Québec: the grand World Cup finals - pre comp facts

Pre-competition facts FIS Cross-Country Overall World Cup finals

22nd to 24th March 2019

Therese Johaug

• Therese Johaug is hoping to claim her second World Cup Final victory after 2013/14. Johaug can become the second athlete with multiple overall wins in the competition after Marit Bjørgen (6 wins).

• The last seven World Cup Finals have been won by either Johaug (1) or Bjørgen (6). In 2008/09, Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk was the last non-Norwegian winner of the competition.

• Only Bjørgen (7) has claimed more podium finishes in the World Cup Final than Johaug (4), Kowalczyk (4) and Charlotte Kalla (4).

• Johaug, winner of this season's 3-Days Tour, has claimed 16 podium spots in one of the Tours (3-Days Tour, Tour de Ski, World Cup Final, Ski Tour Canada), joint-most all-time along with Bjørgen (16).

Ingvild Flugstad Østberg

• Ingvild Flugstad Østberg won this season's Tour de Ski and finished in third place in the 3-Days Tour. Only Heidi Weng (2016/17), Therese Johaug (2013/14), Marit Bjørgen (2011/12) and Justyna Kowalczyk (2010/11) managed to claim a top-three finish in the three big Tours (3-Days Tour, Tour de Ski, World Cup Final) in a single season.

• Only Johaug in 2013/14 managed to win both the Tour de Ski and World Cup Final in the same season. Johaug also claimed the overall World Cup title that campaign.

• Overall World Cup leader Østberg can claim her first crystal globe. She finished in the overall top-three in each of the last three World Cup seasons.

• Østberg is hoping to hand Norway its sixth consecutive ladies' overall World Cup title. Johaug (2), Weng (2) and Bjørgen (1) claimed the last five.

Other contenders

• Four of the nine previous winners of the World Cup Final also won the overall World Cup title that season - Virpi Kuitunen in 2007/08, Justyna Kowalczyk in 2008/09, Marit Bjørgen in 2011/12 and Therese Johaug in 2013/14.

• Bjørgen, Charlotte Kalla, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Katja Višnar are the only athletes to have appeared in all previous nine editions of the World Cup Final.

• Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (27) and Vesna Fabjan (27) can both join Stefanie Böhler on a record 28 appearances in one of the Tours (3-Days Tour, Tour de Ski, World Cup Final, Ski Tour Canada).

• Jessica Diggins is hoping to become the first non-European winner of one of the Tours (3-Days Tour, Tour de Ski, World Cup Final, Ski Tour Canada).

• Krista Pärmäkoski can become the second athlete from Finland to win one of the Tours (3-Days Tour, Tour de Ski, World Cup Final, Ski Tour Canada) after Kuitunen, who won three Tours including the 2007/08 World Cup Final.

• Natalia Nepryaeva finished in second place in this season's Tour de Ski to hand Russia its first podium finish in one of the Tours (3-Days Tour, Tour de Ski, World Cup Final, Ski Tour Canada).

• Nepryaeva can become the first athlete representing Russia to win the overall World Cup title since Julija Tchepalova in 2000/01.

• Nepryaeva is hoping to become the first non-Norwegian winner of the ladies' overall World Cup since Kowalczyk in 2012/13.

Alexander Bolshunov & Johannes Høsflot Klæbo

• Defending champion Alexander Bolshunov and 2016/17 winner Johannes Høsflot Klæbo are both hoping to join Dario Cologna (2) and Petter Northug (3) as the only multiple winners of the World Cup Final.

• Last year's winner Bolshunov can become the second athlete to win the World Cup Final in back-to-back seasons after Northug in 2010-2011.

• Klæbo won this season's Tour de Ski and can now join Martin Johnsrud Sundby (2013/14) and Cologna (2008/09 and 2011/12) as the only athletes to win both the Tour de Ski and World Cup Final in the same season.

• Only Alex Harvey (4), Northug (4) and Cologna (3) have won more stages in the World Cup Final (excluding overall wins) than Klæbo (2).

• Overall World Cup leader Klæbo is hoping to retain his crystal globe. Last season, Klæbo became the youngest ever winner of the men's overall World Cup, aged 21.

• Norway has claimed five of the last six men's overall World Cup titles, including each of the last three. Germany was the last country to claim four in a row, between 2003/04 and 2006/07.

• Bolshunov can become the first athlete representing Russia (including Soviet Union) to win the men's overall World Cup title since Vladimir Smirnov in 1990/91. Smirnov won the crystal globe in 1993/94 while representing Kazakhstan.

• Bolshunov is hoping to become the first non-Norwegian winner of the men's overall World Cup since Cologna in 2014/15.

• Five of the nine overall winners of the World Cup Final also won the overall World Cup title that season - Sundby in 2013/14, Northug in 2009/10 and 2012/13, and Cologna in 2008/09 and 2011/12.