SOGNEFJELLET (VG) The Norwegian women’s squad expresses that the new coaching team has created increased motivation and new energy. Cross-country manager Espen Bjervig thinks the mood is the opposite with Norway’s fiercest competitor.
Less than 20 minutes ago
–
Bjervig smiles during the national team’s first gathering of the season. He has left behind a long period of demanding negotiations with Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, a lubrication conflict and not least the hiring of new coaches.
He says the women athletes are very happy with the start of Sjur Ole Svarstad and Stig Rune Kveen as coaches. The same is the cross-country manager.
– And then we get good traction from a Swedish national team that picks itself apart. It’s a little fun, says Bjervig.
–The cross-country manager, like most people in the cross-country environment, has learned that three of Sweden’s big profiles has broken with the national team.
Last season’s supremely best women’s team has lost Linn Svahn, Maja Dahlqvist and Frida Karlsson. The trio has said no to the team’s meetings, the association’s follow-up of the coaching and medical team, assignments for the association’s sponsors.
For the winter, they get to go to the World Cup and the World Cup for Sweden, but in the meantime they are free to profile private sponsors, they fully manage their own training routine together with their private coaches. It was also the skiers’ main argument for the break, namely that they now have to optimize training at home.
While the Swedish Ski Association thought they stretched as far as possible and said it was sad with the star exit. At the same time, Sweden’s cross-country manager Anders Byström has acknowledged that the national team model may must be considered.
–Bjervig emphasizes that he does not know if there are any conflicts behind the national team break.
– But if I look at it purely sportingly, I can not understand that it is a strength for Swedish women’s cross-country skiing. They have been a united troop that has lifted each other forward, as we have seen in Norwegian biathlon, Norwegian cross-country skiing and alpine skiing.
– For many years, Swedish women’s cross-country skiing has stood together as a strong team and pushed each other to get better. It is now being pulverized. In the short term it may go well, but in the long term I do not think there is any advantage for women’s cross-country skiing in Sweden.
It has long been speculated whether Johannes Høsflot Klæbo will break with the national team. But he is ready for another year with the union’s plan. His assessment of the Swedish stars’ choices is as follows:
Cross-country skiing is an individual sport. As long as this is about becoming a better skier and is concerned with my own development, I do not mind that people choose to do other things than what is planned to be done.
The 25-year-old says he makes his assessments regularly, both during and after the season on what will make him a better skier.
– In my case this year, I thought that being part of the national team does is the best for me, so we will see in the long run. It may not be the same in a year or two. You never know, says Klæbo.
–VG asks cross-country manager Bjervig to familiarize himself with the Swedish ski management’s challenge and asks what he would have thought if three such large profiles would leave the national team program.
– I had thought: “What does it take to gather the troops?”. I think the management there agrees with my assessment, that the strongest team is that they are united the whole gang.
– What do you think it does to your team?
– There will be uncertainty. You start talking about what’s going on. There will probably not be a good framework in the beginning here, but those who are left are good runners as well, says Bjervig.
–
