Endurance was a trump card on Wednesday at the World Championships in Planica, when the men skied 15 kilometers in an intermediate time-oriented free skiing style.
Matka has been participating in prestigious skiing competitions continuously since 1954. Three countries have been able to achieve a triple victory at the World Cup level with 15 kilometers: Finland succeeded in the trick in 1954, Sweden in 1989 and Norway in 1966, 2021 and 2023.
The most recent ended on Wednesday with the Norwegians’ historic quadruple victory. Led by the Golden March Simen Hegstad Krügerfor whom the championship was the first on that trip – and at the same time the last, if there is even some sort of consistency in the policy of the International Ski Federation FIS.
This season, women and men have competed in the World Cup over the same distances. It has meant that, with the exception of one race (Davos 20 kilometers), the split start for men has been shortened from 15 kilometers to 10 kilometers.
FIS Event Director Sandra Spitz told Urheilu on Wednesday that already in the next World Championships women and men will ski the same competition program. According to Spitz, the FIS will decide in the spring which distances will be skied at the 2025 World Championships in Trondheim.
Hardly a few will put their money in the bag for the women’s 10 kilometers to be extended with a vitoso, if the alternative is to shorten the men’s distance.
How’s the royal tour going?
However, the biggest question regarding the future championships is related to the most sacred of skiing sports, the men’s 50 kilometers. It has been on the program of the World Ski Championships since the beginning, i.e. since 1925. Almost a hundred years ago, it took the winner more than five hours to cover the distance.
Since then, skiing methods, competition formats, equipment, tracks and athletes have developed to such an extent that, as a combination of them, the Canadian Alex Harvey ski six years ago at the World Championships in Lahti in the free co-start to fifty hours, 46 minutes and 29 seconds.
With traditional technology, the two-hour mark has yet to be broken. Fortunately.
The duration of the performance is an essential part of endurance sports. The body of skiers with an excellent endurance base is able to regulate the burning of carbohydrates and fat along the way so that it gets the most energy from fat, for example during slow periods and downhills.
Carbohydrate, on the other hand, plays the main role in hard and intense parts of the track and competition, such as the final stretch. The body never burns only one source of energy at a time, but if carbohydrates run out, the athlete’s pace slows down significantly. That’s why the regulation of the proportion of fat, which happens with speed distribution, plays a big role.
Here is the essence of endurance sports, which is not realized in the same way on shorter distances. Therefore, in terms of endurance sports, removing 50 kilometers is not an option.
If this were to happen in Trondheim while the World Ski Championships were celebrating their 100-year history, the decision would be the height of the FIS’s anger.
Huge differences in women
Option B is that FIS does not apply to the men’s 50 km. In this case, the women’s long distance will be extended from 30 to 50 kilometers.
You can get a taste of this in just over a week, when 50 kilometers debuts at the Women’s World Cup in Oslo on March 12.
At this point, international ski bosses can be satisfied that they don’t Therese Johaug no longer participate in competitions.
A year ago, Johaug beat the silver medalist in the 30 kilometers of the Beijing Olympics by almost two minutes. It was not an exception, because at the World Championships in Oberstdorf, held a year before Beijing, Johaug broke the gap with the second best skier by more than two and a half minutes.
Everyone can wonder what the track would have been like on a 20 kilometer longer journey. In women’s competitions, the level differences are greater than in men’s, which has been evident over the years, especially on long distances.
Finally, the FIS needs competitions where the differences become huge again and again. It is simply difficult to market such a product.
For this reason, extending the women’s competitions is anything but an attractive option. However, FIS has set in stone an equal program for women and men, so shortening the 50 km is on the table again.
Consistently inconsistent
One can’t help but wonder about FIS’s operation in terms of competition programs. Of the six competition forms of the World Cup competitions in Planica, four for men and three for women have not been contested in the World Cup this season.
Despite this, FIS considers it appropriate to change the race distances – or stick to the old ones – at the h-point of the season. Fortunately, FIS did this again this time, but in two years the situation will be different.
FIS’s decision on the next World Cup program is put in an even more special light when we remember how the skiers received FIS’s announcement about the same World Cup trips for women and men.
In May 2022 The Norwegian broadcasting company NRK got hold of the survey (you will switch to another service), according to which 73 percent of the athletes who toured the World Cup for a long time were against equal distances. As many as 88 percent of women were against it.
Despite this, the FIS pushed through the reform for this season. The recent decision on the 2025 World Cup program is a logical continuation of FIS’s illogical actions, which will only cause problems for the sport.
What is missing is that Johaug, who will give birth to her first child before July, will announce next year that she will return to competitive skiing and aim for the 50 km World Championship gold in Trondheim. And it’s a completely relevant option for the 34-year-old star.