The mood of the Finnish national ski team has been low since the beginning of the season, and the Finnish maintenance team has not been in the top fight. Sports expert Aino-Kaisa Saarinen reminds that other countries have also had very variable results in terms of maintenance since the beginning, but there have been no real super successes in Finnish maintenance.
The fact that the skiers do not get help from their equipment has also affected the results. The Finns are far from the top in the overall World Cup situation. Iivo Niskanen is the 12th best among men, Kerttu Niskanen on the 10th. The following are considerably further away.
– On the other hand, making the basic level of Finnish skiers just isn’t enough. When you add to that the stickiness of maintenance, it shows up as fluctuating results, says Saarinen.
– There have been a few good individual performances, such as Jasmin to Joensuu Ruka’s sprint and Iivo Niskanen’s second place and Kerttu Niskanen’s fifth place and Markus Vuorelan successful skiing in Trondheim. But they have been isolated successes.
Saarinen admits that he breathed a sigh of relief when Kerttu Niskanen succeeded in Sunday’s top ten. In Saarinen’s opinion, the happy expression of the Finnish skier in the interview was also an indication that Niskanen is on the right track after a difficult early season.
– The Trondheim track suits the Niskas (Iivo and Kerttu) and the ice is a dream for them. However, neither of them is yet in such good shape that they would have reached the podium without the complete success of the maintenance.
Who surprised?
Hill jumper Jenny Rautionaho has been in a strong jumping mood since the beginning of the season, but in Engelberg was shaken properly. First, the Rovaniemi resident had the best finish of his career when he was ninth in Saturday’s race, and on Sunday he did even better.
Rautionaho was seventh after the first round, but improved his ranking to fifth in the second round.
– Before, we were tense about whether we would make it to the competition from qualifying, after whether we would make it to the second round, and now we are tense from the other end. We are already close to the podium. Awesome, head coach of the women’s ski jumping national team Ossi-Pekka Valta beamed in an interview with Urheilu.
The last time a Finnish ski jumper reached the World Cup podium was in 2014. Julia Kykkänen was twice the third at that time.
– Here we can see that when that wheel starts spinning in the right direction, only the sky is the limit, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen is also enthusiastic about Rautionaho’s performance.
What the hell?
There were a couple of situations in biathlon in Lenzerheide that could have gone badly. Both situations happened to the Norwegian team.
Endre Strömsheim showed that he had read the rule book, as he did exactly the right thing when he managed to drop his gun into the magazine at the shooting range. Strömsheim took the skis off his feet, fished the magazine back with his hand and made sure that the barrel of his gun was facing the target all the time.
Another dangerous situation happened at a hotel in Norway, where Sturla Holm Lägreidin the charge to the gun had been forgotten and Lägreid fired it dry-firing into the wall. The Norwegian athlete broke down in tears when he spoke about the incident in an interview with the Norwegian broadcasting company NRK.
Who flopped?
In the past, Finnish maintenance has often been in the top fight, but now during the fluorine-free creams, it has had problems with the grip cream, at least in Vesikeli. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen reminds that some of the failures are due to the choice of equipment and skis of the athletes, but the service in Finland has not been completely on the map.
– Yes, that worries me. Finland’s maintenance would need success now, just because of the hard work of the maintenance men, Saarinen states.
– If there were successes, the team would start to believe in it again. Now the thinness feeds itself.
Finnish maintenance has not been the only one to struggle with the new creams, as Swedish, Norwegian and American teams have also had problems from time to time. On the other hand, in Trondheim, Germany’s maintenance succeeded brilliantly, especially on Sunday, when Victoria Carl skied to an overwhelming victory.
– Others have also had difficulties, but it seems that Finland always goes into the woods somewhere. There hasn’t been a feeling yet that this is going away.
What next?
After the Christmas break, the skiers have the traditional Tour de Ski ahead of them. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen is now hoping for a Christmas miracle above all for the maintenance of Finland.
– I hope that the maintenance team can now spend a more relaxed Christmas, collect themselves and then come back at a new level.
In Saarinen’s opinion, for example, Kerttu Niskanen, who has recovered, will not be able to fully measure his potential if he does not get full help from his equipment.
In Saarinen’s opinion, the Tour de Ski seems to be quite interesting from the women’s side. Germany’s Victoria Carlin the wheel has turned in the right direction, and he has been strong since the beginning of the season. Americans Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan have already shown themselves to be good Tour skiers.
– Victoria Carl’s victory in Trondheim brought new mood and excitement. It is also good for skiing as a whole. There is indeed a very interesting Tour coming up for women.
On the men’s side, the situation is different because of the superiority of the Norwegians. Saarinen sees only one candidate as the overall winner of the Tour: Johannes Hösflot Kläbon. On tour, experience is often very useful, but despite this, Saarinen believes that young Americans, such as By Ben Ogden and With Gus Schumacherthere are opportunities to shuffle the pack.
– Let’s give them a chance. They’ve been in a good mood.