In Vu de Norge this week
Johannes Høsflot Klaebo in support of Julie Myhre
This weekend, Julie Myhre claimed her first World Cuppodium in Ruka, in the classic sprint. “It’s surreal! she told TV2. When I crossed the finish line, I said to myself: ‘Damn! I’m going to go to the ceremony and stand on the podium!’ It was incredible.”
But before this final, in which she finished brilliantly 2nd, the young Norwegian received some very good advice from none other than Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. “He came to see me after her semi-final and asked me if I was in the final, she explains. He knows me well, so when he found out, he told me not to think too much, just to do what I always do and everything would be fine.”
His advice, followed to the letter, has paid off. “We belong to the same club and we’ve known each other since we were kids , even though we weren’t in the same age bracket,bcontinues Myhre. It means a lot to me that he wanted to help me.”
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo didn’t hesitate to share his delight at seeing his team-mate climb onto the box. “It’s almost more fun to watch than my own performance! She’s worked really hard to get there, she deserves her place and I’m happy for her. I hope that this will give her an extra boost so that she can do it again and even win races.”
Norwegians unhappy with Ruka’s organisation
“It’s a travesty, a fiasco”, judged the ski jumping experts at Sunday’s competition in Ruka. The reason? The non-qualification in the second round (which was eventually cancelled) of several big names in jumping such as Halvor Egner Granerud, Johann Andre Forfang and Michael Hayböck, all victims of poor wind conditions.
This might have gone unnoticed ifthe organisers hadn’t already had to contend with serious weather problems on Saturday. Two Norwegians, including Granerud, failed to qualify and were quick to complain to the media. “I’m happy to land on my feet, a defeatist Granerud told NRK. It’s dangerous to jump in these conditions, you feel like you’re going through a washing machine, you’re being tossed back and forth.”
Robert Johansson, the second unfortunate on Saturday, was even tougher: “It’s crazy that they’ve given me the green light! They’re playing with our health, they’re not even making us jump in conditions where we can be safe”, he declared angrily.
On the other hand, the FIS considers that everything went as smoothly as possible. “We’re an outdoor sport, said Sandro Pertile, ski jumping race director. If the athletes can’t accept the changing conditions, they can just play ping pong! I understand their frustration, but as far as I’m concerned, our teams handled the situation very well in really difficult conditions. They showed professionalism and we were able to bring the competition to a successful conclusion.”
Sandro Pertile added that he had not heard any other athletes complain and that Johansson and Granerud had probably done so out of disappointment rather than for justified reasons. “I was there, nobody else came to talk to me about it, including Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal who had the same kind of problem with the conditions and who is part of the same team,” concluded the race director.
“The truth is that I didn’t feel safe during the qualifiers, says Sundal. I don’t understand why they continued with the qualification, it was pointless, they should have cancelled it and made us all go through to the competition, so we could have waited until conditions were better, fairer and safer for everyone”, he concludes.
Heidi Weng protected by her family
Heidi Weng is in fine form at the start of the winter season. She made that clear in Beitostølen, where she was the only rider to hold her own against Therese Johaug, taking victory and 2nd place before confirming her form in Ruka, where she took 5th and 3rd place.
To achieve this, the cross-country skier has decided to change a few things this year to keep her going throughout the season. Among other things, she felt the need to be near her family more often to recharge her batteries. So, for the first time in a long time, she has decided to spend Christmas with her family in around twenty days’ time.
It’s a risky gamble, as she could well fall ill and spoil the end of her season and her World Championships. But to avoid this, NRK reveals that her sister has decided not to send her son to nursery school just before the holidays. “He’s two years old and he’s bound to bring back a lot of viruses, confides Weng. That’s why she chose not to put him in just before Christmas, so I could spend it with them and I’m really looking forward to it, I’m very touched by what she’s doing for me.”
