Sunday in Falun will be a historic day for international cross-country skiing.

Then, for the first time, mixed relays will be decided during a World Cup weekend.

There will be a sprint mixed relay and later a mixed relay, with four skiers (two men, two women) riding five kilometers per distance.

The mixed relay in the future is tipped to be a branch of championships such as the World Cup and the Olympics.

Not the mixed sprint relay because there are already two working sprint competitions.

- The mixed relay can definitely be a championship event, but then some other event must be removed from the competition program.

Fis says that you can not add anything, says Anders Byström.

Away with skiathlon

The question then is which branch to remove?

Anders Byström sees that skiathlon, where the participants ride classic and freestyle in the same race, has done its part in the championships:

- Skiathlon is the branch that we run very little of.

We do not run skiathlon more than at championships.

Skiathlon is perhaps a bit outdated, you have to have combination boots and different types of equipment.

There is nothing that benefits teams with small wall teams.

In terms of resources, perhaps that branch costs the most.

World Cup premiere in Falun?

The question is when mixed relay can become a championship sport?

Anders Byström believes that it is too early to introduce the branch in connection with the WC in Trondheim 2025. And it can not be relevant during the Olympics in Milan 2026 because Fis wants the branch to be tested at a WC first.

- It could be in connection with a World Cup in Falun 2027. It would be fun, says Byström.

CLIP: Calle Halfvarsson's giant race - on the podium in Falun (March 13, 2022)

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Read more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser.

We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.

Read more about browser support

Calle Halfvarsson's giant race - on the podium in Falun Photo: Bildbyrån