shows the Lillehammer World Cup competitions on its channels. Friday’s broadcast on TV2 and Areena starts at 11:25 a.m. with the men’s 10 kilometer freestyle skiing competition.
The cross-country skiing World Cup season continues this week in Lillehammer, Norway. In the sprints held on free skiing on Saturday, Finland has placed six athletes in both the women’s and men’s races.
In Lillehammer, free intermediate start races and combined races are also skied. There are men involved Lauri Lepistö, Emil Liekari, Remi Lindholm, Niilo Moilanen, Joni Mäki, Iivo Niskanen, Eero Rantala, Arsi Ruuskanen and Lauri Vuorinen.
Among them, pure sprinters are Vuorinen, Mäki, Moilanen, Liekari and Rantala. The sixth place will be filled by other athletes who are actually cross-country skiers.
Founder of Private Garage Electrofit Simo-Viljami Ojanen not happy about this.
– We should quickly find a solution how we could always fill all the places. Athletes want to ski as a profession. If six places are used, all will be filled with the best possible skiers. If not otherwise, then at least at his own expense, Ojanen, who also works as a ski coach, taps.
An open proposal
The Electrofit stable has several good skiers, such as Lepistö, Juuso Haarala, Tiia Olkkonen, Vilma Nissinen, Wiljam Mattila, Markus Vuorela and Verneri Suhonen.
Among them, Mattila has been in good sprint form since the beginning of the season. Last weekend, Mattila stunned in the Ruka World Cup after finishing eighth in the traditional sprint qualifying.
According to Ojanen, Electrofit had suggested to the Swedish Ski Federation that it could pay the costs of the sixth sprinter. In this case, the athlete in question would have been a member of the team.
Ojanen does not want to name a skier who, in his opinion, deserved the sixth sprint place. The Ski Association did not agree to this.
– If our athlete was the sixth in Lillehammer, for example, we would be ready to pay for the guardian, accommodation and travel. If only we could get the man on the line so that he can give evidence, says Ojanen.
A month ago at the Vuokatti Suomen Cup there was an observation race for the Lillehammer sprint. At that time, the free sprint was won by Rantala, who is participating in Lillehammer.
Instead, Vuorinen, Mäki, Moilanen and Liekari did not participate in that race. A talented freestyle sprinter among the athletes who belong to Finland’s tough sprinter guard Ike Melnitz was another Olli Ahonen third and Mattila fourth.
– Vuorinen, Moilanen and Mäki have given displays, but everyone else should have given free sprint displays from the beginning of the season. Last year’s displays shouldn’t weigh so much, says Ojanen.
One more sprinter
According to the skiing association’s World Cup selection criteria, last winter’s World Cup displays are also important from the beginning of the season. Last season, Mäki was in the final in the Lahti free sprint. Vuorinen, on the other hand, reached the semi-finals twice in that skiing style.
Sports expert Kalle Lassila wants the selections to emphasize mutual comparisons of athletes in competitions that are as close as possible to the selection time.
– On the other hand, a very weighty basis is if the athlete has shown competitive international potential on the trips in question in the previous season. If he was able to ski in the top ten last season, he should be given a chance.
According to Lassila, it is a valid question why not all places were filled for the free sprint. The expert himself would have liked to see Mattila succeed in the Ruka World Cup in Lillehammer.
– He has clearly moved forward with the traditional. Last season, in the World Cup freestyle competitions, he was not far from good rankings and further places, Lassila reminds.
At the World Championships in Trondheim, the individual sprint is skied in freestyle skiing. In addition to Lillehammer, the games in question are also held in Davos this year.
– In the case of Lillehammer, it must be underlined that it is one of the places with a race-type track, the expert adds.
Sprinters in the lead in Lillehammer
Electrofit could therefore have paid for an athlete from its team to the sprint in Lillehammer, so that the places for pure sprinters would have been filled. However, the Ski Federation did not agree to this.
Executive Director Marleena Valtasola says that it is up to the coaching to make the team selections.
– So far, there has been no practice of going to the games with money outside of the selections, he says.
Finland can therefore enter a maximum of six athletes in each competition. The ski association’s weak financial situation has meant that every trip is considered even more strictly to fill the entire six.
The challenge comes from the fact that, especially in men’s sprints and normal distance races, completely different athletes ski.
– In theory, it can mean 36 skiers, if all are different skiers on three trips. The budget allowed for 18 skiers, nine men and nine women, head coach Teemu Pasanen says.
Pasanen reminds that more sprints have been prioritized in the Lillehammer selections. In distance races, there may be a maximum of only four men.
– There is more group skiing in the sprint, as it is one of the few free sprints before the World Championships.
In the upcoming World Championships, the 10-kilometer intermediate start race will be skied on a traditional one. When the distance in question is on the program in the World Cup, the skiers of the distance distance are prioritized accordingly.
– Then it will certainly be the case that there will be fewer sprinters and more standard distance skiers, says Pasanen.
Private stables to join the alliance?
Lassila sees the opening of Team Electrofit as a potential alternative to participating in the World Cup costs.
– The Finnish national skiing team represents the entire Finnish skiing sport. As a skiing community, we have to make sure that those skiers who have a realistic chance can ski in the World Cup.
According to Lassila, the athletes should basically make it to the World Cup, if the competitive resources and background forces allow it.
– If it falls below that line because the ski association is not able to take care of the costs, the possibility would somehow be opened for that. The athlete could collect funding from his own background teams according to a certain schedule in order to be able to participate in the competition weekend.
Lassila acknowledges that the activity in question can be challenging for the Ski Association and the national team for practical reasons.
– However, I would like to see that resources do not become a threshold issue for individual skiers.