Cross-country skiing: a diet that didn’t suit Emil Iversen
Last winter, Emil Iversen only appeared twice on the cross-country skiing World Cup. Twenty-fourth in theindividual classic in Ruka (Finland), the Norwegian then took part in the sprint classic qualifier in Drammen (Norway) on 12 March.
It’s a poor record when you consider the Scandinavian’s track record. Interviewed over the last few days in the ‘Afterski’ podcast on the Adresseavisen website, the cross-country skier took the time to talk about the difficulties he has been facing for several seasons now.
In it, the experienced 33-year-old explains how, after winning the 50km world title in Oberstdorf (Germany) in 2021, he burnt his wings preparing for the Olympic Games in Beijing (China) in 2022. My health was starting to deteriorate a bit and I was pushing my body too hard because I wanted to lose a bit of weight,” he explains. It wasn’t something I’d thought much about in the past, but when I saw the profile of the 50km at the Games, I felt I needed to lose at least two kilos.”
A weight loss that didn’t pay off in the end, as the native of Meråker (Norway) only took part in the men’s relay at the event, where he still won the silver medal: “I was very thin but I felt that nothing was improving. Everything just got worse. I lost level in the distance races and it was even worse in the sprint,” he says.
Looking back, Emil Iversen does not hesitate to talk about the “stupid” choices he made during this period, which nevertheless taught him a lot about himself. “I’ll never do that again. It didn’t work for me. I’ve always been a ‘big eater’ and my body has had access to calories all my life,” he analyses. For some people, it goes well, but for me, it was too big a change.
Training on his own and sometimes with Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo during the summer season, the man with eight individual World Cup victories will be able to prove himself at the very start of the winter following his victory in the overall classification of the 2023/2024 Scandinavian Cup, which gives him a ticket for the first weekend in the elite.
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