26Oct 2019 by DS News Team
Finnish Riddle

Finnish Riddle

Money & Finance, Newsfeed
World-class athletes running in the races broadcast on the national television with massive ratings and ever increasing interest from sponsors.... Sounds like an ideal Nordic skiing competition? Well, not so fast. Painstakingly, year after year, the Finnish Ski Association, working togeher with the country's national public broadcaster YLE, built a seemingly very local event, the Finnish Cup , into a television blockbuster , watched on TV by over half a million Finns. That's more than 10% of all adult population - massive ratings for cross country skiing! However, with the first stage of the Cup less than three weeks away, it's still totally unclear whether the popular event will be shown this year, Ilta-Sanomat reports A bone of contention is television rights. The Finnish Ski Association sold those rights to…
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25Oct 2019 by DS News Team
Review: Best Ski Poles Right Now, Part 1

Review: Best Ski Poles Right Now, Part 1

Gear News, Newsfeed
A few words before we start: All poles in our review are top-of-the-crop from their respective producers, all are made of 100 % Ultra High Modulus Carbon Fiber - and all are World Cup quality ( the fact that reflected in many a model's name) We don't differentiate among Classic and Skating poles - we simply see no reason as models only differ in size, not in construction. Some skiers in our photos have changed poles' sponsors since but all the sticks pictured are still produced & sold. Except for one model that we have doubts about - of which more later. As with the skis, there are two distinct categories: poles used by many a top skier - and those used by only a few or even one WC-class…
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25Oct 2019 by DS News Team
Norwegian Ski Federation Membership Is Declining Steadily

Norwegian Ski Federation Membership Is Declining Steadily

Money & Finance, Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport
17% down. That's by how much the membership in the Norwegian Ski Federation declined from 2012 to 2018, according to NTB news agency via Nettavisen In 2012, there were 178,091 members, while in 2018 the number dropped by over 30,000 to 147,789. The silver lining is in the fact that the ski association is still the second largest in the country behind the Norwegian Football Association (that keeps on adding members) The Norwegian skiing is known for its well developed, robust ski club network- all of which are paying fees to Ski Forbundet, relative to the amount of its members. Clearly, a reduction in membership would lead to that revenue stream drying up quite a bit. With TV audience figures for the langrenn still high, there is no need to…
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24Oct 2019 by DS News Team
1100 Hours Man Iivo Niskanen

1100 Hours Man Iivo Niskanen

Leaders, Newsfeed
1100 hours in preparation for the season 2019/2020! That's how many hours of training Iivo Niskanen bagged, according to Iltalehti newspaper . No wonder the Finnish Red Bull looked so tired the last time our camera lense caught him -that was at the Blink Skifest in August. Even some teammates , according to Iltalehti, call that amount " masochistic ". Martin Sundby had reportedly done even more, around 1200 hours training a couple of seasons ago - be he has gone down to under 1000 hours recently, by his own admission.
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22Oct 2019 by DS News Team
Review: Best Ski Boots For Classic Right Now, Part 2: Madshus, Rossignol, Salomon. Plus Alfa And Spine

Review: Best Ski Boots For Classic Right Now, Part 2: Madshus, Rossignol, Salomon. Plus Alfa And Spine

Gear News, Newsfeed
This is a continuation of the story. If you want to read about Atomic, Alpina and Fischer offerings as of this autumn, go here A few additional things to mull over: - Some (not all) ski bootmakers say that designing and producing true racing Classic boots is actually more difficult than the ones for Skating. Due to conflicting characteristics the sole should posses: rigid in some parts, flexible in others. - Top market for Classic boots is Scandinavia & Finland. Warmth is more of an issue in long-distance Classic races Norwegians, Swedes and Finns are so fond of. [caption id="attachment_13221" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Madshus Super Nano Classic are venerable product that is still being used by the world's best ( cue Krista Parmakoski) . Pros: cheapest carbon classic boots on the…
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