Last year, the cross-country skier spent Christmas alone so as not to jeopardise her Tour de Ski. “I’ll never do that again, it was so sad,” she says. But Heidi Weng knows that she may not be able to take part in the Tour this year. “The plan is for me to do the races before Christmas, then I’ll go home, do some training at home and see how I’m getting on so I can decide which races to take part in after Christmas,” concludes the cross-country skier.
New rules for nordic combined
Last season, during the Nordic combined stage in Trondheim, a sort of dress rehearsal for the World Championships, Jørgen Graabak found himself disqualified before even jumping. The reason? He had lost his number and borrowed Vinzenz Geiger’s. The FIS race organisation disqualified him on the grounds that he had cheated, but the case revealed a small loophole in the rules, which has now been closed.
“We received a proposal from Jørgen after this event, and we studied it and incorporated it into our rules this winter,” Lasse Ottesen, FIS nordic combined race director, explained to NRK. So from now on, there will be extra numbers at the start in case an athlete loses or forgets theirs. This joker still costs the athlete 500 Swiss francs (just over 500 euros), but saves him or her from an embarrassing disqualification.
“It’s a real shame not to be able to take part in a competition just because you’ve forgotten your number, but this new rule is a good thing, says Graabak. It would be such an easy way to sabotage someone by just stealing their number, but now at least there’s a way to take part anyway.”
As for the price of the spare number, the FIS explains that this is to make the athletes more responsible. “We don’t want them to think that everything’s fine, that there are spare bibs at the top of the jump anyway, and that they don’t have to worry about their belongings any more, continues Lasse Ottesen. As for Graabak’s proposal, we’re delighted. He’s obviously pointed out a problem, but he’s also come up with a creative solution, not just complained about it.”
“It’s a perfect example of working together! Both on the part of Jørgen, who fought against an injustice, and on the part of the FIS, which was able to be humble and recognise its shortcomings,” enthused Ivar Stuan, director of the Norwegian combined event.
Sturla Holm Lægreid confronts American homophobia
In September, a video was published by the IBU on Instagram of Sturla Holm Lægreid in shooting position during a show race in Germany. It was viewed more than 37 million times , and most of the comments did not congratulate the Norwegian on his shooting speed.
“It was my girlfriend who showed me that I was actually creating a buzz, I had no idea,” admits Lægreid to NRK.
A buzz that took a wrong turn. “A lot of comments said that my shooting position made me look gay, explains the biathlete. Almost all of them were from Americans who obviously have no idea what biathlon is or what the best standing shooting position is.” Many Internet users insulted the Norwegian, calling for him to be “disqualified for looking too gay”, or claiming that the way he shot showed that he had no aptitude for the sport.
These reactions annoy Lægreid. “Everyone should live their own lives as they wish, this kind of reaction is really sad and using the fact of being gay as an insult is tragic, there’s something wrong with the world,” he says.
“If a sporting position in biathlon leads to homophobia, then we really need to do more work on the issue to combat this and the narrow standards that men are expected to uphold,” says the president of the Norwegian LGBT Association.
“Being homophobic or misogynistic is not excusable just because you know nothing about a sport, adds a representative of the Norwegian Sports Confederation. And using ‘gay’ as an insult isn’t any better, but it does explain why so few athletes dare to come out – they don’t know how they’ll be perceived, and that’s a real problem for society.”
For its part, the IBU said it was horrified by the comments under its video and took the decision to delete all of them, as well as blocking the possibility of commenting on the video to prevent such remarks from being published. “We want to promote respect, tolerance and be a sport that brings together all nationalities, beliefs, sexual orientations and differences, and we do not condone this harassment and these insults,” concluded IBU communications manager Christian Winkler.
Nordic skiing in danger in Norway?
If there was one thing that was sacred in Norway, it was the rebroadcast of the Nordic skiing stages on the national channel NRK. But in recent years, Viaplay, a pay-TV channel, has obtained the broadcasting rights in the Scandinavian kingdom, meaning that certain World Cup weekends can only be watched if viewers pay a subscription to the platform.
