You are now reading news’s new interview column “På hjembane”. Here we meet well-known sports profiles and ask them a series of questions about big and small things. Today: Ski jumper Halvor Egner Granerud (26). Current with: Ski World Cup in Planica, big hill jumps on Friday 17.30. We start with five fixed questions: – Apart from sports, what do you spend the most time on? – I think it might be golf. – When was the last time you spent NOK 1,000 or more on a dinner? – I think it was this summer. Then I treated myself, my partner, my parents and her parents to dinner. It was more than NOK 1,000. I think it was NOK 3000-4000, then we were at Frati in Trondheim. I think good food is exciting. – What is the stupidest purchase you have made in the last year? – I think it’s cool to buy myself a bottle of carbonated water after the security check at the airport. It is in many ways quite stupid when I travel almost every week, and pay around NOK 45 for it almost every trip. I actually think it’s the stupidest thing. – What can really piss you off? – I react to what is obviously idiotic. As most recently in Lake Placid in the World Cup. Then Anze Lanisek destroyed the zipper on his suit just before he was going to check. But since he was number three in the World Cup overall, he did not have time to send up another suit and reach the qualification. I thought that was idiotic and pissed me off at how unfair it was. The rule is that if you have equipment problems, you must jump before the system man on the start list. If I had broken the zip, I could get a new suit, because I could jump as a system man anyway. I thought that was really silly. – What is your most controversial opinion? – I don’t know if it’s a controversial opinion, but I think dogs on the ski slopes ruin the track. Halvor Egner Granerud got little out of the last WC. Photo: Florian Schroetter / AP – Halvor Egner Granerud, now you are going to jump on the big hill, how do you see it? – I am really exited! I think I am stronger there than in the 90-meter hill (was number 11). – Why? – One of the things I’m very good at, and have been very good at all year, is bringing a lot of speed with me and using it to stretch out metres. – There has been a lot of talk about the wind in the WC and that it creates uneven conditions. What will it be like when you get up the big hill? – We’ve been there quite a few times, and I’ve taken that lift up quite a few times, and I don’t remember seeing those facilities as “coconut” as they are now, that the wind varies so much. It has been surprising. But the way it looked on Saturday, when it was very windy in the 90-hill, it was quite calm in the big hill. There has been a change of weather that is easy to see, with all the snow that has fallen, and the Slovenian jumpers have given me detailed explanations of the weather phenomenon here, which means that the outlook is good for things to improve in the big hill. – So the Slovenians have given you some help, have they? – At least they have tried to explain why there has suddenly been so much weather and wind here every day. – Are you afraid that the big hill will become a parody race? – I suppose it will get better, on a 90-metre hill it makes very little difference, and I hope it will be more normal when we get to the big hill. In ten years, Halvor Egner Granerud hopes that women’s jumping will have taken new steps. Photo: CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP – You are participating in a new WC. What did the WC in 2021 give you? – It gave me very little, I was sick as hell already three or four weeks before the WC started. There was so much fuss, hustle and bustle around the whole thing. I was really only focused on the next World Cup race, because it was the World Cup that was most important to me at the time. – Hustle and bustle in what way? – It’s the media, then. After the World Cup victory in Neustadt immediately after the show jumping, the questions immediately came, “what do you think about the World Cup?” and “how are you going to keep in shape until the WC?”. But I didn’t care, I was trying to win the World Cup. So when I first got to Oberstdorf it had been quite a tough trip to Rasnov ahead of the early race and two hours ahead in the time zone. I was very tired when I first came to the WC. – Before the first competition in the normal slope, you won the qualifier, but what happened after that? – No, what happened after that? I felt like “king kong”, of course, but at the same time the jumping was a bit marginal, which worked well as the shoulders were low and there was not so much tension. But in the first half of the WC it was just a bit too much, and I was in 16th place after the first half. There was a lot of money in the bucket, of course. But I did a very nice second jump and ended up in fourth place, one point behind the bronze. Woho (ironic). Then I was so disappointed afterwards that I ran home from the doping control, which was quite a lot longer than I thought it would be. So it ended up being a 50 minute run. – And then you tested positive for corona the next day. How was the time in quarantine? – I thought that was absolutely beautiful! I thought that was great. Halvor Egner Granerud can get really pissed if things get unnecessarily idiotic. Photo: Geir Olsen / NTB – Was this what you liked best about the whole WC? – Yes, at least when I got into my own apartment. It had gone so badly all winter, my life had been completely turned upside down, but I hadn’t had time to feel it or land, or somehow do something… So suddenly I was forced to be somewhere in 10-12 days. It was great, I enjoyed it very much, it was very delicious. – You lost the rest of the WC. Do you think that no matter what happens in the WC in Planica, it can’t be as bad as last time? – Yes, it is much easier to be number 17 and not qualify than to be number four. A fourth place is not bad, but it would have been fun to finish a WC. – What did you learn from the last WC then? – The first is how much greater media interest there is in a World Cup versus a normal World Cup, which means that you have to be more cynical about what you agree to and spend time on. Skipping the WC as World Cup leader is not the world’s easiest task. There are lots of things that take energy and focus if you are not ready for it and conscious of it. – How do you use the experience you now have in the WC in Planica? – The time I get for myself I have to use as best as possible on things that give me energy. And I have to find distractions that can help me be turned on when I have to, and as turned off as