Kerttu Elina Niskanen (born 13 June 1988) is a Finnish cross-country skier. She is a four-time Olympic medalist.

Career

At the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 took place from 23 February to 6 March 2011
— accessed 12 March ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, her first senior WCH, Niskanen finished eighth in the 10 km classical event. To date, her best individual World Championship results are 4th places in the skiathlon and 30 km classical in the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 took place between 18 February and 1 March 2015 in Falun, Sweden. This was the fourth time the event is held there, having previously been held there in 1954, 1974 and 1993. In 1980, one World Ski Cha ...

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabita ...

. At the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

, she won two silver medals as a member of team Finland: in 4 × 5 km relay and in

team sprint The team sprint (also sometimes known as the Olympic sprint) is a track cycling event. Despite its name, it is not a conventional cycling sprint event – it is a three-rider team time trial held over three laps of a velodrome. The current men's ...

. She also finished fourth in 30 km freestyle. Niskanen also has two bronze medals from World Championship 4 x 5 km relays in 2015 and 2017. She has won three World Cup competitions and has been on the podium ten times in total. Her best result in the

Tour de Ski Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

is 5th, which she achieved three times in 2014, 2016, and 2022. She was forced to sit out the

2021 World Championships 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

after a fracture was discovered in her left

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

after a World Cup race in Falun, Sweden, in January 2021. Despite the sudden, sharp pain from the fracture, Niskanen finished the race in 12th place. This was her final race of the season. During the 2021/22 season, Niskanen took her first win and podium in three years when she won the 10 km classical Stage World Cup race in

Lenzerheide Lenzerheide ( Romansh: ''Lai'') is a mountain resort in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland at the foot of the Parpaner Rothorn. The village lies in the municipality Vaz/Obervaz in the district of Albula, sub-district Alvaschein. The vil ...

, Switzerland. Following the win, she became the Tour de Ski leader for the first time in her career. Niskanen eventually finished fifth in the tournament. At the

2022 Beijing Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

, Niskanen won her first individual Olympic medal, a silver in the 10 km classical event, losing the gold medal to

Therese Johaug Therese Johaug (born 25 June 1988) is a Norwegian cross-country skier from the village of Dalsbygda in Os municipality who has competed for the clubs Tynset IF and IL Nansen. In World Ski Championships she has won ten individual gold medals ...

of Norway by only 0.4 seconds. She also placed fourth in the skiathlon, which was already her fourth 4th-place finish in individual Olympic or World Championship competitions. The team events also resulted in fourth place for Niskanen; she skied the 3rd leg in the 4 x 5 km relay and the first, third, and fifth legs of the team sprint. In both events, Finland was a strong medal contender and missed out on medals by only a couple of seconds. In the last event of the Olympics, the 30 km freestyle held in grueling, windy conditions, Niskanen won her second individual medal, this time a bronze. For most of the race, Niskanen, whose stronger style is often considered classic, skied in fourth place at the front of a chase group. In the final kilometre, however, Niskanen overtook Ebba Andersson of Sweden, who at 25 km had been half a minute ahead of her, seizing the bronze as the fastest of the chasers. Kerttu Niskanen's younger brother Iivo is also a cross-country skier and three-time Olympic champion. On 29 December 2021, the siblings made history as they won the 10 and 15 km World Cup events in Lenzerheide only hours apart. At the finale of the 2021/22 season, they shared a World Cup podium for the first time, having taken part in the mixed relay event where Finland placed second. Between them, the Niskanen siblings have won nine Olympic and five World Championship medals.

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

*4 medals – (3 silver, 1 bronze)

World Championships

*2 medals – (2 bronze)

World Cup

* 1 title – (1 distance)

Season standings

Individual podiums

* 7 victories – (3 , 4 ) * 18 podiums – (8 , 10 )

Team podiums

* 7 podiums – (7 )

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Niskanen, Kerttu 1988 births Living people Finnish female cross-country skiers Sportspeople from Oulu Skiers from North Ostrobothnia Cross-country skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic cross-country skiers for Finland Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in cross-country skiing Olympic silver medalists for Finland Olympic bronze medalists for Finland FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in cross-country skiing Tour de Ski skiers 21st-century Finnish women