Peter Northug, that is.
Much has been said about, and, above all, to him, but that’s only to find that he is the modern ski racing king.
After four gold in Falun Northug 15 Olympic and World Championship gold medals in total. But only one of them – at the World Cup two years ago at 15 kilometers – he has taken in a race with individual start. The mass starts which is Northugs melody. The fight man to man. The tactical maneuvering when everything is settled. There he has no superior in skiing history.
When the snow fell profusely and tracks turned into whipped cream was paved for Northug. He saw many times out losing contact with the lead, but gained just the position he was looking for when the athletes entered the stadium. A wild animal hunting. First change was Johan Olsson. Then he played with Lukas Bauer and Maxim Vylegsjanin before he “ate up” them at the finish.
So simple, smart and impressive.
I think and that a femmil be decided by individual start. Like when the clock is ticking against each lap and riders must make their own race, but when the ski sport is that it must skiers adapt to it.
It has Northug undeniably done.
VM became a personal revenge for the standard man who was without a medal in the Olympics last year and a few months later drove drunk and crashed the car.
Many counted him out then, but instead became a scandal, a personal awakening that gave birth to an inner hunger he was going to lose in lost drive.
Falun became the target. World Cup in Sweden. The country that triggers him most of all. There he would show everyone who’s the best.
Northugs contrast in both ski trails and in terms of discipline is Johan Olsson. I wished him the perfect ending, but in the snowstorm disappeared all possibilities for a replay of the feat race in the World Cup two years ago.
He tried, but every secession was doomed to failure when the situation just got worse and worse, almost parodic in the end.
The bronze was not what Olsson were aiming for, but thanks to the medal Sweden did their best World Cup ever with nine medals in total, including two gold: Charlotte Kalla of 10 and Johan Olsson at 15 km .
Olsson handedly saved the Swedish gentlemen in Falun and will leave a large void behind him when he ends the national team.
In addition to the Swedish guilders, and Northugs closest crazy times when he switches pace, is the festival that I take with me the most here. It has been a fantastic atmosphere each day of competition, despite the gråmulna weather.
Norway won as expected the medals table by far with 20 medals, of which eleven gold. The Norwegian dominance worry even Norwegians when interest in cross-country decreases sharply in several countries where the market is important, as Germany and Austria.
Cross-country Skiing has the feel of match between Norway and Sweden have been very striking. It’s only Russian Maxin Vylegsjanin (country pursuit) who managed to break the Swedish Norwegian gold gathering.
In addition to the races and festival in the woods and at the medal dividends, we have the most talked about salt in the grooves, the invisible Falun mountains and the notation as local residents in Falun should pay for ski party through their taxes going forward, after the renovation of the ski jumps of about 165 million.
But who will now use the super-modern ski jumps?
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