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Back in 2021-2022, Slovenia’s Annamarija Lampic won the Sprint World Cup while having stepped onto a World Cup Sprint podium only three times that season (2 x third, 1 x second). No victories on the season, but Lampic claimed the Crystal Globe. It was a career-defining achievement, but one that continues to be listed with a bit of an asterisk denoting a season without a World Cup win. We’ve become so accustomed to World Cup champions dominating their events that we can find ourselves with jaded views of someone who claims a championship without appearing consistently at the top of the podium. That’s the situation in which Jasmi Joensuu (FIN) finds herself.
We cant blame Joensuu for racing the way he does—full speed, full gas, at the front, making everyone else pay dearly if they want to beat her. Joensuu doesn’t often win her heats—and she is yet to claim a World Cup Sprint victory—but she is amazingly consistent in being able to advance to semifinals and finals, so often, in fact, that Joensuu claimed the World Cup Sprint Crystal Globe a few days ago in Talinn, Estonia even in advance of this double-points Sprint finale in Lahti. On the men’s side of World Cup competitions, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) is a truly dominant sprinter, but not even he had claimed the season’s top Sprint prize so quickly.
Whatever Joensuu is doing, it’s definitely working. It’s just that we find ourselves wishing she’d do it differently. But the Sprint course in front of her her home crowd in Lahti was not the place to experiment. Ultimately, Joensuu would not get her victory in Lahti, either, as the win was earned by the fast skis an exemplary tactics of Germany’s Coletta Rydzek. Rydzek was joined on the podium by a disappointed Kristine Stavaas Skistad, and the always-fast Nadine Faehndrich (SUI).
Women’s Freestyle Sprint
Conditions had been described as “variable” in Lahti, with the possibility that the steep course could become icy as the sun went down. Kern and Smith found themselves eliminated in the third quarterfinal, where Victoria Carl (GER) and Maja Dahlqvist (SWE) maneuvered easily into qualifying positions in a slower, more tactical heat.
Diggins headlined the fifth quarterfinal, but was eliminated behind Johanna Hagstroem (SWE) and Coletta Rydzek (GER).
In the Sprint semifinal, finally Joensuu eased up. Skistad had gone out fast, presumably hoping to control the race and clog the front against the always-go tactics of Joensuu. but this time it Joensuu did not take the bait. Both stood straight up at the top of a mid-course hill, waiting for someone else to set the pace. It looked like a whole new Jasmi Joensuu . . . though in the end, it seemed evident that the reason Joensuu doesn’t attempt to ski tactically is because that’s just not the way she’s likely to excel. Others showed greater abilities to accelerate, and Joensuu even stumbled briefly in the homestretch. She would finish the heat out of contention in fourth, well behind Skistad and Mathilde Myhrvold (NOR). Joensuu would finish her season without a Sprint win, but she would go home with the Sprint Crystal Globe held gingerly and dearly in her grasp.
Women’s Sprint Final
Skistad remained consistent in her tactics, driving quickly to the front and standing up at the top of the first hill. The field wandered along fo a while at a medium pace with Skistad still controlling the front. Skistad led lackadaisically around the hairpin turn midway up the final uphill, then she hit the gas, accelerating away from the the field with the finishing downhill in sight. But it was the fast skis and tactical brilliance of Rydzek that blazed down the finishing straightaway for the win. Skistad was forced to settle for second ahead of Faehndrich in third.
“Unbelievable, really,” said Rydzek. “It’s hard to describe. I didn’t think I ever can achieve this!”
Women’s Freestyle Sprint RESULTS
Women’s Freestyle Sprint QUALIFYING
John Teaford
John Teaford—the Managing Editor of FasterSkier — has been the coach of Olympians, World Champions, and World Record Holders in six sports: Nordic skiing, speedskating, road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking, triathlon. In his long career as a writer/filmmaker, he spent many seasons as Director of Warren Miller’s annual feature film, and Producer of adventure documentary films for Discovery, ESPN, Disney, National Geographic, and NBC Sports.
