The weather was fine when the Slovenian national team set out on what was supposed to be a normal training trip on roller skis. After only a few minutes of walking, the trainers stop to take a few pictures in the sun. – Then there was already a good spread in the field. This is often the case when we are out roller-skiing, the distance between the athletes quickly grows, says Slovenian national team coach Ola Vigen Hattestad. At the time, 19-year-old Hana Mazi Jamnik was still in the group, but she was a little behind. The coaches drive past the athletes after they have passed, and wait further ahead for another stop. First, a group of three athletes arrives at the stop. Then the others come one by one. – And then Hana won’t come, says Hattestad. Then they hear sirens. The trainers turn around and drive down to where the athletes came from on foot. There they see the scene of the accident and an ambulance helicopter. – It was terrible, says the trainer, clearly moved. Development and results not important On Thursday, Jamnik lost his life on a completely normal training trip with the Slovenian national ski team in Strand in Rogaland. – Hana was a ray of sunshine on our team, says Hattestad. He is a former coach for the Norwegian women’s national cross-country team. In May, he took over as national team coach in Slovenia for Jamnik’s team. He says Jamnik was always cheerful and had a good mood. The fact that she could break up a bad mood with a good comment made everyone laugh. – She was the youngest on the team, only 19 years old, but she showed enormous concern for others. – I probably don’t remember everything from that day. It was a nice day, so we had planned a combination trip, says Hattestad. Photo: Arild Eskeland / news – The last few days have been tough. I’m still having a hard time, but now it’s been a couple of days. It’s starting to sink in, but it’s clear that it’s been tough here, says Hattestad. He and the whole team were on a training trip when Jamnik got into an accident with a truck. She was picked up by the air ambulance, but her life could not be saved. – Right now, development and results are not the most important thing. We hope that if anything positive can come out of this, it is that cohesion in the group is strengthened. But it will take time and it will be tough going forward, says the trainer. On Friday, roses and candles were placed in the tunnel near where the accident happened. Photo: Even Hye Tytlandsvik Barka / news Caring for each other – It was a terrible, unreal message to receive. Jamnik’s team found out that she had been in an accident, but not how serious it was. The trainers who had seen the scene of the accident understood the extent early on. – It’s clear, when they got the message that she was gone… it was quite a shock, says Hattestad. – We spent the whole of Thursday in a lot of tears. The team was together all day. Both the municipality where the accident had occurred, Strand, and Sandnes, where the team was based, quickly set up crisis teams. They came in the evening and talked to the athletes one to one. – We are very grateful for that, says the trainer. – This will take time On Friday, the national team canceled their training stay, and the athletes traveled back home to Slovenia. Here they will be followed up further, something Jamnik’s family has also been offered. Hattestad says that the athletes are well taken care of, but that this will take time to get over. – Before they left, we talked about taking care of each other. They have shown a lot of concern for each other. It will be important going forward, he says. – What will happen in the future now? – Now the athletes are back in Slovenia. We will use the time in the future to get over this. We trainers are still here in Norway, primarily to help the family with a number of practical things that need to be arranged. He says it is unknown how long it will be until they go to Slovenia, but that it will probably be within the next week. – Then our role is again to try to take care of the athletes. And then we get to spend time. We don’t really know what the next few weeks will look like. Put the sports medicine aside – We don’t know that much about what awaits us in the coming weeks and months. What we have talked about in the team is that Hana will still be with us – her infectious nature and positive attitude, says Hattestad. He still does not want to think about how it is worth going into a new season with such a shadow hanging over the team. – Right now, development and results are not the most important thing. We hope that if anything positive can come out of this, it is that cohesion in the group will be strengthened. But it will take time and it will be tough going forward. – Now it is completely unimportant with results, development, what the sport is actually about. Photo: Arild Eskeland / news
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– It was terrible – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
