– I feel that you have to treat people in a good way. If you’re going to do that, you have to be open, you have to have values from the bottom of your heart. I don’t think they (Skiforbundet) have that right now. They balance on a line, making very short-term decisions without thinking about the athlete. I feel that the athlete comes very far behind the line, which I think is wrong, says Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in the podcast “Faster Skier”, according to VG. Klæbo has still not signed either a national team agreement or a representation agreement with the Norwegian Ski Association for the coming season. In short, the conflict is about how the sporting scheme for the ski star should be, the treatment of people in the Ski Association and marketing agreements between runners and the association. Nevertheless, the outgoing head of cross-country skiing, Espen Bjervig, hopes for a quick solution. – Hope we get it in the box soon. In order for Klæbo to be able to go to the World Cup this winter, he must have a so-called representation agreement, i.e. an agreement about the conditions that will apply when Klæbo actually represents Norway. CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNING MANAGER: Espen Bjervig. Photo: Lars Thomas Nordby / NTB news did an interview with Bjervig on Friday. It was before VG mentioned the podcast. Bjervig tells news that he hopes the situation will be resolved soon. – Now he (Johannes) has just returned home from the USA. I hope I will at least meet his father (Klæbo’s manager, editor’s note) fairly quickly and sit down to talk about it. Everyone wants Johannes to start in Ruka, says Bjervig. The cross-country manager therefore resigns from the Ski Association on 1 January, but refers to the agreement with Klæbo as one of his most important tasks in the coming months. – We don’t have a bad time. When we go to Ruka, which is the first World Cup race, we have taken out the last runners just three days before. The athletes we take out at Beitostølen, they sign the agreement just three days before Ruka. So the agreement does not need to be in place before the World Cup starts. But none of us wants to spend unnecessary time on this. I hope we get it in the box soon, says Bjervig. Confronted with Klæbo’s statements in the podcast, Bjervig replies as follows: – There is much of what Johannes says that is difficult to interpret, and I want to take this directly with him to gain an understanding of the statements, beyond this I refer to my answer to VG today on the same issue: I feel that Johannes and I agree on a lot, but that we also have different perspectives and perceptions of internal conditions in cross-country skiing, Bjervig replies. Wants to return to the national team Bjervig also said that he disagrees with some of the characteristics that have come from Klæbo this summer. We emphasize that these quotes were given before Bjervig was confronted with Klæbo’s latest statements: – I do not agree with many of the claims he makes and the characteristics of how the environment is here and there. But I respect that he thinks so, so we can just take it from there, says Bjervig. TRAINING ON HIS OWN HANDS: Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is outside the national team this season and has therefore invested in his own treadmill for roller skiing to train. Photo: Joakim Halvorsen / NTB During the Blink festival this summer, Klæbo told news that he did not have to sign an agreement this season. His main goal going forward is the WC in Trondheim in 2025. – Hopefully I won’t say no to the national team in the future. I think the national team is a good thing. I just think it is important that the athletes are given priority, and that the union and the leaders in the union need to get a little more values into their thinking when they work. If not, they can destroy everything, I think, says Klæbo in the podcast. Bjervig, for his part, says that he must take responsibility for the totality and that his decisions must stand up to the community. – An individual athlete does not need to have that look. What is optimal for an individual athlete is not always optimal for the rest. Sometimes we could do a better job, and we constantly want to develop further, in the same way as the athletes. When it comes to internal, personnel-related matters, we take it up with Johannes directly, and not in the media, Bjervig replies.
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