Finland, Norway Start Closing Borders Again. Will There Be Season?

Finland, Norway Start Closing Borders Again. Will There Be Season?

Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport
This week on Wednesday Norway announced that it's tightening cross-border admissions policy - again... ...Two days earlier Finland went even further, bringing back travel restrictions in the form of quarantine for several countries , including Germany and, ironically, Norway. The COVID-19 is officially back to Europe. Not that it ever got open this year to either the North American or Russian skiers who traditionally train in Europe, at least part time. To remind you,the first stage of the FIS World Cup is supposed to be held in Ruka, Finland in three months with Lillehammer, Norway to follow. So, back to question we put in headline: will there be the international race season in cross country skiing? Nobody would tell for sure, but if you asks us the prospects for a…
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Six Months To Go To Oberstdorf 2021 World Championships

Six Months To Go To Oberstdorf 2021 World Championships

Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport
"Es wird keine Geister-WM geben!"/"There will be no ghost World Championships! " That was a reaction by the organizers when they were recently asked whether holding the event without spectators as a worst-case scenario is under consideration. Just to remind you, the FIS World Ski Championships 2021 in Oberstdorf is scheduled to take place from February 23 to March 7, 2021. [caption id="attachment_16734" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alexander Bolshunov is one of those who is expected to star on international stage in the upcoming season - one hopes there would be a stage to star on...[/caption] And it looks like the organizers are sparing no expense trying to make it disease-safe. The leading German hygiene & epidemiological research labs are tasked with developing and implementing elaborate COVID-stop procedures that will be tested…
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Silje,  Vilde And Their 50k/day Rollerski Vacation Across Denmark

Silje, Vilde And Their 50k/day Rollerski Vacation Across Denmark

Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport, Trivia
" Just living is not enough, says the butterfly in the short Hans Christian Andersen's tale , one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” Meet Silje Vasvåg and Vilde Hammernes Pedersen, two urbanite millennials from Oslo who decided to experience Denmark in a very unusual way. " Vilde and I had worked together for some time, and went skiing on our time off at the season opening at Beitostølen. We found out that we loved to work out together, and so we decided to do a training camp upcoming summer. But it had to be something with skiing. Therefore we decided on visiting a country on rollerskis. From there we started to think about how we could make it a bit more complicated...." And complicated they did: "…
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Blinkfestivalen 2020: Out Of City Center, No Spectators And No Foreign Athletes.  But With Lysebotn Uphill And Norwegian Stars

Blinkfestivalen 2020: Out Of City Center, No Spectators And No Foreign Athletes. But With Lysebotn Uphill And Norwegian Stars

Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport
Blinkfestivalen, one of the world's best organized, best funded and best attended xcski/biathlon events will be held this August but out of town and with massively altered program. With large crowds banned, the competition is now mostly held for the sake of television broadcast. A long time must-have for the national broadcaster NRK, Blink is coming to the rest of Europe this year for the first via EBU (but biathlon races only - the European Broadcastng Union is interested in promoting biathlon, doesn't care about xcskiing) The venue of the Blink events is now Sandnes Arena. Which is not a bad thing at all, neither from athletes point of view, nor television viewers'. The newly built 4.2k facility with a full-size shooting range might be the best rollerski track stadium…
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Skier And  Skin Impurities . Candid Talk About Long Battle, Won

Skier And Skin Impurities . Candid Talk About Long Battle, Won

Leaders, Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport
Anna Zherebyateva is a trailblazer. She opted to speak about things others don't. In that conservative world of cross country skiing you often enough hear athletes talking about that last race final climb or ski glide or any such subjects. Which is probably of interest to some audience - no need to be dismissive about that. However, the skiing is a part of the larger world. And in that larger world the XXI century gave rise to influencers. It ain't easy to be one if you are a skier. Pro-influencers can concentrate on the their looks - athletes are also expected to train hard. Wind, cold, constant change of climate and diet - welcome to the world of pro-skier! You are constantly in focus of video and photo cameras. Which…
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