Krista Pärmäkoski, who is training at Lapland’s spring hang, revealed her intention to continue. Without the WC disappointments, the career would very likely be over.
Pekka Holopainen,
Mika Halonen
Already debuted in cross-country skiing in the winter of 2009 Krista Pärmäkoski32, has been pondering the fate of his career in his own circumstances after a very disappointing World Cup season.
On Tuesday, Pärmäkoski was finally ready to talk about it on his social media channel. The career of the 12-time value race medalist will continue at least through the 2023–2024 season, which means that Pärmäkoski will no longer promise any value races to Finnish skiing fans, at least in principle. In the 2023–2024 season, there will be no skiing for World Cup or Olympic medals.
On the other hand, Pärmäkoski did not rule out the possibility of aiming for the 2025 World Cup in Trondheim and even the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan.
Pärmäkoski is about to start its new training season in Lapland’s spring snow in Kilpisjärvi, and didn’t want to reveal more about the background of his decision on Tuesday.
“I’m still in the same gap year”
Pärmäkoski told about his decision in a seven-minute long Instagram video. With it, he recounted his career from the age of 12, when he started touring in competitions.
– After high school, I decided that I would take a gap year and see what my skills are really enough for. Well, I’m still in the same gap year, the skiing star thought at first.
Pärmäkoski continued to go through the good and bad sides of sports life in a video. At best, he has had 250 travel days, and he hasn’t seen his loved ones as much as he would like to avoid getting sick.
– Sport also gives a lot. I am grateful that I have been able to do the kind of work that has been my favorite hobby for 14 years. I’m living my dream job. Although it takes a lot.
Pärmäkoski says that he has thought a lot about whether it makes sense to put himself in prison and live disciplinedly at the expense of loved ones, for example. Last season, the Pärmäkoski Tour de Ski was canceled due to a stomach bug. After the World Championships, Pärmäkoski had the coronavirus.
– I still believe that it had an effect already during the World Cup, because the recovery was really bad.
However, Pärmäkoski says in the video that he stated during the spring that his passion for skiing will hardly ever go out. In addition, he announces that the Tour de Ski at the turn of the year has left so much in the teeth that all training for next season is done with the Tour in mind.
– I already know that it feels bad to climb Alpe Cermis, but I want to experience that pain one more time.
– Toward the dream that still lives.
A controversial season
The 2022–2023 season was very contradictory for the national team rider who settled in Kuortane. The top mood found at the turn of the year at the Tour de Ski promised excellent World Cup speeds to Planica, but a fatal illness that even took away the overall victory at the chalk lines of the Tour pretty much ruined the entire rest of the season.
The important bonus of the heavy race tour, the so-called training supercompensation, was completely missed. At the World Championships in Planica, Pärmäkoski was sixth in the combined race at his best in individual distances, but only 15th in 30 kilometers (p) and 17th in 10 kilometers (v).
The athlete, who already achieved his first medals at the age of 20 in Oslo 2011, has quite openly admitted that he went into the 2022 training season with the attitude that it would be his last as a top athlete. If the results at the World Championships had been as they were at the time of the Tour de Ski, Krista Pärmäkoski would very likely be preparing for the coming summer for the first time in more than 15 years without a strict, binding training program.
While weighing the continuation of his career, Pärmäkoski also briefly thought about preparing for next season outside of the Finnish A national team, as he already did in the training season of 2019. However, he decided to join the national team for the training season as well. He will continue as a coach Matti Haavisto.