She has a good glide. The experienced skier Eva Fixdal (90) has chosen blue lubrication in Oslomarka today. She is light in her step, uses classical technique. When she first started skiing, conditions were poor for people like her. – I well remember a great skiing personality who said that ladies should not go skiing because they became so disgusting. Sweaty and snotty! says Eva. This is the story of when the ladies fought their way into our most traditional ski touring race, the Birkebeineren. It gave this headline: The statement may not have stood the test of time. How has it gone with the women of hell? “They had tufted hair” Norwegian women have actually been skiing for hundreds of years. Mothers took babies to church to have them baptized in the 16th century. In 1888, two women skied the 60 kilometers from Steinkjer to Namsos. But when cross-country skiing in the 19th and 20th centuries became something people did for fun – and to compete – it got the label “unfeminine”. Prejudice was strongly embedded in those who decided in skiing. When it was to be decided whether women should be allowed to go cross-country skiing in the Olympics in Oslo 1952, Norway was the only country that voted against. The sports journalists were also conservative. Here from the article “Should girls go cross-country skiing?” in Dagbladet before the Olympics in Oslo 1952: “… the first races were certainly no advertisement for women’s cross-country skiing. The newspapers had pictures of girls lying exhausted on the piste, with soup and sweat running down their faces, their hair was matted…” Female runners were not allowed to participate in the National Skiing Championships until 1954. For comparison, women went to the Swedish championship from 1917. And well into the 1970s, the women were still not allowed to have a starting number in the national manhood test in skiing, the fabled Birkebeinerrennet. “Birken” Rennet runs over the mountains from Rena to Lillehammer. It started in 1932 and is held every year. The tour follows a historical trail where two soldiers (Birkebeiners) in Christmas 1205 carried the 1-year-old king’s son Håkon in a sack on their backs (in the opposite direction). In memory of this, everyone who walks Birken must have a minimum of 3.5 kilos on their back. Before Birken became legal for women, the most enthusiastic had to go abroad to run long races. Didn’t dare bring a camera Eva (90), she on skis in the blue jacket, has taken us on a trip home to her best friend Netten Grav (96). At Netten’s home in Ullern in Oslo, it’s a busy life. Craftsmen drill into concrete and carry out the old fireplace. In the kitchen we get cheese, grapes and tea, and a piece of Norwegian sports history. THE ARCHIVIST: The network has had good procedures for documentation. Newspaper clippings, trail maps, photographs and results lists have been neatly cut and pasted here. Photo: Kamilla Marie Johnsen / news The snappy albums Netten og Eva bend over bear witness to an extremely large number of completed ski races. But there are no photos from the first years they went to Birken. – Erru gaeren, we didn’t dare bring a camera once. We shouldn’t cause a stir, says Netten. What does “forbidden” mean? “Forbidden” does not mean that women were forced off the track. In 1961, four women were allowed to walk Birken (with green armbands, after all the men had left). But there was no starting number or timing for women. They were not allowed to register for the race. Olympic winner Berit Mørdre Lammedal went “unofficially” several times, and found it bitter not to be able to participate in competition properly. – It’s not the same to go there and win when you don’t have a number on your chest, she said in a later interview with news. Netten Grav was among the first women in Norway to start competing in cross-country skiing, in the late 1960s. It started with a talent – and a group of modern men. First we take Marcialonga Netten Grav had moved to the Ullern district in Oslo as an adult and discovered how close it was to the market. She was a stay-at-home mother of four and married to Jan, who was a keen skier. Netten proved to have an easy time learning the technique and she had solid endurance. Her husband and his friends welcomed her with open arms. – When the guys noticed that I was going as fast as them, it was just, please come along! says Netten and laughs. For several years, she traveled abroad with her husband and a group of friends to go on long ski runs. NETTEN AND THE GUYS: – I walked from Ottawa to Montreal in Canada in 1973 (Canadian Skimarathon, editor’s note), it was 10 miles. It was so cold you couldn’t breathe! Afterwards