After officially canceling the World Cup Finals scheduled for Tyumen, Russia on February 25th the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced in a brief press release today (see below) that no replacement venue has been found, and thus the upcoming three-day race weekend in Falun, Sweden will instead absorb the event, ending the season one week prematurely.
No schedule changes have been made to the event in Falun, leaving a classic sprint, a 10/15-kilometer skate, and two new mixed gender events, a relay and a team sprint, left to conclude the 2021/22 race season.
In terms of overall athlete rankings, these mixed events are not World Cup point scoring opportunities. This means a maximum of 300 World Cup points remain on the table following this weekend’s races at the Holmenkollen, assuming the point-schedule planned for the World Cup Finals is applied to the race weekend in Falun: 50 points each for the individual sprint and distance races, plus a maximum of 200 bonus points for the overall winner of the weekend. It has not yet been made clear how the mixed relay and team sprint will factor into determining the overall winner of this year’s World Cup Finals for men and women.
As such, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR) will win the men’s overall World Cup given his margin of greater than 400 points to the next competitor. In the women’s standings, Natalia Nepryaeva (RUS) currently stands 252 points ahead of Jessie Diggins, and 285 points ahead of Ebba Andersson (SWE). As the Russian team has been banned from remaining competitions, Nepryaeva has no further opportunities to increase her point totals, instead waiting for the outcome of the remaining World Cup events to decide her fate.
Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist leads the sprint standings by 155 points over Anamarija Lampic (SLO), while Klæbo leads the men’s standings by 95 points over Richard Jouve of France. While these standings will not change given there is one event remaining worth just 50 points, the distance standings are less certain.
Heading into the 30/50 k races at the Holmenkollen in Oslo, NOR, this weekend, Therese Johaug leads the women’s distance standings by 17 points ahead of Frida Karlsson and 107 points to Andersson, both of Sweden. Alexander Bolshunov (RUS) leads the men’s distance standings by 5 points ahead of Klæbo, who may not compete again this season as he recently tested positive for COVID. Next is Iivo Niskanen of Finland, a favorite for this weekend’s 50 k classic, sitting 84 points back.
World Cup racing resumes tomorrow with the women’s 30 k classic, followed by the men’s 50 k classic on Sunday. Stay tuned for FasterSkier’s coverage of these races.
World Cup Standings as of Friday March 4th
(Press Release) FIS Cross-Country World Cup finals to take place in Falun (SWE)
FIS Cross-Country together with various National Ski Federations evaluated a possible replacement of the cancelled World Cup event of Tyumen (RUS). Despite big efforts and interest of various National Ski Federations, no replacement for the World Cup final events was found.
This means that the scheduled World Cup event in Falun (SWE) from 11th to 13th March 2022 will be the final events of the FIS Cross-Country season 2021/22. The schedule will not be adjusted and follow the originally planned competition formats.
Click here for the Falun World Cup weekend schedule.
Rachel Perkins
Rachel is an endurance sport enthusiast based in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado. You can find her cruising around on skinny skis, running in the mountains with her pup, or chasing her toddler (born Oct. 2018). Instagram: @bachrunner4646
