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

Kalle Rovanperä - a rally driver

Rally is a motor sport, where Finland used to be the greatest power since 1960´s. The world championship in rallying started in 1977, and until year 2002 the winner came from Finland a total of 14 times. The rest of the world only had 12 champions.

Thereafter a change was made in the rules, and the winners of single competitions were rewarded with less points that previously. That was poisonous for Finnish rally drivers, who had always taken more risks than others to keep a superior speed, and since 2002 no one from Finland has won the world championship, but French drivers have dominated the rally trails. 

One of the drivers of that period was Harri Rovanperä, who managed to win a single rally - in Sweden - but was at his best "only" fifth in the total competition. But he had a son, who was going to make history in motor sports. 

Today this son - Kalle Rovanperä - has won his fifth rally out of seven competitions driven this year. Right now it looks that he is simply too good to be beaten, as he seems to win single rallies by "driving avoiding all risks", as he said yesterday after winning one of the special stages. 

As the younger Rovanperä is only 21 years old, he could rule rallying for the next decade or so - thus challenging the achievement of the the nine time world champion Sébastien Loeb. But even without that, he will return the glory of Finnish motor sports and thus continue the tradition of the "Flying Finns" in rally trails. 

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
A stupid thief and vandalizing celebrators

A stupid thief and vandalizing celebrators

Vantaa is a more than 200 000 inhabitant town in Finland. Few days ago its Lutheran congregation faced a loss as someone had stolen a copper-made decoration of its chapel next to a medieval stone church. The stolen materials weighed 950 kg and were worth of at least 100 000 euros. 

Today we heard that the stolen property was found and brought back to the chapel. In addition, police had arrested a suspected thief. The official authority have not revealed details except that the arrested person is not a citizen of Finland. 

During recent years it has been a common practice in Finland to steal copper parts from buildings, often by Romanian citizens. Therefore it would have been weird - or stupid - if the area of the chapel with its 100 000 euros decoration would not have been under a camera surveillance.

The congregation, however, seems not to have been stupid, as police caught a criminal in just few days. Therefore, we should look for the thief, and conclude that his head seems not to have been filled with very brilliant brains. In contrast, he can be considered as type example of an idiot conducting crimes.

* * *

Also another interestingly stupid case happened during last weekend as Finland won the world championship in ice hockey by beating Canada in a thrilling final. That led to massive celebrations in the big towns. 

One would think that after such an occasion people would be happy and full of joy. However, it turned out that a considerable number of celebrators had weird ways of showing their happiness.

In the capitol of the country - Helsinki - some of the people climbed on the roof of a historically valuable building of the restaurant Kappeli, which had just been opened after renovation. As a result of their "joyful celebration", terrace furniture was broken and various wires were torn out of place. Also the roof itself was damaged.

Along the same lines, tens of ice hockey fans climbed on two pavilions under construction in the former capitol of Finland - Turku -  causing damage to at least one building. As a result, the city has asked police to investigate whether the fans were guilty of a crime.

If the copper thief from abroad was not among the most brainy persons, the same can be said about the people climbing on buildings and causing damage. And these people were almost certainly Finnish citizens. 

The question is the following. Why some idiots want to express themselves even in the most joyful moments of the nation? And why there always have to be those, whose destiny is to spoil otherwise memorable historical events?

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Demonstration of one´s own stupidity is a sign of western values
Current status of mankind and its culture