possible when I can be off. Two years ago I exposed myself to a lot. Partly because I think it was fun that things were written about me, but also because it got a bit boring eventually because I just won all the time. – What do you do when you are by yourself then? – I have to spend some time now finding good audio books that I can dive into. I have to find books where I can just lie down and listen with my eyes closed and just relax. – What are you listening to? Is it mostly in crime? – Yes, that’s probably it. But the problem with crime fiction is that it can be excessively exciting and difficult to put down. So there has to be the right tension level so that it is possible to go to bed at night, that you don’t have to stay up until three o’clock to find out who the murderer is. – If we are to look a little forward in time. Where do you think show jumping will be in ten years? – I feel that we are taking steps towards becoming a cooler sport to follow, with more competitions with more action. I hope that in ten years’ time the sport of show jumping will have two strong products, meaning that the women’s product will have become much stronger than it is. And it is undergoing strong growth. And then I hope men and women have more competitions in the same place and that the ski flying slopes have become bigger! – How big? – The world record tends to move quite a lot in ten years, but now it has stood quite still. Probably only moved seven meters from Johan Remen Evensen’s world record in 2011 to Stefan Kraft’s in 2017. It’s really time to move it a bit already, but then the slopes have to be bigger. – Should the sport of jumping do as in biathlon and cross-country skiing with joint competition weekends with men and women? – Yes, at least to a greater extent, because I notice how much greater interest there is when we have weekends together. Then, for example, more journalists will arrive. And a journalist on site delivers better material than one sitting at home. After all, I have the most overview of what is happening in Norway, and here we are at least ready to have more weekends together. – But do you feel that everyone is moving in the same direction, or is it the case that someone is holding back? – There is little doubt that not everyone sees the same value in this. Poland is one of the nations that spends the most money on covering show jumping, but there is a long way to go for interest in the ladies. But I think that would change very quickly if they brought up a really good lady. I feel that it is going slower than it should, but it is at least moving forward, and that means that I believe that in ten years we will be stronger as an overall product. Halvor Egner Granerud likes team competitions. Photo: GEORG HOCHMUTH / AFP – Are there any other changes you think show jumping should make in the future? – Point one should be to use the ski flying slopes we have every year. Kulm and Oberstdorf cannot change every two years whether they organize races or not. And I think it was very positive to start the World Cup with ice tracks and plastic, like in Wisla, we can build on that to have a longer season. And I think it’s good that showjumping mostly starts at 4pm in the afternoon, it’s important to have a fixed time. In addition, the “summer Grand Prix” should be developed so that it becomes more attractive to us jumpers. – It is a challenging sponsorship situation for the Norwegian team right now. Are you worried about the investment if no more money comes in? – Yes! We desperately need money so as not to lose an entire generation of post-growth. You can already see the signs, it was scary to watch the Junior WC this year. We need more money to invest in the athletes who are not on TV every weekend. As it is now, there are many athletes and few coaches. Then the follow-up per athlete naturally becomes a little weaker, which means that more is required of athletes to move up, which will lead to weaker subsequent growth and fewer athletes who fight to jump World Cup. Halvor Egner Granerud has great hopes for the jumping future. Photo: Hans Pennink / AP – But are you afraid that this could affect the national team, i.e. the best, that there will be less of you already next season? – Yes, it has already affected us, with the fact that we have quite a few people in the support apparatus, there will be a lot to do for those who are on tour. We do the best we can with the resources we have available, but it is already the case that the sporting aspect could be better. It mostly depends on the fact that we are mostly one person too few on the trip so that there will not be too much to do for those who are on the trip. – How do you notice it? – You notice it in the follow-up it is possible to provide. Nobody has more than 24 hours in a day, and then you have to constantly prioritize what is most important to get done. And then there are also a number of things that you don’t get time to do. – Like what? – It varies from weekend to weekend. Can be as simple as running good laps with analysis or equipment discussions. Like Alex (national team coach Alexander Stöckl) for example, he must also contribute to the market and acquire new sponsors, spend energy on that, at the same time he must also be a tour guide. There will be many hats that you have to wear because we are a small team because we have too little money. A capacity limit is reached. They do a hell of a job, but they have to wear a lot of different hats. This makes the specialization worse than it could have been. – There have been some turbulent years, there has been a row between the former management of the Ski Association and their sports manager Clas Brede Bråthen. How do you feel that collaboration is now? – I experience it as much better, and have a very good impression of the new ski president. We have probably received significantly more congratulations and had more communication than with the previous one during all the years he was president. I have the impression that the others think so too, that it has been nice to have a fresh start. In any case, I am very positive about the continuation. – You came to the WC as the big favourite. What needs to happen now in the big hill for you to be satisfied when you leave here? – Individual medal. It feels like this after the 90 hill. Psst: Have you seen our mini-documentary about Granerud? You can find it here: A year ago Halvor Egner Granerud was a mediocre ski jumper, now he is the best in the world. But the season has also offered lows in Hoppuka and the WC.
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