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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Ian mentions that this might be the first time Spain has put two skiers in the top 30, since Sellés and Pueyo both qualified... he obviously forgets that there's a bunch of those results Mühlegg has been stricken from, as Juan Jesús Gutiérrez made a bunch of top 30s back in Mühlegg's day, not least the 50km freestyle at the 2001 Lahti World Championships and the 30km freestyle at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, both of which Mühlegg won, as well as Beitostølen and Holmenkollen World Cup events in 2000.

I mean, in terms of results that stand (the Lahti one stands but SLC does not) and don't involve Mühlegg, this may well be the best Spain have done, and certainly this is their best in a long time. There's actually some genuine promise there, and Pueyo may even make a semifinal here.

At least enough for them to get proper Spanish suits, last year Pueyo was wearing what looked like a Team Movistar skinsuit.
 
Pueyo is talented, if he had better skis, he could have reached the semi-finals. On the opposite end of the spectrum Myhre had two rockets on her feet to propel her to a career best result. Häggström managed to grab another win for Sweden though.

Good races from the Finish men overall but absolutely no surprise on the top2.
 
Ian and Posey covered the XC, so we get full deal with Patrick and Mike's idiocy on the biathlon. Patrick has just announced that Ella Halvarsson hitting 5/5 and skiing alongside Julia Simon (who missed a target) on lap 2 of a Single Mixed Relay is "possibly the most impressive World Cup debut we've seen since Martina Glagow". Halvarsson is in the same age group as Elvira Öberg and is very much a known quantity - she's been on the IBU Cup for a few years. She could readily still have room for improvement but this isn't Julia Tannheimer finishing 15th on debut at 18 here or Laura Dahlmeier taking Germany to the lead of a World Championships relay at 19, it's coming 5th on the first leg of a Single Mixed Relay at 25.

Edit: it's also, of course, not actually her debut, she raced in Östersund and Oslo in 2022-23.
 
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Karlsson not racing tomorrow? That’s disappointing. In this form and with good skis, she has the ability to break the field apart and ski solo to the finish line.
With her history of sometimes starting the season too hot/health problems (sometimes related to her bodyweight) skipping some races might be a smart idea. She also hasn't won an individual Gold medal yet...
 
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No Karlsson on the start List tomorrow, no yellow Jersey (Joensuu) either. Did anything happen today?
Karlsson did not train enough skating (on snow) following the foot problems so she needs another week to be “race ready” in that technique.

Joensuu crashed with an american waxer during warm-up and hit her knee. Obviously she was able to compete at high level but I suppose is still vise to rest. And to be honest I am not sure she even planned (or qualified) to take part as 20k skating is not her best discipline.
 
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Sørum's last lap in the mixed relay today was absolutely brutal. Made Jacquelin and Ponsiluoma look like average skiers.
The french team had awful skis even if Jaquelin actually might have had better than the other three. Or at least his effort compensated for that the first 2,5 laps before he cracked completely (which tbh is not unusual). Ponsilouma does not seem to be in any shape whatsoever, he was equally bad two weeks ago at the national opening. Let’s see if it’s gets better during the season or if the decline already started. On the other hand Nelin looks better than ever.

Sørum is superfast though, I think he had the fastest ski time in Norwegian opening. But ofc it’s probably related the fact he had to earn his spot while the Bø brothers took it easy. Will be interesting to see how much Johannes inproved over last two weeks. We get to see that tomorrow as Norway uses all 7 male this weekend swapping the trio of today for a new quartet tomorrow.
 
Karlsson did not train enough skating (on snow) following the foot problems so she needs another week to be “race ready” in that technique.

Joensuu crashed with an american waxer during warm-up and hit her knee. Obviously she was able to compete at high level but I suppose is still vise to rest. And to be honest I am not sure she even planned (or qualified) to take part as 20k skating is not her best discipline.
Tell me you're Finnish without saying you're Finnish...
 
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It's disappointing to the viewers, yes, but Karlsson not starting is probably smart.

She got the measure of everyone and did an excellent race already. Whether it's the remnants of her injury or coming in very, very hot form-wise, keeping the eyes on the ball and not risking a way too early peak or making the injury worse is the right call. The idea is to excel at the big races, after all.
 
FIS has prioritised mass starts and sprints in order to hook big mainstream TV audiences specially in central Europe for the last 25 years or so now. How long one organisation exactly needs to realise the chosen route is not working out and a change of direction is required? Its beyond mindboggling really.

Just accept that XC skiing is and will in the forseeable future remain a niche sport and develop it accordingly. Build up a strong loyal fanbase and create a combination of competion formats that support as many different types of skiers having a chance to thrive as possible.
 
Laukli looking very good today; she's in great position as the climbs start to break up.

edit: I don't get the feeling Diggins is on a great day today, though she might jjust be skiing a cagy race. It would have been SO interesting to see what Frida could have done today.
 
Laukli looking very good today; she's in great position as the climbs start to break up.

edit: I don't get the feeling Diggins is on a great day today, though she might jjust be skiing a cagy race. It would have been SO interesting to see what Frida could have done today.
Diggins said after the sprint yesterday that she wasn't in such good form atm. My guess is that that's to do with this being a Nordic Worlds year, last year there were no championships so the season-long goals were the World Cup and the Tour de Ski, both of which she won.

She could still win this or at least podium if she is good enough on the last hill (she's working really hard to catch Johaug and Weng now, but from a group with the likes of Andersson and Laukli she'd have to screw up pretty bad not to win the sprint).

Edit: alright, Sundling is going with her, that changes things in terms of the fight for the win as Diggins will need not only to catch the Norwegians up front (which she's doing a good job of so far) but also try to get rid of Sundling up the hill.

OK, so despite Johaug's efforts on the big climb to the timing marker, Sundling's got them back on. Diggins able to glide longer on the downhill, as usual the American skis working well on the downhill, but she's struggling to stay on the other three on the uphills and having to work hard to get back on time and again.
 
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