Iivo Niskanen announced that he will not participate in the Tour de Ski starting this weekend. The tour will thus be without the biggest favorite, as Norway’s Johannes Kläbo is also out.
The brightest star of the Finnish cross-country team Iivo Niskanen said on Thursday evening that he will be out of the weekend’s World Cup competitions. The skier opened the reason on his Instagram account.
– Snow in the house. In Trondheim I felt that everything was not right. The disease that started there won’t allow me now to the Tour de Skill. Vex.
Head coach of the Finnish national skiing team Teemu Pasanen tells Urheilu that the information about the sick case came at the very last moment.
– The rest of the team arrived here in Toblach yesterday, when the first practice was also held. Iivo was originally supposed to come here yesterday, but he didn’t. Today he was supposed to come again, but in the end the health situation was such that it was not worth going.
Pasanen says that Niskanen’s absence is especially visible in the men’s team.
– Realistically, Iivo would have been the only one who would have been able to fight for the top places in the overall competition in the men’s team. There would have been a few very good trips for Iivo here anyway. Especially the traditional races of the tour.
The Finnish national skiing team says that no other skier will be named to replace Niskanen.
Several sick cases
Niskanen is by no means the only one not to be seen at the Tour de Ski. Several skiers have fallen ill in recent days and, for example, in Norway Johannes Hösflot Kläbo also said earlier today that he will miss the Tour because he has not recovered from the flu.
From Norway too Simen Hegstad Krüger is also ill and will not make it to the starting line of the Tour de Ski.
In addition, the Swedish team has had health concerns when Ebba Andersson and Calle Halfvarsson fell ill with corona during the Christmas break. However, they intend to compete in the Tour.
From Finland too Anni Alakoski, 26, is out of the Tour de Ski. Alakoski announced his absence like Niskanen on Instagram.
– There was no luck on the trip this year either. Home.
Head coach Pasanen says that in Alakoski’s and Niskanen’s cases there is no exact information as to whether it is the corona virus.
– Anni was already here in Toblach at her own preparatory camp during Christmas, but didn’t have time to join the rest of the team. Today he already traveled home.
In mid-December, Alakoski won the traditional 10-kilometer split start of the Vuokatti Scandinavia Cup. Pasanen says that the skier has recently been in the best shape of his career.
– It would have been interesting to see how he would have performed on this World Cup tour. He was already in very good shape at the pre-Christmas camp.
As expected, Pasanen says that the athletes were upset about the cases of illness.
– These would have been the most important races of the season for both Niskanen and Alakoski, and certainly the most important of the World Cup races. Of course, it’s sad that they couldn’t join.
The Tour de Ski tour starts on Saturday in Toblach, Italy (December 30–January 1). After this, the tour moves to Davos, Switzerland (January 3–4) before culminating in Italy’s Val di Fiemme at the end of the first week of January (January 6–January 7).