Women’s 30 km cross-country skiing is not an event in which one would expect a sprint finish. This grueling snowy marathon event extends athletes to their very limits, as they push themselves around three laps each of two courses—one, a five-kilometer hill-climbing course, the other an undulating five-kilometer mixed course.
Saturday’s conditions made everything much harder: with rain falling all night and all through the event, the course was slow and slushy, robbing the skiers of energy, while the skiers themselves were soaked to the bone just a few minutes into the race. Freezing, dripping, panting, the skiers dragged themselves up hill and tried to glide down, fighting fatigue, frigid weather, and a field of the toughest competitors on the planet.
Saturday’s conditions made everything much harder: with rain falling all night and all through the event, the course was slow and slushy, robbing the skiers of energy, while the skiers themselves were soaked to the bone just a few minutes into the race. Freezing, dripping, panting, the skiers dragged themselves up hill and tried to glide down, fighting fatigue, frigid weather, and a field of the toughest competitors on the planet.
