– What is disturbing on the women’s side is that it has become further up to the best and up to the world elite, says Øyvind Sandbakk, who presented the report in Oslo on Saturday morning. – Norwegian top sport has been miserable on the women’s side. We have not been as good on the women’s side. There are many medals to be won there, he continues. GOLD: Therese Johaug was the only female Norwegian cross-country skier to succeed last winter. Photo: Fredrik Varfjell / NTB The failure of Norwegian women behind Johaug caused a great deal of discussion last winter. The results had plummeted over time and the Olympics were a failure for everyone but Therese Johaug. Now the ski queen is gone, like a number of other profiles. But the failure in Norwegian women’s cross-country skiing has been warned against for several years, even before it became obvious on the national team. Because there haven’t been new younger stars in Norwegian women’s cross-country skiing for a long time. In the report, a committee, led by Sandbakk, has made recommendations on how Norwegian women’s cross-country skiing can be developed. Sandbakk pointed to several things the Ski Association must address. Employment of a subject manager/sports manager. Further development of the national team model – closer follow-up in the regional training community and meeting places for professional interaction/knowledge sharing. Strategy for increased diversity of gender, localization and competence profiles in the coaching and management teams of the future. Comprehensive and long-term plan for preventive health work at various stages of development. – It is not a crisis, but with Maiken (Falla) and Therese (Johaug) gone, one should not be surprised if it will be a demanding year in terms of results on the women’s side, says Sandbakk. Sandbakk has led the work on the report on the failure of women since last spring. He has been close to Norwegian cross-country skiing for many years, including through the Olympic summit and as head of the Center for Top Sports Research at NTNU. – The reality in women’s cross-country skiing that there has been a decline in distance, and a decline in sprints. You face a challenge then. We cannot expect that this will result in athletes taking over, says Sandbakk and points to profiles that have been put up in recent years. The work was initiated on behalf of the cross-country skiing committee of the Ski Association. Around 60 people have been interviewed in the report. Therese Johaug, Guro Strøm Solli, Berit Mogstad, Bente Skari, Frank Heggebø, Sindre Bergan, Thomas Losnegaard and Espen Bjervig have also sat on the committee. Stop ten years ago During the 2010s, Norwegian cross-country skiing experienced a historic upswing, while at the same time no new stars emerged behind the established runners. The downturn was in full swing behind Therese Johaug, especially last winter. Then the best performance in the Olympics, apart from Johaug’s three golds, was Maiken Caspersen Falla’s 8th place in the sprint. There were also no medals in the relays. Many runners were far down on the results lists. At the same time, it has been pointed to a system failure over time. It has also been shown that the golden generation in Norwegian cross-country skiing stopped after Heidi Weng (31) and Ragnhild Haga (31). They were successful as last year’s juniors in the same year that the WC was held in Holmenkollen in 2011. Although after this Norway has more gold than Sweden in the junior WC, new stars have come to a complete standstill. Sandbakk believes that the challenges do not only apply to cross-country skiing. – On the women’s side since the 90s, we have been too bad. It is a persistent problem and a growing problem in Norwegian top sport, believes Sandbakk. Systematic failure A review in Aftenposten last year of 300 races over the last decade showed that Norway’s problem has been enormously measured against Sweden. Norwegian runners who were still under 30 had taken a total of four podium places in the last decade. For Swedish runners under the age of 30, the result was 126 podium places in the same period. At the same time, there have also been few runners with many top 10 positions. This prompted former national team manager Vidar Løfshus to point to several conditions that were too bad to take care of younger runners, throughout the 13 years he worked with the national team. He was self-critical and thought the numbers were terrible. Systems for reporting have been poor. The pressure to perform goes beyond recruitment. The money spent on the young talents was too little. Patience with young runners on teams has been poor. The discussion about work requirements for the young runners has been absent. Former national team manager Vidar Løfshus together with current cross-country manager Espen Bjervig. Photo: Anders Skjerdingstad / news The admission of plain work with the women was something he also stated to news just before he stepped down as national team manager in 2019. – I think we in Norway have done too bad a job with the second best girls. I will honestly admit that I have raised the flag for many years, but we have done a simple job, said Vidar Løfshus. Sees several reasons Earlier this week, Anne Kjersti Kalvå pointed out the failure in working with the second best athletes. She herself became a national team runner well into adulthood. – I feel that I have done a lot on my own and that all the expertise and help that lies in the skiing environment in Norway has not been used well enough to get us second best, Kalvå told news. Therese Johaug has announced that she will give an honest judgment of the performance culture in the national team in recent years in the book about her life. It will be published at the end of October. Johaug has also been involved in the work on the evaluation report. She has seen the reasons for the failure. – It is very complex. I can say that. In order to create a good performance culture, everyone must contribute, everything from athletes, to coaches, to managers, to everything. So we must now go in and look at what has been done and what needs to be done in the future to build it up. I have a lot of knowledge that I want to share, Johaug told news in the autumn.
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