Sports legend Marit Björgen, who is currently commenting on cross-country skiing for Norway’s Viaplay, hoped that Kerttu Niskanen would have skied the top bet on Saturday.
VAL DI FIEMME
The Tour de Ski tour of cross-country skiing still includes old legends of the sport, but on the other side of the fence, so to speak, in expert positions in different media.
One of them is Marit Björgen, the most successful Winter Olympic athlete of all time.
8-time Olympic champion, 15-time Olympic medalist and 18-time world champion Björgen won the Tour de Ski only once in his long career.
Now, on Saturday, she witnessed a very violent wrinkle in Val di Fiemme, when the women, in a mixture of water rain and sleet, twisted the 15-kilometer joint start race in the traditional way of skiing.
Swedish Frida Karlsson and the United States Jessie Diggins got so much out of themselves that they lay in the goal area for a long time. The victory was taken by Karlsson after skiing for a long time Linn Svahn.
– It was a really tough competition. When 54 minutes go into a 15-kilometer race, it tells about a really tough race, Björgen underlined to Urheilu in the Val di Fiemme media room.
Kerttu Niskanen had won the two previous races of this season’s Tour with traditional skiing, but now finished tenth.
Kerttu Niskasen has a hard time on the final climb
According to the unofficial results, Kerttu Niskanen fell to fourth in the overall battle. He is 49 seconds behind Diggins, but just six seconds behind the second-place finisher Jonna from Sundling. Karlsson can still fit between Sundling and Niskanen.
According to Björgen, it has been wonderful to watch how Niskanen has shown himself to be in better shape than in the sticky early season.
Björgen, however, did not directly show any squeals of joy when he talked about Niskanen’s chances of success in the final climb of Alpe Cermis.
Even in Finland, it was already talked about in advance how the traditional 15-kilometer joint start race of Val di Fiemme would be a dream come true for Niskanen to fight for the top positions. Niskanen failed to break away from his rivals.
– I was hoping that Kerttu would have skied well today and pulled away from the others. He would have needed it. The others are a bit stronger in the final climb, Björgen described.
However, Björgen believes that second place in the overall Tour will still be a close fight.
– Everything is possible tomorrow. You never know what will happen. The crunch of seven races is tough, Björgen stated.
Norwegian women have a low season
Norway, the powerhouse of the sport, has not fared very well on the women’s side this season.
In the main event of the non-ranked season, the Tour de Ski has only one Norwegian woman in the top ten before the final climb.
Heidi Weng is sixth and can still get on the podium with great success. The next best Norwegian is only in 15th place Margarethe Bergane.
However, 22-year-old Bergane is more than three minutes behind the leader.
The overall situation of the World Cup is not much better. Heidi Weng is the best tenth. In the World Cup between the two countries, Sweden and the United States have edged past Norway.
Last year, Norway was the overwhelming number one. Tiril Udnes Weng won the overall competition. Lotta Udnes Weng and Heidi Weng also made it into the top ten.
Now Tiril Udnes Weng has fallen ill and is not participating in the Tour. Anne Kjersti Kalvå stopped the Tour before the closing races in Val di Fiemme.
– The situation has not been good. Now you have to think carefully about what they have done during the summer and how they have trained. The results have not been good enough, Björgen said.
However, Björgen, 43, who ended his racing career in the spring of 2018, is not worried about the future. He gives as examples the young Bergane, who competed a lot this season, and Kristin Fosnäs.
Björgen wishes Norwegian skiers a strong future.
– Young people will still rise. It is also good for the sport that we have athletes from different countries who are able to win and reach the podium, Björgen describes.