Saskia Alusalu
Alusalu in 2018 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 April 1994 Jõgeva, Estonia |
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) |
| Sport | |
| Country | Estonia |
| Sport | Speed skating |
Saskia Alusalu (born 14 April 1994[1]) is an Estonian speed skater. Alusalu represented Estonia at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
In the 2017/18 World Cup in Calgary, 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 caught up with her and finally overtook her.[2]
Alusalu was Estonias's flag bearer at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
She holds several national records.
In August 2021, despite already training for the 2022 Beijing 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, she has obtained a coaching diploma to work as such in the future.[3]
References
- ^ "ALUSALU, SASKIA". esbl.ee. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
- ^ "Pechstein (GER) leaves pack trailing while Giovannini also exploits indecisive pack". isu.org. Archived from the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
- ^ "Saskia Alusalu stopt met schaatsen: 'Lichaam is op breekpunt beland'" [Saskia Alusalu is retiring from speed skating: 'My body has reached its breaking point']. schaatsen.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 9 September 2021.
External links
- Saskia Alusalu at the International Skating Union
- Saskia Alusalu at Olympics.com
- Saskia Alusalu at Olympedia
- Saskia Alusalu at InterSportStats
- Saskia Alusalu at ESBL (in Estonian)
- Saskia Alusalu on Instagram
- Pyeongchang 2018 profile at the Wayback Machine (archived 10 February 2018)
- Interview and Kia Speed Skating Academy at the Wayback Machine (archived 10 February 2018)