Cross-country skiing: Flora Dolci finishes the World Championships with a top 10 finish
In the pouring rain of Trondheim (Norway) on Sunday, Flora Dolci took a superb ninth place in the 50 kilometre skate to close the world cross-country skiing championships. A solid performance from the Frenchwoman, who made up for lost time after a successful ski change.
For Nordic Magazine, the 25-year-old cross-country skier looks back at this historic race, contested on a track that was churned up and difficult to walk on.
- First, give us your first impressions of this Dantesque day…
It was indeed a crazy race. The conditions were really the worst you could imagine. Yesterday, we were watching the boys and I think all the girls were hoping it wouldn’t be the same thing. And it wasn’t [Laughs]! It was exactly the same, if not worse.
- How do we manage this highly mixed snow?
The track quickly broke underfoot. It started off strong, but that’s what I suspected. In fact, the problem was that it was really hard to ski in that snow. And for many, it’s a technique they have to find. And frankly, the girls in front who can hold a height like that in snow like that is technically impressive.
- You also skied a lot with Nadja Kaelin from Switzerland. How did you get on?
So at the beginning, I had a lot of trouble understanding how it worked to ski in this mixed snow. So we formed small groups. I ended up with Nadja [Kaelin, editor’s note]. And quite quickly, we agreed to do the race together and to have common strategies for changing skis and so on.
“The ski change is my victory of the day”.Flora Dolci at Nordic Magazine
- You made up some valuable places after the ski change. Was this deliberate?
I have to admit that changing skis was my victory of the day. Thanks to the help of the coaches and the advice they gave us at the side of the piste, we only changed skis on the fourth lap when everyone else had done it on the third. It paid off because after that, we fell a bit behind. So when they changed, we came back on them a bit.
Before, we used to take back a little time, but very timidly. After changing, we started to make up time a bit more quickly. The crazy thing is that we managed to catch up with quite a few girls. It was great and it put us back in the top 10. It was a hell of a race. I have to admit that a fortnight ago, I wasn’t expecting this at all. I was prepared for a lot of things, but not for this. But it’s a great experience.
- Are you happy to have taken part in this historic day?
It’s the first women’s 50 km in history. I’d already lined up for the Oslo race and, frankly, it’s quite something to be doing this for the first time. There were no retirements today, so that’s great because the conditions were really terrible. At one point, they told us we’d be racing for 3 hours. Given the pace we were going, there were times when we couldn’t even skate. You had to push and that was really something. But I’m really happy and I’d like to thank all the staff. It was a really great job over 15 days. Tonight, I’m grateful and happy to bring these world championships to a close.
Read also
- Trondheim: Frida Karlsson becomes world 50 km skateboard champion in dreadful conditions, Flora Dolci finishes in an excellent top 10
- “We’ll remember this for the rest of our lives”: in front of more than 100,000 people, Hugo Lapalus, Jules Lapierre and Victor Lovera competed in the legendary 50 km of the World Championships.
- Trondheim: Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo wins an historic sixth gold medal in the 50km skate, Hugo Lapalus tops the French rankings
- Trondheim: Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo makes history by completing the grand slam at the World Championships
