The women’s heat race may become Eveliina Piipo’s medal journey – Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was excited by what she saw: “Let’s continue”

– An interesting and exciting competition. Based on one race, you can say that let’s continue.

This is the opinion of Urheilu’s expert Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was after the first ever women’s 50km World Cup.

The race, which was skied on the terrain of the legendary Holmenkollen, raised a lot of doubts in advance. The timing of the competition also drew criticism.

Just eight days earlier, a 30-kilometer race had been skied at the World Championships. Only 32 athletes started for Holmenkollen’s fiftieth.

However, the race was an exciting celebration of endurance sports. The top places were decided by the finish line in a scrum of six athletes. The victory was somewhat surprisingly taken by Norway Ragnhild Hagawhich is not known as a real cannon.

There were interesting stories inside the race. The 21-year-old from Norway stood out in particular Margrethe Bergane, who did several jerks during the race. Many athletes had already fallen off the ride, but fought their way back into the group.

– The crowd steadily dropped along the way. For example Eveliina Piippo meant to fall off the main line many times, but he was able to ski the gap. For Finns, it was exciting, says Saarinen.

Swedish people Ebba Andersson and Frida Karlsson withdrew from the race due to cold symptoms.

– Only those two weren’t really missing from it. Perhaps Krista Pärmäkoski also, Saarinen points out.

Saarinen believes that the first time it was challenging for the women to assess what kind of pace they dare to go.

– Even if Ebba and Frida had been involved and had tried to break up, would they have been able to? The fact that it has two athletes is not a very stable platform compared to a group of ten people, where the leader can be changed.

Piipo’s medal journey?

Vomited during the race Kerttu Niskanen was eighth as the best Finn. However, the most pleasing Finnish performance was Eveliina Piippo, who stayed in the top group for 40 kilometers. For the first time in his career, he reached the top ten at the World Cup level.

As Saarinen already stated above, Piippo fought his way back to the top group many times.

The international skiing federation FIS will decide on the travel selection for the upcoming World Championships in the spring. The aim of FIS is to have the same trips for men and women.

At the World Championships in Trondheim in 2025, women can therefore ski a distance of 50 kilometers. In the previous two World Cups, the long distance has been skied with traditional. In the following, it is pulled with free skiing.

The barrel is clearly better in that style. The trip could be very favorable for the 24-year-old skier, who has found an upward development curve after many difficult years.

Is Eveliina Piipo’s medal journey in the 50 km free race in the future?

– It could possibly be. Here too, however, it was seen that there must be a letter switch at the end. Eveliina herself knows that a proper change of rhythm must be achieved at that end as well. Even when tired, you have to be able to do a decent sprint.

Nousiainen flashes a strong idea

If the women’s 50 kilometers was an interesting race, the men’s race was similarly dominated by Norway. The top ten came from Norway.

Sports expert Ville Nousiainen says that nowadays really only William Poromaa able to challenge the Norwegians in freestyle skiing. Until a few years ago, for example, Switzerland Dario Cologna defeated the Norwegians in free long distances.

– A few Frenchmen will be able to challenge if they succeed. However, they have to use creativity. The French have to have a great day and the Norwegians have a bad day to make it work.

However, the competition among the Norwegians for the win and the top places was tight all the way to the finish line. 12 Norwegians participated in the race.

The national quota for the prestigious competitions is four athletes per country. Nousiainen flags for tougher competition.

– It makes no sense that there are only four and the possible winners are sitting on the couch at home. When talking about world championships, the best skiers in the world should compete there.

So would you take the line that, for example, there would be more than four athletes from one country on the World Cup trip?

– Almost, if there aren’t enough skiers. There aren’t so many ski resorts at the moment that they would block that place.

– However, it does not help anyone but Norway.

In the case of cross-country skiing, there has sometimes been talk of the so-called road cycling model. In cycling, athletes compete in the ranks of stables, with the exception of prestige races

Nousiainen doesn’t get fired up by that idea. He reminds that there are clearly more competing countries in cycling.

– Even then, there would only be Norwegians. Others would remain even more in the shadows. If you are only at the top as a ski stable, for example, it might cripple junior work. It is certainly some kind of possibility, but it has to be refined very far.