Kilde competes with Swiss Marco Odermatt for the title of the world’s best speed skier. When he’s not injured. He definitely is now, after the brutal fall in Wengen in January. From his wheelchair in Innsbruck, he instead has time and, not least, the opportunity to fight a completely different battle, which has occupied him for a long time. SPEAKS OUT: Aleksander Aamodt Kilde met with news and spoke out about the distrust of the leadership in Norwegian skiing. Photo: Eirik Fure / news A fight he is close to implying, albeit indirectly, has contributed to him falling the way he did. This is how great Kilde believes the wear and tear of this process has been. A complicated conflict The entire autumn of 2023 was filled with a public argument between Norway’s Ski Association and several of the nation’s biggest skiing stars. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Lucas Braathen, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. LEAVE: Lucas Braathen. Photo: Alessandro Trovati / AP Few people really understood what the conflict was about in practice. In addition, expressions such as “image rights”, “national team agreements” and legislative committees are too far removed from the everyday speech of anyone other than those involved. The Ski Association has a choice. As they have all along. And which they have obviously feared so much that they have trained it far too far in overtime. Unnecessary criticism Then they also have to endure the type of unnecessary criticism that Kilde is now bringing. Unnecessary in the sense that the union has had every opportunity to avoid it. They have not utilized them. Even after receiving opposition in several assessments from both its own law committee and that of NIF. The possibly adequate arguments the union has had during the process have thus successively lost their force. If Kilde, Braathen, Klæbo have not necessarily been right in what they have claimed along the way, they have got it anyway, when they have not been able to reach a new agreement. An uncertain committee The committee that was supposed to be set up in November instead ended up as another empty shell. Yes, the union has been tied up in budget tangles and nothing but tangles, but this would have been a simple, pleasant and concrete way to signal will and action. Which the leadership in the union did not take advantage of. Only now is the reaction coming. The first published candidate as a committee member came as a direct result of the new criticism from Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. The name of the candidate is, shockingly, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Whether he is interested is uncertain at best. For Kilde and his supporters, the broken promises have obviously become too many. NOT SATISFIED: Alpine star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde takes a strong stand with the management of the Norwegian Ski Association. Photo: Eirik Fure / news Five years of opportunities Kilde apparently speaks for a slightly vaguely defined community – but of course most of all for himself. Such is the top sport. And what a career he estimates will last a maximum of five more years. Then you want to get as much out of it as possible. That includes the first championship gold of his career. And money. As he himself acknowledges. Stars are attractive. Stars make money. Some of this money must be used by the association to secure the foundation for the community and future generations of stars. But at the moment the union apparently takes more than they are really entitled to. Or at least more than they have agreed with their stars. This was at least one of the reasons why Lucas Braathen got fed up and, most surprisingly, quit indefinitely just before Christmas. That is one of the reasons why Kilde is now so much more direct in its criticism of the management of its own association. The source will not name names, but no one can doubt that it is ski president Tove Moe Dyrhaug and general secretary Arne Baumann who are the main addressees. SKITOPPER: General secretary Arne Baumann and ski president Tove Moe Dyrhaug. Photo: Montage NTB A system in crisis A “top-down approach”, Kilde describes it as. From a management that he believes unconcernedly looks at performers who come and go. While the system persists. But the Source is still here. And must be listened to. At the same time, the system is in crisis. And this type of criticism further contributes to that. When the economy is critically bad, you need to work as a team with your stars. Don’t end up in public conflicts like this. Kilde himself believes that this is basically quite easy to figure out: “Then we meet in the middle and have a nice dialogue and work together as an organization to become even better”. Today, no one is meeting. Or work together. Walk or talk GOES OFF: Show jumping manager Clas Brede Bråthen. Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB The management of the Ski Association gets rid of one of its biggest problems when Clas Brede Bråthen goes off in the spring. Now it’s up to them even if they want to disappear in the same direction. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde does not decide that. It is not a given that it is the best solution either. But his frustrated wishes in that direction are listened to. He calls for change through new forces from outside. If the solution is to be found among those who rule today, they must in any case start with the most basic form of conflict resolution. Someone needs to talk.
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