– Starting to get a little old and cranky – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule

The Olympics are fast approaching for the national rowing team, but this time without former profile Olaf Tufte. It happens after he has participated in a total of seven Olympics and won four medals in total. It was his last Olympics when he gave up shortly after disappointing in Tokyo in the summer of 2021. Nevertheless, he does not hide that he has something to do in the rowing boat as his former teammates get ready for the Games in Paris. – The way things are now, with a double four being qualified, so if I had bet one hundred percent from the start of the season in October. Then I mean that I would have been good enough to argue for a place in the double four, yes. – Do you think you would have been good enough to take a place? – I mean it. It was only in the news podcast Skiklubben that Tufte came forward and thought he had the level right. FULL OF CONFIDENCE: Olaf Tufte believes he still has the body to row in the Olympics. Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB Responds: – Then he should have turned up Not everyone is necessarily in complete agreement with that. At least not Kjetil Borch and Martin Helseth, who will row double sculls in Paris. – Then he should have turned up, then. Then I think he’s getting a little old and grumpy, says Borch to news and grins. Borch rowed together with Tufte when the two won Olympic bronze in double sculls at the 2016 Olympics. The 34-year-old, who won Olympic silver in single sculls in Tokyo in 2021, is ready for his fourth Olympics this summer. This time in double sculls, together with Martin Helseth. Helseth supports Borch, and says he is unsure how to interpret such a comment. – It feels a bit out of place, really, when he sits on the sidelines and reports. He would have liked to have been there and would have liked to see him off with part of the team, but when he is not, then it gets a bit sloppy, Helseth believes. REACT: Both Kjetil Borch and Martin Helseth snort at Tufte’s Olympic performance. Photo: Annika Byrde / NTB Tufte himself is aiming for the Norwegian four-man boat competing in the Olympics. Rower Kristoffer Brun is one in four there. – We have a powerful project that we are currently sitting on. That is what I can relate to and it will be pointless speculation as far as I can judge, says Brun. news has contacted Tufte regarding the answers to the national team rowers, but has not yet received a reply. – Would have been difficult Several rowers point out to news that the level of the national team is very high and that Tufte had to work hard to have an opportunity. – We know that the level of the boys here today is very high. So then he would have had a job to do, yes, says Thea Helseth. Rower Lars Martin Benske thinks the same. – I think it would have been difficult for him. At least within the team we have now. He is fit, but he is also 48 years old. So I think it would have been difficult for him to qualify for the Olympics now, says Benske. The double four consists of the aforementioned Brun, Erik André Solbakken, Jonas Juel and Oscar Helvig. OLYMPIC-READY: Lars Martin Benske is part of the Norwegian lightweight double sculler. Photo: Hans Jørgen Brun / Norwegian Rowing Federation Olympic disappointment in Tokyo When Tufte himself was part of a double four in Tokyo, the Olympics were a big disappointment and it ended with Tufte in tears. The Norwegian boat was then a long way from a final place and finished ninth. Tufte retired shortly after the Games in Tokyo, 25 years after he made his Olympic debut in Atlanta in 1996. During a rich career, Tufte has won two Olympic golds in single sculls and Olympic silver and Olympic bronze in double sculls. He also has two WC gold medals in single sculls. Published 18.07.2024, at 07.01



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