Comment Iivo Niskanen will retain his second Olympic advantage at the upcoming World Championships

Skiing On Sunday, a large number of friends arrived at the auditoriums and along the trail in Salpausselä, among other reasons, because of the opportunity to see fresh and successful Olympic winners – and especially one of Finland’s greatest Olympic and World Championship athletes of all time.

Iivo Niskanen organized comfortable skiing entertainment at the Lahti World Cup.

As is well known, as an athlete, Niskanen has achieved almost everything worth achieving at least once.

Now may be a good time to reflect on the prospects for his career.

Beijing On the eve of the competition, Niskanen admitted in an interview with Sanoma’s competition editor that “at this stage, value competitions are the only ones that ignite perfectly”.

During this season, Niskanen has also said that his career may continue until the next Winter Olympics, ie until 2026.

Then Niskanen would be 34 years old. In this context, it can be said that the first personal medals of his career Kerttu Niskanen turns 34 in the summer.

At the Zhangjiakou Olympic Games, two significant external factors were on the side of Iivo and Kerttu Niskanen.

The races were skied at an exceptionally high level, at about 1,700 meters, and the profiles of the slopes were extremely suitable for them with their long cross-country climbs.

In the following in races, one of these factors is not present. The World Championships in Planica in Slovenia and Trondheim in Norway in 2023 and 2025, as well as the 2026 Olympic tracks in Val di Fiemme in Italy, are not up to the standard of skiing.

Instead, a glance at the profiles of the upcoming World Cup tracks will tell you that they resemble the tracks of the Olympics. There are still long ups and downs.

For next winter’s World Championships, the skiing habits for personal trips will change again, which means that Iivo Niskanen’s bravura trip, for example, is not in the program, because the 15-kilometer break will be free.

Thus, in those races, Niskanen’s main distance is probably a traditional 50-kilometer combined start.

Since Niskanen is not a hero, he has to run away from others along the way to win, as happened at the 2018 Olympics.

Planica’s long ascents offer a good opportunity for this on behalf of the trail profiles. It is a different matter whether the weather allows it.

The Norwegian World Cup will go again with the same program that was at the finished Olympics, that is, Niskanen will be able to ski 15 kilometers perch. Of course, on the assumption that the International Ski Federation will not start changing the race format.

Northern Italy at the Olympics, Niskane will lose another competitive advantage, as there will be no steeply long climbs unless the trails are re-routed and taken to a higher mountainside.

However, a nice precedent is known from Fiemme’s trails for Niskanen. When the weather and condition are right, an escape trip is possible there as well.

This was proved at the 2013 World Cup in Sweden Johan Olssonwho advanced in fierce solo skiing to the 50km World Championships, the traditional way of skiing.

By the way, in an interview with HS at the Sochi Olympics, the same man gave an estimate of Niskanen’s future after he was 0.2 seconds behind the 15-kilometer medal and won Sami Jauhojärven with a sprint of Olympic gold.

“He is a piece of gold for Finland. It looks like he can only become a really big star in a few years, ”Olsson said.

Now we know that Olsson could not have been more right.