Russian TV Channel One to broadcast Cross-Country World Cup competitions

Nov 28, 2019·Cross-Country

Elena Välbe is happy about the decision to bring the FIS Cross-Country World Cup to Russian public TV - and hopes to supports the programme as a commentator

Channel One is the most spread public TV channel in Russia with an audience of around 130 millon people. So far in Russia mainly only private sport channels have shown selected FIS Cross-Country races. As of this season, Channel One has 15 FIS Cross-Country World Cup competitions on their programme.

4-times Gold Olympian and 14-times World Champion Elena Välbe supports the decision to spread Cross-Country skiing in her country and will join the team as a TV commentator in selected events.

“You can not imagine how delighted I am. I am very grateful to all who took this decision in favor to our sport in Russia. To have the competitions broadcasted can give a big boost to our sport. Channel One will show the races free of charge, live and to such an audience - very cool. Thank you very much."– Elena Välbe

Channel One will mainly show the sprint competitions and thus have the races of the men and women covered. The relay race in Lillehammer, some races of the FIS Tour de Ski performed by Le Gruyère AOP are fixed on the programme as well as they have an interest in showing the 50km in Oslo, but this will be finally discussed closer to the event.

The World Cup is starting on Friday, 29th November in Finnish Ruka. It is the season start into a busy season but without any World Ski Championships or Winter Olympic games. Elena Välbe still knows good reasons for winter sports enthusiasts to tune in the Channel One programme:

"The Overall World Cup win should be on focus for every athlete. But in order to fight for it, you need to fight from the first to the last day - and that means during 35 starts! To withstand at super speeds from start to finish during the whole season is much more difficult than to prepare for one race. We all know that there are people who have won even the Olympic Games, but have never shown anything anywhere else. In my opinion winning only with pure luck, that's impossible. That is why I recommend to follow the World Cup regularly - to follow the athletes, to celebrate their success and to support them throughout the season"

Find the full interview and report (original text in Russian) here.

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