My absolute favorite cross-country skier is Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. She is born 1990 in Gjøvik in Norway, and is at the Norwegian national team. Last winter she took and enormous step up towards the absolute cross-county skiing elite, by winning not only sprint races in the world cup, but also her fist victories on distance-races. I truly adore her because of her fantastic attitude and, in my opinion, perfect technique. Often after races, she still smiles even though it didn't turn out so well. She shows a really inspirating attitude, and that's probably why I like her so much.
She might not be the very best at the moment, and the recent championships in Lahti did not turn out as she wanted and expected. But sport is sometimes unexpected and the game is so hard at the top. She has even said in an interview that she have been thinking about quitting after this season, but I really, really hope that she won't! Some of her biggest achievements so far (I believe more is to come! ;) is the gold medal in team-sprint together with Maiken Caspersen Falla at the 2015 cross-country world championships in Falun, Sweden.
Another race by Ingvild I personally remember really well, is the second stage of Tour de Ski last year when she sprinted away from Therese Johaug in the last uphill. Then, she had never won a distance race in the world cup, only sprint races. Therese was in a really good shape then, so Ingvild winning her was in my opinion, really impressive! I actually think that race was the one that made me like just her so much. It was that awesome!
I really hope I will be as good as her some time when I'm older! :)
