The Nordic Ski World Championships in Sapporo are over. (just 712 days to Liberec 2009!) and the two big stories were Norway and Virpi Kuitunen. Norway won a total of 16 medals (5 golds, 4 silvers, 7 bronzes) in cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and nordic combined, far and away the most of any nation. (Finland was second with 8 [5/1/2], Germany was third with 9 [2/4/3]. orway won the event's first medals , the individual sprint golds of Jens Arne Svartedal and Astrid Jacobsen, and its last medals, Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset's gold and Frode Estil's silver in the men's 50km classical-style race. Virpi Kuitunen performed the same feat, more or less, winning a bronze in the individual sprint on the first day and a gold in the women's 30km classical-style race in the women's last event, plus two golds in between. Her performance in the women's 4x5km relay was perhaps the most dominant of the championships: skiing first, she blew up the race by the 500 meter mark and led Finland to the gold.
The world champs were, as always, a coming-out party, too. Norwegian boy wonder Petter Northug led his squad to the men's relay gold in fine style, and all-but-unknown Norwegian girl wonder Therese Johaug ran a tough race to elude Finnish veteran Aino Kaisa Saarinen and capture the bronze in the 30km. Even the U.S. got into the act: Bill Demong, racing in a nordic combined event, won a surprising and inspiring silver medal, the country's first in decades and the prelude to a win at the first NC event since the worlds, at the Lahti Ski Games today.
The Lahti event is a kind of mini-worlds, with simultaneous competitions in jumping, nordic combined, and cross country, and the results of the four XC races (sprints on Saturday, distance races on Sunday) are likely to echo those of the world championships. Racing on home snow, Virpi Kuitunen is unlikely to do anything but win, which could seal up her World Cup title, and I think the US is due for some big results.