Martin Ponsiluoma’s advice to Sweden’s cross-country skiers: “They’d benefit from doing it like we do”

Sweden’s cross-country team has spent the pre‑season split across different training camps and working with different coaches. In contrast, the national biathlon team follows a centralized structure.

Biathlete Martin Ponsiluoma believes this difference benefits biathlon. He points out that in biathlon, national head coach Johannes Lukas is responsible for the whole squad and athletes rarely pursue separate, individual programs outside the team.

Athletes in the biathlon team emphasize the value of training together and see it as a key to recent success. “It’s important to have strong team cohesion. We can learn a lot from each other, both on the shooting range and on the skis, where we push one another,” says Sebastian Samuelsson.

Ponsiluoma suggests that at least parts of the men’s cross‑country team would likely have benefited from gathering more often and focusing on building a stronger group dynamic: “The men’s team would probably gain from training a lot together and trying to strengthen the group,” he says.

The article includes studio discussion about what Sweden’s cross‑country and biathlon teams can learn from each other and references SVT clips where Ponsiluoma elaborates on his thoughts.