Is the world´s best skier in classical technique, Iivo Niskanen, going to recover from COVID-19

Cross-Country skiing is nationally the most important winter sports of Finland, and has been responsible of the lions share of all Olympic medals in the sports history of my home country. However, during the last two decades the success has not been much worth mentioning except for one skier. 

That one is Iivo Niskanen, who - during the last decade - has been the clearly the world´s best long distance skier in classical technique. He won the World Youth Championship (under 23 years) in 2014 and at the same year earned a gold medal in the team spring (with classical technique) in Olympics. Thereafter he has been the best in the classical competitions of the World Championships of 2017 (15 km) and Olympics of 2018 (15 km) and 2022 (50 km). Only in World Championships of 2019 he was the second (15 km) in the classical race. 

As my reader understands, such a dominant sports figures are rare in countries with only 5,5 million people. And therefore Finns are extremely interested in their hero, who - however - had a COVID-19 infection several weeks ago. And has thereafter not competed on skiing tracks, not in national or international competitions.

In this winter the main competitions in cross country skiing are Tour de Ski starting in a week and World Championships in Slovenia (Planica) in late February. Tour in this year is exceptional, because four out of its seven competitions are going to be raced with classical technique. And therefore Niskanen would have excellent chances to win the whole tour. 

Therefore the most important sports  question right now in Finland is whether Niskanen has recovered from his COVID-19 well enough to compete in Tour. He has been selected into the Finnish Team by the head coach of the Cross Country Team, who, however, said that Niskanen decides himself whether he competes or not. 

Knowing Niskanen´s mind, he will not be racing unless he considers he has true chance for success. But as we know, recovering from COVID-19 may take weeks or even months.

So, if Niskanen will not participate Tour, it is not possible to avoid speculations about his recovery towards the World Championships, where 50 km with classical technique would be waiting to be dominated by the Finnish star. And all sports fans in Finland expect him - if in his best shape - to win the competition by a clear difference to other competitors. 

And even worse. Niskanen is the only - or at least the best - hope of Finland to have a winner in the World Championships, where Norwegians are expected to dominate all other male competitions. That was demonstrated e.g. last weekend in Davos, when they had a total of six best skiers followed by a German. 

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Kalle Rovanperä - a rally driver
A stupid thief and vandalizing celebrators