It is certain that the future will bring more warm conditions to cross-country skiing, all kinds of noise and even accidents, writes Tero Hakola, news producer of HS’s sports department.
Finns and maybe some others will also complain, but the International Ski Federation Fis has got what it wanted.
Planica’s World Championships are only a few days behind us, and topics such as slushy tracks and numerous crashes have become topics of conversation.
The reason is clear. Even though the winter competitions of Nordic sports are organized in Planica, the picture does not include the ideal conditions of a Finnish winter holiday: frost and snow.
Read more: The skiing boss of the World Championships comments on Arsi Ruuskanen’s crash: “It shouldn’t have been a dangerous point”
Instead, Planica offers fast-paced tracks, beautiful scenery and spring weather, i.e. a great setting for a TV product and customer experience on site in the stands.
Cross-country skiing has long since moved away from the days when the skiers disappeared into the woods during the intermediate start and visited the stadium area once during the race.
And to be continued.
President of the International Ski Federation Johan Eliasch is going to drive significant changes for example, to competition formats. The reason is that cross-country skiing has collapsed outside of a few core countries.
Ultimately, it’s about money and bread for cross-country skiers, so Eliasch and his staff are working to save the sport.
This also means that, for example Salpausselkä’s place in the World Cup is not set in stone, even though the event has a hundred-year history and Lahti has already organized seven World Championships.
Read more: Finland’s head coach salted the schedules of the World Cup and uploaded a harsh prediction about Iivo Niskanen’s chances
In the end, the title of classic place has limited meaning when Fis wants to grow in Central Europe.
Lahti and the Finnish skiing community have to run hard to keep up with the skiing circus. In the end, it doesn’t seem to matter too much that, on the scale of world cups, Lahti still draws a commendable crowd.
Even Ruka’s position in the World Cup is more stable than Lahti. Ruka offers the TV audience the exoticism of the north and there are stable snow conditions from the beginning of winter.
The only burden on the rye is the frost, which is a bigger problem in the development process of cross-country skiing than the slopes softened by the sun.
For sure is that the future will bring more warm conditions to cross-country skiing, soft slopes, joint starts, falls, all kinds of noise, even accidents.
And Fis doesn’t mind that this happens, as long as the product is in order. The races will continue to be skied on the mössö slopes in the afternoon, because that’s the best time for television viewing.
In the men’s 30 km combined race, skied on Friday Arsi Ruuskanen fell victim to this development. In the joint start race on a muddy track, he drove at high speed towards the advertising wall.
The descent was not difficult in itself, but the conditions made it dangerous. The result was a trip to the hospital.
Fortunately, Ruuskanen survived the wild situation without broken bones with a soft tissue injury.
Correction: Contrary to what was written earlier in the story, Ruka is not in Lapland, but in the Northeast.
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