Vasaloppet winner Emelie Fleten was frustrated with the male skiers

Cross-country skiing the legendary Vasaloppet was skied on Sunday in Sweden. The men’s competition was won by the host country Oskar Cardin and the Norwegian in the women’s race Emilie Fleten.

The 90-kilometer classic race was already skied for the 102nd time.

Fleten was not only satisfied with the finish. He says that he got into numerous difficult situations during the competition.

15,000 skiers participated in the Vasaloppet, and they all start at the same time in a big joint start.

Women’s Fleten, who was one of the competition’s favorites, got stuck in the mass start like many others.

Fleten says that he had to start the race from the very left edge of the track area. According to him, the track “suddenly just disappeared” from below.

Soon, Fleten was stuck in the middle of slower male skiers, when he himself would have had more desire to go.

It was particularly difficult on the hilly sections of the route. On the uphills, Fleten overtook the slower skiing men, but on the downhills, they skied past again. The same was repeated from hill to hill.

Fleten said that he cried several times during the race because of sheer frustration.

“I had a lump in my throat because it happened on every hill. It was like an accordion. It was horrible. I’ve had enough of men for a long time. The race was chaos. Luckily I won, because I felt very hopeless during the trip,” Fleten said NRK:lle.

Profit was Fleten’s third of the season in long-distance classic races.

NRK’s ​​expert Torgeir Björn said after the race that there is no need to hope for a change to Vasaloppet’s starting arrangements. Different start times for men and women have been tried in different competitions, but they cause their own, different problems.

“This is an eternal topic. If the women start first, the men will overtake them. That has also been tried. If the women want to avoid skiing with the men, a separate competition should be organized. I understand her frustration, but what is the alternative? There are 15,000 skiers on the way. You cannot organize the Vasaloppet on two consecutive days for men and women separately,” said Björn.