After the start of the season in Finland, the desire to continue fighting among many athletes noticeably diminished. And it’s not just about coronavirus
The first stage of the Cross-Country World Cup in Ruka had hardly ended when it became clear that fans would not see many strong athletes in Gällivare, Sweden.
And if the absence of athletes due to illness does not raise questions, then the banal reluctance to compete leads to a stupor. Niskanen and Klebo are not ready to strain themselves once again, and the Swiss national team generally pretended that there was no second stage of the World Cup for them.
Nobody expected such an disregard, even taking into account the crisis of this sport.
No top athletes
A scattering of famous skiers after Ruka were not ready to come to the quiet Swedish town to continue the fight in the World Cup. Niskanen, who failed to take gold in the classic time trial at home, does not want to waste time on freestyle racing.
Klebo, who failed the first stage, will look for optimal form in training, and the winner of the opening race of the season, Erik Valnes, will ignore the stage in which there are no sprint distances.
The situation is no better for the girls. Swede Sundling, Swan and Karlsson were hit by the coronavirus. The leader of the Finnish sprint team, Joanna Matintalo, and the fast Czech Tereza Beranova faced a similar problem. On top of that, last season’s overall winner, Tiril Weng, is not yet ready to start.
In general, the spectators who bought tickets to the stadium in Gällivare were expecting top-level competition, but they would end up in a reserve competition. In addition to this, some teams also decided to abandon individual races or even an entire stage as a whole.
Everything goes according to plan
Entire teams refuse to work hard. At first, the French took the initiative to run only the time trial in Sweden, considering that four stages at the end of November–December were too difficult a test for them. But they went even further in Switzerland. The leadership of the national team skips the second stage altogether. Who even came up with this idea?
If the absence of athletes from the country of cheese and chocolate was caused by some kind of force majeure, then this would not raise any big questions. However, the Swiss management surprised them with their honesty, directly stating that they did not plan to perform in Gällivare:
— We won’t be in Gällivare. This has to do with season planning. We don’t have many riders who are at World Cup level. There will be a lot of starts on the eve of Christmas, so our priority is given to the competitions in Östersund and Trondheim,” said the team director.
To understand the strength of this team, let’s look at a simple fact: in Ruka, 27-year-old Bede Klee confidently fought for the top 10 in the men’s distance races, and in the women’s section there is Nadine Fendrich, who was second in the sprint race standings last World Cup season. But the team management simply deprived these athletes of the chance to compete for prize money.
Moreover, it is not clear why. There are no World Championships or Olympics this season, so there is no point in approaching a specific competition. Of course, each athlete has his own peak periods in the winter calendar that he counts on. This year, apparently, for most it will be the Tour de Ski.
But athletes ignored the World Cup in such large numbers only during the active phase of the pandemic. Then the same Norwegians as a whole missed several races, but the arguments for this were much more powerful than Switzerland has now.
It seems that the problem is much more serious and does not lie within specific teams. The high status of the World Cup is no longer a dogma, so athletes simply no longer appreciate the opportunity to go to the start of these competitions. Now it’s better to practice again.
The reason for what is happening is directly related to the sharp decline in interest in cross-country skiing that arose as a result of the removal of the Russian team. It turns out that water pumping competitions are ignored not only by spectators, but also by participants. Despite all the attempts of the Scandinavians to put on a good face in the face of a bad game.
2023-11-29 10:49:51
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