On Thursday, the Norwegian Ski Association announced that Anne Kjersti Kalvå had to cancel the Tour de Ski after testing positive for covid-19. Kalvå tested positive for corona after the competition in Oberstdorf yesterday and traveled home to Trondheim today. Trønder was third in the summary, 1.31 minutes behind Sweden’s Frida Karlsson. – She took it quite hard. She was sad and disappointed. It is natural when you are in such good shape and are taken out of the game, and you also have bad memories from last year, says national team coach Stig Rune Kveen to news. SAME COHORT: Tiril Udnes Weng and Anne Kjersti Kalvå after finishing the 20 km hunt start. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB The fear became reality Kveen confirms that Kalvå tested positive in a routine test that was taken before the athletes were to move from Oberstdorf to Val di Fiemme on Wednesday afternoon. The women’s cross-country coach Sjur Ole Svarstad also tested positive for corona on Monday. – We continue our strict measures with small cohorts, masks and good hand hygiene. Everyone has fixed seats in a fixed car, fixed table positions and we have our own dining rooms, says cross-country manager of the Norwegian Ski Association Espen Bjervig to news. The coronavirus also put an end to Kalvå’s Olympic participation in Beijing last year. – I’m terrified of that covid, I’ll admit it. There is a trauma that lies there, Kalvå told news before Christmas. Horror in the camp – First of all, it’s very boring. She has had the season of her life, says news’s commentator Torgeir Bjørn. – Now there will be unrest and anxiety in the squad, especially among those who have been closest to her, predicts Bjørn. Kalvå has lived with his twin sisters Tiril and Lotta Udnes Weng in Oberstdorf. And has had close contact with Tour leader Frida Karlsson, among others. – It’s a bit of a flashback to last season, where the first thing you do when you get up is think about whether you’re healthy. Now the athletes will feel it, says Bjørn. Heidi Weng, who had her Olympic dream crushed together with Kalvå, has had a particularly tough time during the corona years and the time afterwards. When national team coach Sjur Ole Svarstad contracted the corona virus on Monday, the old thoughts came back for Weng. – It is clear that it has been a long and tough year for me. There has been something pretty much the whole time, if you get another downturn now, it would be crazy, Weng told news after Wednesday’s start of the hunt. HUG: Two days ago, Kalvå and Tour leader Karlsson hugged. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB Hoping for a mild variant Kveen did not perceive Kalvå, who finished fourth in yesterday’s 20 km hunt start, as ill. He’s crossing his fingers that it’s a mild version she’s got. – She has had it before, and then I hope – even though I am not a doctor – that it will take less time before she is back, that it will not be so severe, he says. As the new national team coach, Kveen has been an important supporter for Kalvå through what was a difficult spring after the previous round with covid. He promises that the student will receive close follow-up this time as well: – I’m not too worried about it. We must recreate what we have and look forward. She has shown how good she is, so we can only cross our fingers that she is back soon. Kveen says he cannot answer whether the rest of the team is worried after first coach Sjur Ole Svarstad and then Anne Kjersti Kalvå tested positive during the Tour de Ski. – We do what we can to avoid infection. We test ourselves often and try to be as good as we can. We will then be aggressive with the runners we have and prepare as best we can for the final stages, he says.
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Anne Kjersti Kalvå’s corona nightmare repeated
