47 years after the so far only German victory in Vasaloppet, Thomas Bing aims to be at the top of the podium in the world’s most famous long distance race.
The German Pro Team xc-ski.de A | N Skimarathon Team and the German Ski Federation collaborates to get a German victory again, when Vasaloppet celebrates its 100th anniversary.
“We are very inspired and motivated to support Thomas Bing in his “Vasa-Sieg” project,” says Thomas Freimuth from xc-ski.de A | N Skimarathon Team.
It was Gert-Dietmar Klause who in 1975 took the only German victory so far in Vasaloppet. Klause who was a world class skier in the East German national team in the 70s and took silver at the Olympic 50k at Innsbruck in 1976.
At Vasaloppet 1975, Klause won seven seconds ahead of swede Åke Wingskog and with compatriot Gerhard Grimmer as third, 53 seconds behind. (See the top list from Vasaloppet 1975 at the bottom.)
Last winter, Thomas Bing was eleventh at Vasaloppet and got inspired to make a focused investment in the race for 2022. The 31-year-old is now trying to repeat Klause’s achievement from 1975 with support from both the German Pro Team xc-ski.de A | N Skimarathon Team and the German Ski Association
“Last winter, Thomas Bing showed what he is made of and impressed us deeply with his performance at the Vasaloppet,” says Thomas Freimuth, who himself had the best time of a German skier in Vasaloppet with a time of 3:45:16 when he was 17th in 2010, before Bing finished in 3:30:10 last winter.
By the way, Bing was in the fight for fifth place on the final stretch but fell and finished as eleventh.
Thomas Freimuth will share his own experiences in the “Vasa-Sieg” project and cooperation is also taking place with the German Ski Association and the German cross-country national team of which Thomas Bing is a part.
“For our skiers, the Olympic Games in Beijing are of course the big goal. This also applies to Thomas Bing. But we believe that with this collaboration we have found a way to give Thomas the best possible support during the coming winter and before and during Vasaloppet, with good support on site,” says national team coach Peter Schlickenrieder.
Top Photo: Thomas Griesbeck.
Result Vasaloppet 1975:
