Davos 10/15 km Preview

PREVIEW Ladies' 10KM FREESTYLE – Sunday 10 Dec 2017

• Marit Bjørgen (NOR) has won a record equalling four consecutive 10km World Cup races in freestyle and classic combined (excluding pursuits, including stage races).
• Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi (FIN) was the first to achieve this feat in 1983, followed by Bente Skari (NOR, 2002-2003) and Justyna Kowalczyk (POL, 2011-2012).
• The first of these four 10km races in Bjørgen's streak was the last 10km World Cup event in the freestyle, held in Ulricehamn on 21 January 2017.
• The last time Bjørgen won successive 10km freestyle in the World Cup events was in March - December 2014, when she won in Lahti and Davos.
• Charlotte Kalla (SWE) won the distance event last week in Lillehammer (skiathlon), her eighth distance victory in the World Cup (including stages). All other Swedish women have won seven World Cup distance races combined (excluding relay).
• Kalla can win back-to-back distance races for the second times following her wins in the 10km freestyle on 29 December 2007 and 1 January 2008 in the Tour de Ski (both in Nové Mesto na Morave).
• Kalla is the only woman to have finished on the podium in all three World Cup distance races this season, finishing second in the 10km classic and third in the 10km pursuit in Ruka, before winning the skiathlon last week.
• Last season, Heidi Weng (NOR) reached the podium in each of the first eight distance races.
• Weng has finished in the top-seven in the last 20 World Cup distance events she participated in, including 15 podium finishes. This streak began at the start of last season. No other woman has more than 10 podium finishes since the start of the 2016/17 season in World Cup distance races.
• Ragnhild Haga (NOR) has reached the podium in her last two distance races, winning the pursuit in Ruka and finishing third in Lillehammer last week. In her first 55 distance participations prior to these two races, she reached the podium only once, finishing third in the 3km freestyle in the Tour de Ski on 3 January 2015 (Oberstdorf).
• Norwegian women have won 21 of the last 23 10km World Cup races (freestyle and classic).

PREVIEW Men's 15KM FREESTYLE

• Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR) has won two of the three distance races this season, winning the 15km classic in Ruka and the skiathlon in Lillehammer.
• He also won the last 15km event of last season, a classic style event in the World Cup Final in Quebec.
• Only two man have won three 15km events in a row (excluding pursuits). Vladimir Smirnov (KAZ) won four in a row between 1993 and 1994 and Bjørn Dæhlie (NOR) also won four in a row, in 1995.
• Klæbo has now won three distance events since the start of last season, only trailing Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR, 4) and Sergey Ustiugov (RUS, 4).
• Sundby has won seven 15km distances races (excluding pursuits), which equals Axel Teichmann (GER) in fifth place all-time among men. He is one short of equalling Lukáš Bauer (CZE) in fourth place all-time, behind only Dæhlie (15 wins), Gunde Svan (SWE, 11) and Smirnov (10).
• Sundby has 17 podium finishes in 15km classic and freestyle races (excluding pursuits), which is also one short of Bauer's total in fourth place among men, behind Dæhlie (27 podiums), Svan (19) and Smirnov (19).
• Hans Christer Holund (NOR) finished third last week in the skiathlon in Lillehammer, which equalled his best result in any World Cup race. He has now six third place finishes (including stage races and overall classifications).
• Maurice Manificat (FRA) has equal-most podium finishes in men's distance events in Davos together with Dæhlie (4).
• Manificat (8) needs one more victory to equal the French record for most in distance races, held by Vincent Vittoz (FRA, 9).
• Alex Harvey (CAN) won the last 15km freestyle event, when he won in Ulricehamn on 21 January 2017 and can become the second man in the last 12 years to win successive 15km freestyle events, after Sergey Ustiugov (RUS) won in Falun (14 February 2016) and Quebec on 5 March 2016.
• Coming into this weekend, Harvey has won six individual World Cup races (including stages and overall races), which is one fewer than all other Canadian men have combined. Harvey's 21 podium finishes are five fewer than all other Canadian men combined.
• Norwegians swept the podium in the skiathlon last weekend. The last time a country swept the podium in back-to-back men's distance races was during the Tour de Ski on 2 January 2016 (30km classic) and 3 January 2016 (10km pursuit), when Norway achieved this feat in Lenzerheide.