21Mar 2020 by DS News Team
Top Swedish Skiers Hold Impromptu Races

Top Swedish Skiers Hold Impromptu Races

Newsfeed
Ebba Andersson, Linn Svahn plus friends & associates, 56 people in all, held in impromptu race on Östersund on Friday, the local Östersunds Posten reports. And there was nothing illegal with that. It's difficult for the most Europeans and a large portion of the North Americans to imagine , but Sweden is not on a lockdown, not yet at least: restaurants are open and so are ski resorts ,for instance. Only very large gatherings are banned, and, since March 12 , that includes organized ski races. Nobody said a word about " non-organized" ones, however. Ebba Andersson won that one - as you probably figured out.
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20Mar 2020 by DS News Team
Crisis Starts Hitting Elite Skiing?

Crisis Starts Hitting Elite Skiing?

Newsfeed
Sorry to be a harbinger of bad news, but the next international season in cross country skiing is going to suck for many a team. Good news: the season shall happen. Those resourceful Chinese have shown how to beat the nasty virus - and how long it takes. By the next November the world should be largely COVID-19 free or, at least,with a disease under control. The problem is, while it's still out, raging , the world top economies are suffering, badly. To put it bluntly, in the next few months both governments and private sponsors would have more pressing needs than sponsoring cross country skiing extravaganzas in the Alps. Proper pro-teams need millions of euros per season to function and to win medals. The first sign that happy-go-lucky days…
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19Mar 2020 by DS News Team
Coronavirus: How’s Your Business Affected?

Coronavirus: How’s Your Business Affected?

Money & Finance, Newsfeed
"How's Your Business Affected?" - that's the question we put to people directly involved in making things tick in the cross country skiing sector: gear manufacturers, retailers and coaches. The caveat that needs to be applied: different countries are on different stages of being hit be the coronavirus. This, alas, is not a subject that will go away any time soon so we shall update with reaction from the other captains of the industry when we hear from them. [caption id="attachment_15236" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Aki Tuovinen, country manager for Swix/Toko, Finland"At the moment in Finland it's still quite OK. In Lapland and Vuokatti regions are actually really well, since many ski enthusiasts went there for "remote working". But it strongly seems that within the week all shops (except grocery shops) will…
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18Mar 2020 by DS News Team
Podium Skis – Why?

Podium Skis – Why?

Newsfeed
On the photo above you see what happens when a sponsor's rep got stuck on his/ her way. Emma Ribom, fresh from grabbing a U23 world championships' gold medal, is posing to photographers ...with actual skis on which she won minutes ago! Stands out quite a bit - especially as Johanna Hagstroem and Julia Kern hold de rigueur " podium skis" from their respective sponsors. We get the idea behind podium skis in principle: a sponsored athlete is a walking (skiing) advertisement but the only time photographers and television cameras are guaranteed to capture one' gear is a victory ceremony, both formal and informal kind. And no part of the FIS long rulebook says it should be the actual pair. Athletes themselves might prefer to hold clean podium skis instead…
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17Mar 2020 by DS News Team
Petter Northug Got Stuck In Russia Indefinitely. Or Not

Petter Northug Got Stuck In Russia Indefinitely. Or Not

Leaders, Newsfeed
Dagbladet reports that Petter Northug has got stuck in Moscow without means of coming back home as air travel between two countries has been shut down. Coronavirus-situation moves fast, faster even than the Norwegian double Olympic champion ever did. When Northug went to Moscow last week to star in the Legkov Race, the planes were still flying and rhe trains were still chugging along. Now it's all shut down except for a very few remaining flights from the Russian capital to places like Berlin or Paris...but those tend to put all the arrivals on quarantine the lenght/ severity of which varies. Or not to accept third country citizens at all. The situation (that is, if you are not following and we reckon you do) is very dynamic and is changing…
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