“It’s a total disaster for the Nordic sports culture and its dissemination, says Emil Hegle Svendsen, a former biathlete, writing in the daily Dagbladet. It’s important for young people and others to be able to see their idols on TV, otherwise how will they want to take up these sports? It could pose a real problem for junior recruitment.”
Svendsen points to the disastrous ratings of recent competitions compared to what they used to be. “Skiing needs to be put back on a national channel. It’s part of our identity, part of our culture, and we can’t afford to lose that!”
Viaplay believes that skiing will still find its audience, just as F1 is only broadcast on pay-TV channels around the world. “We can deploy skiing on several channels, to show everything, as well as offering exclusive content such as the series we shot on cross-country skiers, which will be broadcast this winter,” concludes Kenneth Andresen, CEO of Viaplay Norway.
Not enough for many people, including Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who also regrets the disappearance of skiing from the national channels.
Johannes Thingnes Bø: the other side of the coin
Johannes Thingnes Bø is one of the world’s greatest biathlon champions, but in an interview with TV2, the Norwegian reveals that not everything is rosy. “It’s important to talk about all the facets of sport, there are so many different aspects, it’s not always an easy life,” he begins. As a father, the biathlete knows that he is perhaps not as present as he would like to be for his wife and children.
“I love biathlon and fortunately I’ve got the results to go with it, so I don’t feel too guilty about it, he reveals. But yes, when I win or I’m on the podium, that means that afterwards there are lots of interviews, press conferences and debriefings… All that is time I can’t spend elsewhere, with my family for example.”
And that’s how he justifies the imminent end of his career. “It hasn’t changed: in March 2026, I’m going to stop, he says. But I’m not dreading it, it’s my choice and everything will be fine, I have to stop one day anyway.”
In the meantime, he has decided to spend more time with his two children by missing a few training camps with the national team. “Having two children is twice as good, even if it means a lot of extra logistics, laundry to fold, dishes to wash and meals to make, he smiles. But it ‘s hard to be away half the year, they realise that and we all do our best to manage it, but it’s not easy. That’s why I’m training less, because every hour less on the skis means one more hour with my family, and that’s priceless,” concludes the biathlete, who this year is aiming for the overall title and several gold medals at the World Biathlon Championships.
Is Petter Northug Jr really ready to compete for Liechtenstein?
It’s Petter Northug Jr ‘s latest whim : what if he took part in the 2026 Olympic Games for Liechtenstein? Realistic about his chances of taking part for Norway, the cross-country skier floated the idea last week in a podcast.
His brother, Even Northug, told TV2: “He’s not going to change nationality! I certainly hope not, especially as we have the national championships relay to win.”
Emil Iversen, for his part, supports his lifelong friend: “He knows he won’t be able to make the team for Norway, so he’s right to explore other lands, and I’m sure a lot of people would find it amusing if he did,” he says. “But then, if I want to do a team sprint with him, do I have to change my nationality too?” asks Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, laughing and assuring us that he too would love to see Northug back at the start, Norwegian flag on his shoulders or not, as long as it’s for great races.
But let’s be realistic, Petter Northug Jr probably said that in jest. Just as he certainly won’t be at the start of the Trondheim Worlds, there’s little chance of seeing him at the start of the next Games, and even less so for another nation, a man who has always defended his country’s colours with passion.
What if Northug did it anyway? Theoretically, he could certainly break the “quarantine” imposed by the IOC, which prevents an athlete from competing for two different nations without there being a 3-year gap between the two competitions.
“The fact that such a brilliant and talented athlete is interested in our country is a great honour for us ,” said the Liechtenstein Olympic Committee.
To do so, he would need Liechtenstein citizenship and a passport. There are four options: marry a Liechtenstein woman, reside there for 5 years, give up his former nationality or obtain a special dispensation from the Prince of Liechtenstein. A bit complicated, then, even for Petter Northug Jr.
