Falun World Cup – Women’s 10km Classic – Preview

On Friday, March 17, 2023, the women’s 10km classic-style event will take place in Falun, Sweden. 

Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson, both Swedish cross-country skiers, have won the most individual World Cup events this season, each winning two classic style distance events, but are not starting at any races this weekend in Falun.

Kerttu Niskanen currently leads the overall distance standings this World Cup season with 970 points, followed closely by Jessica Diggins with 963 points. Niskanen hopes to become the first Finnish woman to win an individual crystal globe since Virpi Kuitunen won the distance and overall World Cups in 2007/08. Her brother Iivo Niskanen won the men’s distance crystal globe last season. Niskanen has recorded 11 of her 13 podium finishes in World Cup distance events in the classic style, with the exceptions being third places in the skiathlon at the World Cup Final in Falun on March 15, 2014, and in the 9km pursuit in the Tour de Ski in Val di Fiemme in January 2017.

Other notable contenders in the event include Tiril Udnes Weng, who finished in the top 10 in all six classic style individual distance events she participated in at the 2022/23 World Cup. She won the 10km pursuit classic style in Val Müstair on January 1 during the Tour de Ski. Jessica Diggins is still in contention to win both the overall and distance crystal globes this season, having won both trophies in 2020/21. Rosie Brennan is fourth in the overall distance standings this World Cup season, despite only finishing on the podium once. 

Heidi Weng has claimed 10 individual podium finishes in Falun but has never won there. With 105 podium finishes in individual World Cup events, she has the fourth-most podium finishes for a woman behind Marit Bjørgen (186), Therese Johaug (149), and Justyna Kowalczyk (106). 

Women representing the United States have never finished higher than third place in a World Cup distance event in the classic style, with Diggins being the last to claim a podium finish by coming third in the 10km pursuit classic style in Toblach on January 6, 2021, during the Tour de Ski. Diggins is also the only non-Swedish woman to have multiple wins in individual distance World Cup events this season. 

Lastly, Ragnhild Gløersen Haga won the most recent individual women’s distance World Cup event, the inaugural edition of the 50 km freestyle in Oslo on March 12, 2023, her first individual World Cup podium spot since the 10km pursuit freestyle in Falun on March 18, 2018, where she placed second.

Friday, March 17: 10km Individual Classic (Find more details here)

• 12:00 CET: 10km Individual C, Women
• 13:45 CET: 10km Individual C, Men 

START LIST WOMEN

See below the complete program with facts, start lists, and results for the World Cup in Falun.

FACTS Falun World Cup Season 2022/2023

• When: Friday, March 17, to Sunday, March 19
• Who: Elite national skiers
• Where: Falun, Sweden
• What: FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Falun, Sweden

PROGRAM

Friday, March 17: 10km Individual Classic (Find more details here)

• 12:00 CET: 10km Individual C, Women
• 13:45 CET: 10km Individual C, Men 

Saturday, March 18: Sprint Freestyle (Find more details here)

• 10:50 CET: Sprint Quali F, Men
• 10:50 CET: Sprint Quali F, Women 
• 13:20 CET: Sprint Final F, Men
• 13:20 CET: Sprint Final F, Women

Sunday, March 19: 4x5km Mixed Relay C/F (Find more details here)

• 11:15 CET: 4x5km Relay C/F, Mixed Team 

New this season is the same race distances for women and men in all World Cup events, as the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) decided in May. Several other changes have also been introduced to the World Cup.

Read More: Cross-Country Skiing Changes And World Cup Calendar For The 2022/2023 Season

Also Read: New Distances At The Cross-Country Skiing World Cup