Saskia Alusalu (born 14 April 1994) is an Estonian

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

. Alusalu represented Estonia at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

. In the 2017/18 World Cup in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, Alusalu achieved by far her best World Cup result to date when she placed fourth in the mass start. She attacked early and broke away from the field until three other athletes around the eventual winner

Claudia Pechstein Claudia Pechstein (born 22 February 1972) is a German speed skater. She has won five Olympic gold medals. With a total of nine Olympic medals, five gold, two silver and two bronze, she was the most successful Olympic speed skater, male or femal ...

caught up with her and finally overtook her. Alusalu was Estonias's flag bearer at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She holds several

national records National Records was a record label that was started in New York City by Albert Green in 1945 and lasted until early 1951. Big Joe Turner was signed at the beginning and remained until 1947. Billy Eckstine was also a big seller for the label as w ...

. In August 2021, despite already training for the 2022

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Winter Olympics, she announced that she was ending her career as a speed skater because she wanted to focus more on her personal life and felt she could no longer handle the physical stresses. In addition to her current physiotherapy studies at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

, she has obtained a coaching diploma to work as such in the future.

References

External links

Pyeongchang 2018 profile
Olympic speed skaters of Estonia Speed skaters at the 2018 Winter Olympics 1994 births Estonian female speed skaters Sportspeople from Jõgeva Living people {{Estonia-sport-bio-stub