Pre-competition facts Seefeld 30km / 50 km

Pre-competition facts Saturday, 2nd March 2019
Ladies 30km F

• Therese Johaug won the world title in the ladies 30km in 2011 (free) and 2015 (classic).

• Johaug could join Bjørgen (2005, 2013, 2017) and Elena Välbe (1989, 1995 and 1997) as only women to have won three world titles in ladies' 30km races.

• Johaug could join Välbe as only women to have specifically won two ladies' 30km races in the freestyle.

• Johaug (G2-S0-B2) could also join Bjørgen (G3-S2-B0) on a record five world championship medals in ladies' 30km races (free & classic).

• At the world championships in 2017, Norwegian women made up the top-4 in the 30km freestyle race: Bjørgen (gold), Heidi Weng (silver), Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen (bronze) and Ragnhild Haga (4th).

• Norway leads the all-time medal table in this event both in terms of gold medals (5) and total medals (13). Russia follows on four gold medals and nine total medals (excluding Soviet Union).

• Ingvild Flugstad Østberg is eyeing her first medal in a 30km race at the world championships. Her best result so far was a 10th place finish in 2015 (classic).

• Østberg is the woman to have claimed most medals at the 2019 world championships (G0-S2-B2). She could become the fourth woman to claim a record five medals at a single world championships, after Bjørgen (2005, 2011, 2013), Välbe (1997) and Marjo Matikainen (1989).

• Fellow Norwegian Heidi Weng won the silver medal in the 30km freestyle race in 2017.

• Krista Pärmäkoski won silver in this event at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. She could become the second woman from Finland to win the world title in the 30km race, after Virpi Kuitunen who won the gold medal in Sapporo, Japan in 2007 (classic).

• Natalia Nepryaeva hopes to become the fourth woman to win the world title in the 30km event while representing Russia, after Elena Välbe, Larissa Lazutina and most recently Olga Savialova in 2003.

• A world title for Nepryaeva would put Russia (4) on par with Norway (5) on a record five gold world championship gold medals in ladies' 30km races (excluding Soviet Union).

• Sweden has already won two events at these world championships: the team sprint and the relay. This equals the most world titles Sweden has won at a single world championships on the women's side: in 1968, Toini Gustafsson won the 5km and 10km classic style at the Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble, which counted as world championships.

• Stina Nilsson claimed bronze in the ladies' 30km classic style at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. Nilsson won gold in the team sprint and the relay at these world championships and she could become the first Swedish woman to win three world titles at a single world championships.

• Nilsson, Charlotte Kalla and Ebba Andersson hope to become the first Swedish woman to win a world title in a 30km race.

• At the previous six world championships (2007-2017), Sweden won only one individual world title in ladies' events: Charlotte Kalla in the 10km free in 2015.

Pre-competition facts Sunday, 3rd March 2019

Men 50km F

• Alex Harvey won the men's 50km race at the world championships in 2017 (freestyle) to become the first non-European world champion in this event (classic and freestyle).

• Harvey can become the sixth athlete to successfully defend the world title in the men's 50km (classic and freestyle) and the first since Petter Northug in 2009-2011 (both in freestyle).

• Harvey has won two world titles, the team sprint event in 2011 and the 50km free in 2017. He is one of two male athletes to win multiple world titles representing a non-European country, next to Vladimir Smirnov (3 for Kazakhstan in 1995).

• Harvey (30), Dario Cologna (32) and Martin Johnsrud Sundby (34) can all become the third athlete older than 30 years to claim the world title in the men's 50km free after Johann Mühlegg (30) in 2001 and Maurilio De Zolt (36) in 1987.

• Sundby and Sjur Røthe are both hoping to hand Norway a record-equalling third world title in the men's 50km freestyle. Sweden are already on three world titles in this event but has not won since 1993, when Torgny Mogren triumphed in Falun.

• Sergey Ustiugov and Alexander Bolshunov can both become the first athlete from Russia (incl. as Soviet Union) to win the world title in the men's 50km free and the first in any 50km event since 1980, when Nikolai Zimyatov won in the classic style in Lake Placid.

• Bolshunov claimed silver in this event at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. He also finished second in the men's skiathlon, the team sprint and the men's 4x10km relay at these world championships. He can become the second man to claim more than three medals at a single world championships while representing Russia (incl. Soviet Union), after Ustiugov (5 in 2017).

• Ustiugov has won seven medals at the world championships, most for Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The only man on more medals representing Soviet Union is Pavel Kolchin (8). Vyachelav Vedenin claimed seven medals.

• Only Sweden (44 - G19-S13-B12) and Finland (34 - G11-S14-B9) have collected more world championships medals in the men's 50km (classic and freestyle) than Norway (33 - G12-G8-B13).

• Norway can fail to claim a medal in a men's 50km event (classic and freestyle) in back-to-back world championships for the first time since 1999-2001-2003.

• Norway has won all five events at these world championships. Norway could now set a record by winning all six world titles in men's events at a single world championships. It had won only one of the six men's world titles in Lahti in 2017.

• Norway has already equalled the record for most world titles by a country in men's events at a single world championships, set by themselves in 2009 when it won five of the six events on the men's side.

• PyeongChang 2018 Olympic champion in the 50km classic Iivo Niskanen can become the first athlete from Finland to claim the world title in a 50km event since 1999, when Mika Myllyllä won in the classic style in Ramsau am Dachstein.