By Teemu Virtanen
When browsing through the Visma Ski Classics website, you have certainly clicked the “Stats” logo on the menu bar and checked the current standings and results of previous races. But you may have wondered what the third option “Ranking” next to “Standings” and “Results” really stands for. It goes without saying that this particular list ranks skiers in certain order, but it may be a bit confusing as it is not equivalent to the list you can find when clicking the “Standings” selection.
The Standings category shows you the current leaders of each competition that we have in Visma Ski Classics while the Ranking goes back in time to cover a two-year period (24 months) and puts pro skiers in rank order based upon their performances during that timeframe.
Petter Eliassen, Team BN Bank, is currently leading the Champion competition while Tord Asle Gjerdalen, last year’s Champion, is still on the top of the Ranking list. Since Petter didn’t race at all last season, he can be found at 10th place in the ranking list, but he is climbing up fast. You can also see which athletes are going up and which ones are heading down.
Naturally, Britta Johansson Norgren is leading both lists due to her excellence this season and last year. But Astrid Øyre Slind, Team Koteng, who has fought tooth and nail against Britta this season, is still behind Kateriná Smutna, ED System Bauer Team, in the two-year Ranking list because the Czech pro skier finished second in the Champion competition last year.
The Ranking list is certainly a good way of showing an athlete’s overall consistency and performance level, and it ultimately shows who has the capacity, power and stamina to stay on top in this grand game of endurance hegemony. And after La Diagonela tomorrow, we will see who is who in both Champion and Ranking lists.
