Markus Cramer Reveals What He Really Thinks

Markus Cramer is not only one of the world’s best xcski coaches of this century. He’s also very open and direct in expressing his opinions without being brusque.

Here are some of his views on recent developments in international competitions and more talked-about events of the last season, derived from several conversations in the recent months:

And dont miss for Part 2 where Markus talks about what he learned by working with the Russians….

Alpe Cermis as a mass start? – I am NOT happy with that idea. In at least two of the last three TdS series that final race was very interesting – in men’s program at least. Now it will be messy fighting in tight curves on ascent.

Bad: FIS refused to introduce firm rules against raising poles high in sprint. That really should be banned. Belorukova was in top shape in Canada when Frida hit her – twice. I’m not justifying Yulia’s reaction but Yulia was accelerating at that point and could have won that race

Still think Johannes was in the wrong in his behavior on the distance in Seefeld individual sprint, 100% sure of that. It’s not just my opinion – many other coaches said the same at the time.

Great: Mixed relay is long due, clearly will give a chance to the ” smaller ski nations” – and some bigger ones too. 4 x 7.5 km Mixed would be even better than 4 X 5km. And it should not stop there. We had and still have very interesting relay formats in German skiing that add to fun watching the race
Ski Supersprint is a separate sport. One has to prepare for it very differently. Some exceptionally talented skiers might be able to – as an exception, but for the rest I do not see how they could combine Supersprint and more traditional competitions and win in both
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