominance.
Although Karlsson has not only gone from victory to victory, the Swede is currently the number one favorite in every normal distance race due to his abilities.
When the current mood and experience in proper timing are added to the same equation, Pärmäkoski is currently Karlsson’s main challenger.
Although Kerttu Niskanen has won a World Cup competition this season and was second once, the strong performances have so far only focused on the traditional.
There are still seven weeks until the World Championships in Planica, but in the light of current information, Pärmäkoski is a potential medalist in all three normal distances, Niskanen only in the traditional 30 kilometers that ends the competition.
While Iivo Niskanen’s condition is still a mystery, Pärmäkoski, despite the resume mentioned at the beginning, is in a new situation at the age of 32: for the first time in his career, he is the spearhead of the entire Finnish team. Considering the CV, that can be considered a surprise.
The curse of triplets
The competition cycle of Nordic skiing competitions was changed in the 1980s, after which the World Championships have been held in odd-numbered years for the first time since the interwar era.
In the 1990s, the Finnish national ski team collected its weakest trophy, Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemen of silver and Berjut Roligin bronze from the 1993 World Championships in Falun.
The slowest balance of the first decade of the 2000s came from the 2003 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, where the best Finnish skiers, Pirjo Muranen and Riikka Sirviöfinished sixth in the final results.
In 2013, the same locality organized the weakest Finnish competition of the 2010s, when the result was a bronze medal in the women’s pair sprint, but not a single Finn made it into the top six in individual trips.
In the above-mentioned World Cup competitions, the Finnish men have been far from the medal fight on personal trips: in 1993 Harri Kirvesniemi was the tenth best, 2003 Teemu Kattilakoski was eighth just like Toni Ketelä in 2013.
If Iivo Niskanen does not make it to Planica in top condition, the Finnish men will hardly have much else to remember about the personal journeys of the 2023 World Championships.