Not everyone can understand why international sports competition has been allowed to continue amidst rising Corona infection, but ski season is well underway with cross-country World Cup events starting on Friday. Most skiers arriving in Kuusamo, Finland were aware that the season can end at any time.
“We were prepared for the worst (cancellation),” skiing star Therese Johaug told state broadcaster NRK, not least after national team coach Eirik Myhr Nossum tested positive but then negative on a new test. That allowed all team members to emerge from isolation and train on the trails before racing started Friday.
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo was fastest among the men during an opening 1.4 kilometer prologue. Heidi Weng didn’t do as well, claiming her “head wasn’t functioning in a woman’s sprint even though she’d been among Norway’s strongest cards.
All the athletes are under strict infection prevention regulations. Conditions were chaotic, meanwhile, for the biathlon skiers at their events in Kontiolahti, after infection was confirmed among five national teams including Russia’s.
newsinenglish.no staff
