The three-time Olympic champion plans to ski the entire program at the SC Games, but the trip to North America is not interesting. There was even a long-distance Ski Classics competition.
Iivo Niskanen returned last Friday from a one-month and two-day break due to illness at the Oberhof World Cup in Germany, where he skied the sprint, 20 km (p) mass start and relay. The 11th place in the mass start and the 3rd fastest time in the relay section were a great balance compared to the starting points.
– My body’s feelings about competing after such a long break and very broken training were surprisingly good, considering that I was away from the snow for a month.
When Niskanen announced on Monday that he would immediately take a break from competition again, many drew a dark cloud for the rest of the season. The three-time Olympic champion, reached by Urheilu on Tuesday from Kuopio’s Puijo ski run, stated that there is nothing dramatic about the situation.
A skiing treat for Southern Finns
– It’s only about one World Cup weekend. Five races in eight days would have been too much considering the background, better to recover and train. Top condition does not return from this starting point only through competition.
In Goms, Switzerland, traditional skiing is only offered in the relay, individual trips are skied in free time. Niskanen plans to be on the line to the delight of the southern Finnish skiing public at the Hakunila WC in Vantaa at the end of next week.
– Even the entire program is planned to be skied there.
In Hakunila, free sprint, 20 km traditional intermediate start and traditional pair sprint are skied.
Not to North America
After the WC, the World Cup continues from the 9th to the 18th. February first on the 1988 Olympic tracks and then in Minneapolis, USA. The most suitable distances for Niskasen would have been found starting exactly one, i.e. the 20 kilometer mass start (p) on February 11 in Canmore.
– It is very likely that I will not be going on that trip.
Before the second main goal of the remaining season, i.e. the World Cup in Lahti, on the first weekend of March, Niskanen will compete in the Suomen Cup in Kuopio on the 24th-25th. February.
In between the domestic events in Vantaa and Kuopio, Niskanen would have tuned up his attack for Oslo’s Holmenkollen 50km (p) race on March 10 by even competing in the neighboring tour’s Ski Classics, a long-distance push event.
The Finnish superstar of the skiing world has been talked about even to move to that side more or less decisively, and Niskanen does not deny this.
– Now we couldn’t find a sufficiently long competition on sufficiently hard terrain. If I ever set a really hard goal for that side, then Magnar (I’m going down, Finland’s former head coach) has promised 100 percent services for the maintenance of both the equipment and the man. Without such a package, nothing is available from there.
The Norwegian works as the sports director of the Ski Classics elite team Team Ragde Eiendom.
Royalty burns
The 50-kilometer Jizerska to be skied in the Czech Republic on February 11 would have fit into the schedule, but the event would not provide a sufficient physical response to Niskanen’s Oslo goals. The athlete, who has already achieved almost everything else, does not ignore the fact that the 50-kilometer kingship of Holmenkollen burns hard.
Niskanen has been second in Oslo once and fourth twice; a couple of times the dreams have been crushed by the non-functioning of the ski equipment.
– It’s not about obsession, but it’s almost a contest of values in terms of status. And if you can’t do it now, you won’t even get to try right away.
Next winter there will be no 50 km skiing in Oslo, and after the Olympic Games in Milan, the way to progress is free.
The Olympic gold of the trip will be decided in Val di Fiemme in traditional style, perhaps in the last race start of the then 34-year-old Niskanen.