Doping in XC skiing

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Only a selected few of the WC skiers have a chance at ski classic, but a few more could do well with specific training.

Im of the opionon that basically all the good WC skiers (perhaps except of the smaller guys like Desloges, Lapalus, Tildheim Andersen etc) would be dominating the Ski Classics scene if they went all in for that. A fully motivated Klæbo, Nyenget, Iversen, Niskanen, Stenshagen, Amundsen etc would of course be able to compete with "Axel Jutterström", "Ole Jørgen Bruvoll" and "Jeremy Royer" if they trained for it during one summer. My favorite example is Petter Eliasson, which for some years was a pretty mediocre World Cup skier with strenghts in skating and preferabbly in harder courses. Then he got dropped from the national team at 30-31 and went straight on to dominate Ski Classics.

Meaning: in my eyes are the Ski Classics definitively the B-Scene, but they do have good PR and it is fascinating to see how for example Myhlbäck seems to be of the opinion that Ski Classics is equally prestigious as the World Cup.

 

[AmRacer]

Im of the opionon that basically all the good WC skiers (perhaps except of the smaller guys like Desloges, Lapalus, Tildheim Andersen etc) would be dominating the Ski Classics scene if they went all in for that. A fully motivated Klæbo, Nyenget, Iversen, Niskanen, Stenshagen, Amundsen etc would of course be able to compete with "Axel Jutterström", "Ole Jørgen Bruvoll" and "Jeremy Royer" if they trained for it during one summer. My favorite example is Petter Eliasson, which for some years was a pretty mediocre World Cup skier with strenghts in skating and preferabbly in harder courses. Then he got dropped from the national team at 30-31 and went straight on to dominate Ski Classics.

Meaning: in my eyes are the Ski Classics definitively the B-Scene, but they do have good PR and it is fascinating to see how for example Myhlbäck seems to be of the opinion that Ski Classics is equally prestigious as the World Cup.

Martin Johnsrud Sundby won one Ski Classic, Theresa J also. None of the WC sprint specialists can win, and also those who are better at skate. Astrid Slind started with Ski Classics..so some of the top WC athletes could win, but definitely not most of them.

 

[Squire]

Aside from the Olympics. Why don't they do what other sports in general do - have private sponsorship for athletes and or private teams? Why is the normal season through national teams in winter sports - it's so weird??

Skiing was never really a professional sport, so that structure never developed. Proper international season-long competition didn't really start until the 70s and 80s (FIS World Cup since 1981). Until then it was mostly an Olympic sport and there was also the annual world championships. Most competitors, at least among the Norwegians, were forest workers. Even now there's not much money in it, especially not in the even more niche things like nordic combined. I guess the Norwegian national team have decent sponsorship money, but not many other nations have a population-wide market for skiing related things. Most Norwegian families will at least buy a few pairs of skis for their kids throughout their childhood, so there's a bit of sponsorship incentive here.

 

[AmRacer]

Skiing was never really a professional sport, so that structure never developed. Proper international season-long competition didn't really start until the 70s and 80s (FIS World Cup since 1981). Until then it was mostly an Olympic sport and there was also the annual world championships. Most competitors, at least among the Norwegians, were forest workers. Even now there's not much money in it, especially not in the even more niche things like nordic combined. I guess the Norwegian national team have decent sponsorship money, but not many other nations have a population-wide market for skiing related things. Most Norwegian families will at least buy a few pairs of skis for their kids throughout their childhood, so there's a bit of sponsorship incentive here.

Most Norwegians have easy snow access the whole winter, that's not the case for any other country.

 

[Squire]

Most Norwegians have easy snow access the whole winter, that's not the case for any other country.

It's the case for the Finns as well, and Sweden to a large degree. But Finland have never really recovered from the Lahti scandal in 2001 for some reason.

 

[AmRacer]

It's the case for the Finns as well, and Sweden to a large degree. But Finland have never really recovered from the Lahti scandal in 2001 for some reason.

No, it's not the same. Nobody lives where it's snow in Sweden and Finland, most winters.

 

[esp123]

Two of the biggest cities in Norway (Oslo and Trondheim) have really easy snow access during the winter.

In Oslo there are in total 2600 km ski tracks available for everyone.

And most kids learn cross country skiing at a really young age.