Cross-country skiing in crisis: what are the problems?

The only medal was won by Federico Pellegrino, with whom Nöckler once celebrated his greatest successes in team sprints. “Pellegrino was really strong and deserved this silver medal. He was unlucky a few times in the World Cup this winter. In China there was this slow snow that he feels comfortable on. “He was also very strong in the relay,” said Nöckler, praising his former team sprint partner. Nöckler expected that there would be no success otherwise. “De Fabiani did a good race in the skiathlon, but it was incredibly hard and he probably didn’t recover from it,” suspects Nöckler. In Nöckler's opinion, nothing more could be expected from the other “Azzurri”. He believes that a development has been overlooked in Italy. “I don’t think we’re out of talent. Other nations have increased the amount of training. We didn’t do that because we thought it would be counterproductive.” Pellegrino and De Fabiani with private team In addition, the two top players, Pellegrino and De Fabiani, no longer train with the national team and have joined the private team of German coach Markus Kramer. “It is not good for cross-country skiing in Italy that the association allows this. The boys need role models that they can look up to and compete with in training. On the other hand, I know Pellegrino very well. If he has trust in a person, he will do anything. Maybe he was missing someone like that here,” says Nöckler. In any case, it was a difficult task for cross-country skiing boss Alfred Stauder to prepare a team for the Olympics in which the two best were missing. And building a powerful team in one year is practically impossible. No South Tyroleans in the national team Nöckler has no answer as to why hardly any South Tyroleans make it into the national team anymore. “When I joined the team, there were several strong South Tyroleans like Clara, Moriggl, Kostner and Hofer, and Freddy Schwienbacher was also there. But I can't tell where the problem lies now. Of course, you absolutely have to join a sports group, otherwise it will be difficult,” says Nöckler. He himself is developing more and more into a specialist in cross-country skiing. But he will be seen again in the World Cup this season. He has received confirmation that he can take part in the 50 km run at Holmenkollen in Oslo. It's on the program on March 6th and will be run in classic style.

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Cross-country skiing in crisis: what are the problems?

This time no South Tyrolean took part in cross-country skiing at the Olympic Games. Dietmar Nöckler, who took part in 2014 and 2018, won the Gsieser Tal Run in classic style on Saturday. This time he experienced the Olympic races as a TV viewer and saw that Italy was almost a one-man team.

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