Ebba Andersson and Frida Karlsson had already announced before the season that they wanted to train instead of competing in Davos.
Add illnesses to several riders and Sweden will only start with Jonna Sundling, Moa Ilar and Sofia Henriksson.
Sundling, with two wins so far this weekend, doesn’t think it’s looking so good.
See her answer in the clip above.
Sweden has perhaps the strongest women’s team in the World Cup. Women’s coach Andreas Domeij partly blames the fact that they only got to the start with four in the sprint yesterday and now three in this weekend’s distance race. But he also explains it as a consequence of a tactic chosen by the national team this year.
The World Cup collides with the Scandinavian Cup and it is a competition that the national team has chosen to prioritize for several skaters who would otherwise have been able to go to the World Cup. One reason for that choice is that the winner of that cup gets a free place in the World Cup, something the national team values highly for the upcoming Olympic year when many want to participate and qualify, he says.
“Wants more seats”
– The World Cup is incredibly important from our side. Therefore want more places. It may sound strange when we are not even filling the seats right now. But it’s a way for us to bring in younger girls. If you look at the A team, there are eight there and it is very tough to break into. In advance, we could not know that there would be so many illnesses here and then we see that three hard races in the Scandinavian Cup is a very good entry sport.
In addition to the Scandinavian Cup, Domeij also points to the clash with the premiere of the Ski Classics as a reason why it has been difficult to get skiers to Davos.