For years now Olos/Muonio has had a reputation of being the first true international meet-up of the new competition season.
The results may or may not reflect the actual strength of a particular athlete,depending on her/ his strategy.
But what is constant, is the fact that we all get to see athletes who changed their gear supplier in the summer to podium walk their new wares for the first time.
Biggest news, of course, is Iivo Niskanen switching from Rossignol to Fischer. It is becoming exceedingly rare in our days to see a skier of his caliber & titles to do the swap. Yet a double Olympic and a world champion has taken that plunge…It would appear that the Austrian skis ( and boots of course – it has to be both nowadys) fit a 27 year old Finn well: two races – two convincing victoriesKerttu Niskanen has followed her brother (or the other way around) and also has made a switch to FischerRossignol, in turn, has signed a U23 champion Anna Zherebyateva. Who also happens to be a partner of the French company’s current top star, Alex BolshunovFinland is unique in the skiing world in a sense that it has its own ” ski gear ecosystem”: Finnish equipment makers are rarely willing to sponsor on the World Cup level, but inside the country it’s a different story. These Yoko skis, poles and boots are put on display by Anita Kirvisniemi. And yes, she a daughter of Harri Kirvisniemi who owns the factory producing them skis.Another rare piece of gear : Rex R1 poles
…we also saw new interesting boots but we shall put out a separate story on them after we chatted to their (happy) owner. Stand by.
