Pre-comp facts sprint Québec city
Mar 21, 2019·Cross-Country
Pre-competition facts Sprint F - Friday, 22nd March 2019
LADIES
Stina Nilsson
Stina Nilsson leads the sprint World Cup standings and can become the first female athlete from Sweden to win a crystal globe (excluding U23 World Cup).
In 2012/13, Emil Jönsson was the last Swedish athlete to win a crystal globe, as he won the men's sprint World Cup title that season.
Nilsson finished in second place in the sprint World Cup behind overall winner Maiken Caspersen Falla in both of the last two World Cup seasons.
Nilsson has won five individual sprint World Cup events this season and needs one more win to equal her personal best of six victories set in 2016/17.
Nilsson claimed her 17th sprint World Cup victory in Falun last week (freestyle) to equal Bente Skari (17) in fourth place all-time among women. Only Marit Bjørgen (40), Petra Majdic (20) and Falla (19) have won more sprint World Cup events.
Maiken Caspersen Falla
Maiken Caspersen Falla is second in the sprint World Cup standings, 33 points behind leader Stina Nilsson.
Falla is hoping to become the third athlete to win the sprint crystal globe four seasons in a row after Marit Bjørgen (2003-2006) and Bente Skari (1998-2002).
Only Bjørgen (40) and Petra Majdic (20) have won more ladies' individual sprint World Cup events than Falla (19).
Falla has claimed a top-two finish in all her six sprint World Cup appearances in Canada, including three wins. She finished in second place in all her three sprint appearances in Quebec.
Other contenders
Russia's Yulia Belorukova and USA's Jessica Diggins are the only female athletes not hailing from Scandinavia to have won an individual sprint event this World Cup season.
Belorukova won this season's World Cup opener in Ruka on 24 November (classic style). She could become the second woman representing Russia to win multiple individual sprint World Cup events after Natalia Matveeva, who won in Düsseldorf in 2007 and in Toblach in 2017.
Diggins won the sprint World Cup event in Cogne (freestyle) on 16 February. She could become the third athlete from United States to win multiple individual sprint events, after Kikkan Randall (12) and Sophie Caldwell (2).
Maja Dahlqvist has recorded six podium finishes in individual sprint events this World Cup season, joint-most along with Stina Nilsson. Dahlqvist has yet to claim her first individual World Cup win.
MEN
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo has already secured this season's overall sprint World Cup title. He is the third male athlete after Emil Jönsson and Ola Vigen Hattestad to claim three sprint crystal globes and the first to do so in three consecutive seasons.
Klæbo has won 15 individual sprint World Cup events and needs one more victory to match all-time men's record holder Jönsson (16).
With his win in Falun last week (freestyle), Klæbo claimed his seventh individual sprint World Cup win of the season, equalling his own record for most in a single campaign (7 in 2017/18).
Klæbo has reached the podium in 17 of his last 18 sprint World Cup appearances and has won in each of his last seven participations, since an 11th-place finish in the 3-Days Tour (freestyle) on 30 November 2018.
Klæbo is on 11 World Cup wins this season (all events, including Tour stages and overall Tour wins), just as many as he managed to claim in the whole of last campaign.
Klæbo (11) can become the second male athlete after Martin Johnsrud Sundby in 2015/16 (16) to claim more than 11 World Cup wins in a single season (all events, including Tour stages and overall Tour wins).
Federico Pellegrino
Federico Pellegrino (13) is equal with Ola Vigen Hattestad (13) in joint-third place for most individual sprint World Cup wins among men, behind Emil Jönsson (16) and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (15).
Of his 13 individual sprint World Cup victories, Pellegrino claimed 12 in freestyle events. His sole win in the classic style came in the 2015/16 Ski Tour Canada.
Pellegrino can fail to reach the podium in three consecutive sprint World Cup appearances in a single season for the first time since February-March 2017, a run that included a seventh-place finish in the World Cup Final (freestyle) in Quebec.
Other contenders
Since the start of 2018, Alexander Bolshunov (1) and Sindre Bjørnestad Skar (1) are the only winners of an individual sprint World Cup event other than Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (11) and Federico Pellegrino (4).
Norway has only won more men's individual sprint World Cup events in 2008/09 (10) than this season (8, also 8 in 2007/08).
Bolshunov won the sprint classic in Ruka on 24 November 2018 and can now become the second male athlete from Russia after Sergey Ustiugov in 2016/17 (2) to claim multiple individual sprint World Cup victories in a single season.
Eirik Brandsdal has won nine individual sprint World Cup events, but only two in the freestyle. His last win in a sprint freestyle event was in Lahti in March 2015.
Lucas Chanavat has claimed six podium finishes in individual sprint World Cup events, but has yet to claim his first victory.
