The length of the second shortest geodesic (Q843197)

In the paper [J. Differ. Geom. 78, No.~3, 497--519 (2008; Zbl 1143.53038)], the second author proved that, in a closed \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \(M\) of diameter \(d\) there exists a geodesic loop of length \(\leq 2d\) based at any \(x\in M\). In this paper, the authors prove a beautiful generalization of that result, by showing that given \(x,y\in M\), there exist at least two distinct geodesics connecting them of length \(\leq 2qd\), where \(q=\min \{\pi_i(M)\neq 0\}\), i.e. \(\pi_q\) is the first nontrivial homotopy group of \(M\). Their proof is based on two results of independent interest that show how to construct suitable continuous maps (coherent \(N\)-fillings, see [J. Differ. Geom. 18, 1--147 (1983; Zbl 0515.53037)] by \textit{M. Gromov}) for families of continuous maps joining \(x,y\).