Holmenkollen 30 km preview

PREVIEW LADIES' 30KM FREESTYLE – Sunday 11 Mar 2018

·  Marit Bjørgen (NOR) could become the first athlete to win seven ladies' 30km events in the World Cup (classic style and freestyle). She currently shares the record of six with Stefania Belmondo (ITA).

·  All of Bjørgen's six victories in 30km events came in Holmenkollen in Oslo. No other athlete has won more than three ladies' 30km events here.

·  Including the world championships and the Olympic Winter Games, Bjørgen has won the last three ladies' 30km races (classic and free). She could become the first athlete to win four times in a row - Belmondo also won three times in a row in 1992 (twice in World Cup, once at Winter Games).

·  In 2014, Bjørgen won the ladies' 30km (classic style) in Holmenkollen directly after winning the gold medal in Sochi. Apart from her, only Belmondo (1992) and Manuela Di Centa (ITA, 1994) won the first 30km World Cup after winning the Olympic title.

·  Norwegian skiers have won each of the last 13 ladies' 30km events (classic and free) in the World Cup, world championships and Winter Games combined since Justyna Kowalczyk's (POL) victory at the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010. Bjørgen won nine of the races in this run, while currently suspended Therese Johaug won the other four.

·  The last non-Norwegian winner of a ladies' 30km race in the World Cup was Petra Majdic (SLO) in Trondheim on 14 March 2009. The last woman not representing Norway to win the Holmenkollen 30km was Valentina Shevchenko (UKR) on 8 March 2008.

·  Heidi Weng (NOR; 1,402 points) leads the overall ladies' World Cup standings, ahead of Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (NOR; 1,223). They are also the top-two in the overall distance standings (Weng on 776 points, Østberg 646).

·  Weng has reached the podium in 10 of the 14 distance events this World Cup season, most of all women.

·  Weng has never finished on the podium of a ladies' 30km event in the World Cup (classic and free). Her best result is a fourth place, all in Holmenkollen (2013, 2016, 2017).

·  Østberg's only podium finish in a 30km event was a second place here in 2016.

·  Østberg has won four ladies' distance races this World Cup season, most of all athletes. Last season, Bjørgen recorded the most World Cup race wins in ladies' distance events (7).

·  Krista Pärmäkoski (FIN) finished in second place in the last two international ladies' 30km events, both times behind Bjørgen - in Holmenkollen last season and at the Winter Games in PyeongChang last month.

·  The only Finnish winners of a ladies' 30km World Cup event (classic and free) are Marjo Matikainen (FIN, 1988) and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (FIN, 2007), both in classic style in Holmenkollen.

·  Pärmäkoski won two of the last three ladies' distance events in the World Cup, including the most recent (10km classic style in Lahti). The last Finnish athlete to win more ladies' events (all disciplines) in a single World Cup season was Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) in 2008/09 (six).

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Stina Nilsson (SWE) finished in third place in the ladies' 30km event at PyeongChang 2018. Her only previous result in a World Cup 30km event was a 41st place in Oslo in 2015 (freestyle).

- Antonina Ordina (SWE, 1995, third place at world championships) and Charlotte Kalla (SWE, 2008, second place in Oslo) are the only Swedish athletes to finish on the podium of a World Cup 30km event.