Cross-country skiing : Frida Karlsson demonstrates in Ruka
The 2024/2025 cross-country skiing world cup kicked off in the darkness of Ruka (Finland) on Friday. On the programme was a 10-kilometre individual classic in which the women cross-country skiers were the first to set off in falling snow that made for difficult conditions.
And there was no photo op in this inaugural race. Indeed, Frida Karlsson apparently had no intention of sharing the cake on this occasion. The Swede started very strongly and never let up. The Scandinavian was in complete control on the demanding Kuusamo track and went on to win by a colossal margin.
Winning by a margin of more than 46 seconds over the returning Therese Johaug, already on the podium on her first start on the circuit after a two-year absence, the 25-year-old cross-country skier has already made an impression. It was her eleventh individual World Cup victory just a few weeks after returning from a foot injury.
Behind her, Therese Johaug was no match for her Swedish rival. However, the Norwegian was well on the pace. In the end, the multi-world medallist was beaten evenly, but she still climbed to her one hundred and fiftieth individual podium among the elite.
There was also a great battle for the last available step on the box. In a breathless final, Astrid Oeyre Slind managed to get the better of Germany’s Katharina Hennig by just one second and four tenths. This was the Norwegian’ s third career top 3 on the World Cup.
Last year’s brilliant winner of the crystal globe, Jessie Diggins, who will relinquish her yellow leader’s bib to Frida Karlsson, had to settle for seventh place, nearly a minute and fifteen seconds behind the winner.
Les Bleues follow each other in the rankings
Three of the four French riders finished in the day’s top 40. The best of them was Mélissa Gal, thirty-third when she crossed the line, just over 13 seconds behind the thirtieth position held by Italy’s Caterina Ganz.
Flora Dolci followed close behind in thirty-seventh place, just three minutes behind Frida Karlsson. Delphine Claudel from the Vosges was thirty-ninth, while Juliette Ducordeau rounded off the French team in fifty-first place.
The full ranking
The distance ranking
The overall ranking
Read also
- This winter, Ebba Andersson will not be aiming for the crystal globe
- Live data: follow the Ruka World Cup individual classics live | Women’s race at 10.00 am, men’s race at 12.40 pm
- Before their first World Cup meeting, Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo was impressed by Hugo Lapalus
- “We have to look for performance and be obsessed by it”: Les Bleus launch their season this Friday in Ruka
- The full programme for the Ruka World Cup, the first stage of the winter season for cross-country skiers and combined skiers
- Ruka: Fifteen-strong France on the opening day of the World Cup
