Siitonen step

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The Siitonen step (also called Finnstep ) is a technique made famous by Pauli Siitonen in cross-country skiing , which became the most important pioneer of modern skating technology . This is a half- skating step in which one ski glides in the track of the trail while the other is sheared sideways. The leg kick occurs exclusively from the canted and sheared ski and is supported by a double-pole push.

Even before the 1970s, in the final sprint of races in classic technique, the only style at that time, half-skating steps and skating steps were observed in some runners. As early as 1971 at the Holmenkollenlauf , Gerhard Grimmer demonstrated in the most difficult wax conditions how one could manage a three-kilometer climb with upper arm strength and a one-sided skating step without overgrowning, which had meanwhile become wet and thus with the correct climbing wax at the beginning of the competition no longer allowed an impression in the track. He won the competition by a clear margin. Siitonen, the most overgrown and at that time not yet using the technique later named after him, came fourth.

Siitonen later popularized this step in the popular races , and his imitators named the technique after him. He celebrated his greatest successes at a very old age for competitive athletes, including the König-Ludwig-Lauf , which he won five times between 1974 and 1981.

In today's skating technique, the half-skate step is hardly used anymore, it is mainly practiced as a learning aid by runners who want to switch from the classic to the free technique.

literature

  • Ulrich Wenger, Franz Wöllzenmüller: Cross-country skiing: classic technique and skating . sportinform Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-8254-0423-4 .
  • German Association for Ski Instructors V. (DVS, ed.): Ski curriculum, volume 2, cross-country skiing . BLV Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-405-14293-8 .

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