According to Coletta Rydzek’s double victory, Victoria Carl also creates a milestone for the history books at the end of the Skilanglauf World Cup.
Two victories within 18 hours for Coletta Rydzek and a second second place for Victoria Carl: The German cross -country skiers said goodbye to the World Cup season with a wonderful weekend.
After Rydzek had also triumphed in the team sprint with Laura Gimmler on Saturday in Lahti, Finnish, Olympic champion Carl made the first podium of a German runner in the overall World Cup on Sunday.
8th place is enough Victoria Carl for historical coup
In the final classic marathon over 50 km, Carl came to eighth at the last World Cup victory of Norway’s cross-country skiing queen Johaug and thus secured second place in the season ranking behind the American Jessie Diggins.
The Thuringian, who also became third in the spacer World Cup, collected around 47,900 euros bonus. So far, two fourth places by Evi Die Dinebacher stand (2003/04 and 2005/06) had been the best German women’s places in the overall World Cup.
The 36-year-old Johaug ended her comeback season after 2: 14: 40.7 hours with her 89th World Cup victory. She left open whether the 14-time world champion really returns to retirement. The second was 1: 03.3 minutes behind Johaug’s compatriot Astrid Oyre Slind. Katharina Hennig was the strong fifth best German – but almost four and a half minutes behind Johaug. Carl was 6:18 minutes behind.
Dream weekend for Coletta Rydzek
In Lahti, the Rydzek family had previously struck: combiner Johannes Rydzek won four gold in four races at the 2017 World Cup, now his sister Coletta followed the next coup on Friday – in the Oberstdorfer Duett in front of the Swedish Johanna Hagström and Maja Dahlqvist.
“It is incredible what happens here. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night,” said Rydzek. Gimmler said: “This is my first World Cup victory. So, thank you very much, Coletta.”
Before Lahti, the German Ski Association (DSV) was still in cross -country skiing without the season. It was also the first German team sprint in the World Cup since 2010, at that time Thingsbacher stand and Steffi Böhler prevailed in Rybinsk. In 2022, Carl and Hennig scored sensationally team sprint gold at Olympia in Beijing.