Planica World Championships 2023: Krista Pärmäkoski hopes for a miracle

Krista Pärmäkoski was disappointed for a long time after free ten. The ranking was 17 and the difference to the top was 1.15.

In the media interview area, he was already waving the white flag – the game in Planica might be over.

– Let’s hope for a miracle that this will be returned to the next battles, Pärmäkoski commented in an interview with the tax-funded Yleisradio.

Iltalehti asked the woman about the essence of the comment.

– When you’re this tired, competitive skiing usually doesn’t give you much of a boost. But a miracle happened at the World Championships in Oberstdorf: I skied poorly in the free 10, but in the relay I had one of the best performances of that season, Pärmäkoski stated.

In Germany two years ago, the Finn was thirteenth in the intermediate start of the free ten, but as the anchor of the 4×5 kilometer relay, he won bronze for Finland.

The sled turned

Pärmäkoski started the season very fluctuating, until at the Tour de Ski in Oberstdorf there were results according to the athlete’s abilities: two second places.

In Val di Fiemme, before the last two stages of the Tour, a stomach bug struck.

Since then, the Ikaali athlete has not been the same in terms of results.

– It’s been a really good mood since then. I don’t think it has made any difference. Once the tile, it didn’t drain terribly. I was 13 seconds from third place in the Toblach World Cup at the beginning of February, so that’s not bad.

On February 4, the Finn was ninth in the free ten in the boot country. A salon-worthy result, but not what an experienced athlete is looking for at this point in his career.

Got softer

At Tuesday’s event in Slovenia, Pärmäkoski was fifth at the 2.2 km intermediate point, but after that the arrow turned sharply downwards.

What happened?

– Probably nothing. I thought I’d start slowly and for the second round, when we start going up, we’ll start tightening. Then nothing happened.

Pärmäkoski’s breakup with the golden woman to Jessie Diggins it was 1.15

– It’s a big difference, he said.

– It’s a little noticeable that the competition is pressing. It doesn’t feel so fresh to ski, the skier added.

Kuortanelainen was somewhat surprisingly involved in Sunday’s free pair relay.

– I wanted it to ski.

It hardly served Tuesday’s competition?

– I would still ski it, even if the decisions were made again.

Pärmäkoski is the top ten Olympic bronze medalist from five years ago.

– If I think about that day’s race and today’s race, even then I started calmly. In Korea, in the second round, it started to work. I’m not in as good a mood as I was then.

Pärmäkoski’s main trip in Planica is Saturday’s traditional 30 kilometer mass start. For that competition, the Finn is hoping for the miracle mentioned at the beginning of this story.