The beginning of last winter’s season was ruined by illness. Now, the Swedish cross-country skier Marcus Grate is preparing for the upcoming winter, including racing the 90km roller ski race Klarälvsloppet.

The Swedish national sprint team is at a training camp in Meråker, Norway. One of the skiers is Marcus Grate, who can look back on a difficult season last year. He got sick a few weeks before the competition season was to start, and it took until mid-January before he was ready to compete:

“I think a lot of it is bad luck and coincidence. We have discussed and looked at what I did there and then, but we can’t find anything ‘wrong.’ 

And the form was good when the sickness came. So, I can’t say that there will be any major changes in the setup for next winter. The only thing is to try to be even more careful with washing hands and so on to minimize the risk of getting sick,” says Grate to Langd.se.

How is the training going?

“It feels like I’ve taken a step forward regarding recovery and endurance. I feel that I recover in a better way between intervals than I did in previous years, and we have made a slightly different plan now,” says Grate, who is one of the three Swedish national team skiers who will be on the starting line at the Ski Classics Challengers event Klarälvsloppet’s 90 kilometers on October 1. 

The other two are Calle Halfvarsson and William Poromaa:

“I have never competed such long distance on either roller skis or snow. It will be fun to see what I can do, and it is a flat race. I think it will fit well. The body has responded well to the sessions we have run here, so the goal is to be able to be up there and fight. I’m not just putting myself on the starting line to complete the race, but I want to be there to fight for it.”

What does long-distance skiing provide as ‘training’ for what awaits in the winter?

“It’s good positioning training, so long-distance skiing and sprinting are similar. You must stay cool in certain situations, but at the same time, you have to hit hard when you want to take positions. Long-distance races usually suit sprinters well, so it’s important to ski efficiently and then be ready when the decisive move comes,” says Grate, who, despite all the trouble, made it to the World Championships in Planica last season.

Once there, he was one of two Swedish men in the sprint semifinals (Grate finished twelfth, Calle Halfvarsson made it to the final and finished fifth).

What is your main goal for next season?

“There is no (major) championship this winter, so it will be about trying to get a full season with a high level. Then, some races stand out. The sprints in Östersund and Falun, of course. And then I look forward to getting revenge in the competition on the other side of the Atlantic. I was there at the World Cup competitions that should have been held in 2020, but because of the pandemic, we had to return home before we started competing,” concludes Grate. 

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