Skiing | Krista Pärmäkoski faces the biggest competitive change of her career: one skier is no longer superior

Skier Krista Pärmäkoski at the end of November it will be 14 years since the first competition in the skiing world cup.

He competed in his first full mc season in 2010–2011. Since then, throughout his career, Pärmäkoski has faced a very tough competitive situation.

This means that there has always been at least one woman on the starting line who has dominated the races and been the likely winner.

Now, the biggest change in the 31-year-old Pärmäkoski’s career has taken place in this matter. The reason is that Norway Therese Johaug ended his career as a top skier.

In the three previous value races, Johaug won all the normal distances and in the four previous seasons, with a few exceptions, all the normal distances of the World Cup.

Last in the winter at the Beijing Olympics, Pärmäkoski won bronze in 10 kilometers (p) Johaug and Kerttu Niskanen after. In any case, the season was significantly better than the previous one.

In the spring, in connection with the SC Games, Pärmäkoski announced that his career would continue. At the media meeting held in Oittaa, Espoo on Saturday, he told HS that he made the decision to continue at the beginning of last season, “actually already in November-December”.

Pärmäkoski admitted that if he had had the same training fatigue last summer as the other summer, the decision could have been different.

“However, it was nice to train, so I made that decision. I knew I was in pretty good shape, so that probably supported continuing. The idea could have changed during the season if it had been really bad. But when it was fun and it went well, it was nice to continue,” Pärmäkoski reasoned.

According to Pärmäkoski, Johaug’s retirement did not affect his decision, and it was not even known at the beginning of last season.

“But yes it gives opportunities for success. Everyone knows that Therese was the number one favorite. When his absence changes the nature of the games a lot and opens up an opportunity for the number one ball, it’s really tempting.”

Pärmäkoski estimates that Johaug’s departure will bring more uniformity to women’s top competitions. This happens especially in the joint start race.

In recent years, their script has followed the same pattern almost without exception. Johaug has warmed up his machine at the pace of the others for 5–10 minutes at most and then set off on his own.

Pärmäkoski sees that in the coming season there will be about ten women who are fairly equal.

“There will be tight competitions. You used to know that Johaug would definitely win. Now when I go to a race, I can win or be tenth. The difference can be very small. This makes the arrangement delicious. I know I have a chance to be in the winner’s seat, and I’m not one to watch them fight for the win.”

Pärmäkoski admitted that the drastic change in the competitive environment also provides motivation. The situation is also changed by the fact that the Russians are gone, although the effect is not as great for women as it is for men.

“That’s what motivates me to continue, when I really know that there is a chance to succeed,” said Pärmäkoski.

International according to the statistics of the skiing and snowboarding association FIS, Pärmäkoski has a total of 267 individual mc competitions. There have been five wins, and a total of 34 times he has reached the top three.

Next winter, the World Cup will be held in Planica, Slovenia. They are already Pärmäkoski’s eighth in his career, but this time in a different position than before.

When talking about the season’s goals, Pärmäkoski surprises, because this time he considers the traditional Tour de Ski at the turn of the year as important as the World Championships.

This has never happened before in his career. Of course, in winters without prestigious competitions, the Tour has been the main competition for Pärmäkoski, like many others.

“Now the intention is to invest in the Tour more than before in the years of value races. Let’s take it a little lighter, so that there is intended to be skiing really hard.”

At his best, Pärmäkoski has finished second (2017) and third (2019) in the Tour’s overall competition.

“At home, I placed the Tour’s two uprights of different sizes on the shelf in the living room. One would be a little higher, so it would be nice to have it next to it, and it would fit it just fine. I know I don’t have a hell of a lot of years left. I said For Mat [valmentaja Matti Haavisto] already at the beginning of the training season, that the Tour is just as important to me this year as the World Championships.”

Pärmäkoski himself is one of those athletes for whom competing fully on the Tour has not been a problem in terms of prestigious competitions. On the contrary, it has even strengthened the condition.

This time, there is no less than a month and a half between the Tour and the World Championships, which is significantly more than last winter before the Olympics.

in the World Cup So far, Pärmäkoski has no competition in mind that is more important than others.

“Everyone has a chance to be successful,” he says, referring to the three normal journeys.

Pärmäkoski has competed in Planica only once before. In January 2018, before the Pyeongchang Olympics, where he brought three medals, he achieved one of the five mc victories of his career in Planica. It came with a traditional skied ten. In the World Championships, that distance is free-skied.

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