I had to dance with the Indian chief, Netten comments on this race. Photo: Privat The name “Netten” was also to be an advantage when she first tried Italy’s famous long-distance race Marcialonga (70 km). – It was me and our friend Dagmar Hirsch who wanted to enroll. They realized she was female because of the name, so she wasn’t allowed to start. But no one reacted to Netten! It wasn’t that she specifically dressed as a man, she explains, it was more that in ski clothes and with short hair, she slipped in just fine. – Lucky that I was so flat-chested, says Netten. After about a mile, spectators nevertheless noticed that for the first time a woman took part in the walking race. – “Donna, donna!” I heard along the track. Nobody was mad. And afterwards I had to greet the mayor, says Netten. At home in the skin nation of Norway, the enthusiasm was far from as great. The first Birken After she gave birth to her fourth child in 1971 (“that’s when I stopped smoking”), Netten’s friend Eva Fixdal also got a kick out of skiing. She got well quickly. Together they took courses as C-trainers under the auspices of the Ski Association, they taught technique and got involved in management and maintenance. FRUSTRATED: – The husband of a lady in my training group called my husband and asked if he couldn’t prevent this crazy skiing that we ladies were doing, because it was so unfeminine! But then he got to hear it, says Eva. Photo: Kamilla Marie Johnsen / news But the national day itself for everyone with a sky-high Blåswix budget, the mythical Birkebeiner, they were still banned from. It could not continue like this. – It was something we decided on. We thought it was some real crap that we weren’t allowed to participate, says Netten. – It was a man’s bastion, going cross-country, sweating, being rough, says Eva. 1975 was International Women’s Year. Gro Harlem Brundtland got her first ministerial post – and Birken, after much fuss, opened a trial class for women. – That year we were demonstration ladies, says Netten. Olympic winner Berit Mørdre (from Grenoble 1968 and the relay team called “Jentut’n”) was the biggest celebrity. She had already walked Birken without getting a start number on several occasions. Others went with “We need ladies’ class” on their chests. The stunt was duly covered in the newspapers – and won out. Photo: Facsimile: Dagbladet In 1976, Eva and Netten traveled to Rena to attend Birken’s very first official women’s class. – They were not at all happy to bring us along. Many more on the trail, many more overnight stays and … showering and blah blah. Many believed that women could not endure and take part in long races, says Eva. Already before the start, the skepticism was visible. The race management presented a separate rule that the female runners who had not passed Kvarstaddammen (28 km, a little over halfway) by 12 o’clock were taken out of the race. – There was no such rule for the men who came subbing over there long afterwards, notes Eva dryly. WENT UP THE TRAIL: Netten and Eva have read enough news stories about women who are not allowed to jump far on skis or the like. It is slow to get things sorted here, the two think. Photo: Kamilla Marie Johnsen / news Fast men pressed past annoyed. Slower men refused to move when caught. Calls such as “women of hell” could be heard in the track. – They even stabbed you in the back with the stick, says Netten. But she also emphasizes: – That’s what happens in the heat of battle! Nothing to worry about. All 69 women who started the first year finished. – We were very careful to dry our noses before we got to the finish line so we didn’t drool! We went in with a fairly eel-like appearance, says Eva and chuckles. – We weren’t tired at all, remember? supplements Netten. WINNER 1976: Berit Mørdre Lammedal won, as expected, the women’s class in the first year. On the right, the second place, Valborg Østberg. She won in 1977. A life of good fitness In the following years, Eva and Netten were joined by more and more women in the Norwegian touring race environment (“we went to about one race every weekend”). The pictures in the album have several recurring characters. – I never took Valborg Østberg, the grandmother of Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. She was a washerwoman at Gjøvik hospital! – That’s not what it’s called! It’s called a cleaning assistant, Eva interjects. – Yeah, but I’ll tell you, she was sloshing around … she was completely raw. Eva started a training group, they ran in the summer and skied in the winter. She and Netten became part of a group (both men and women) who traveled on a race abroad every year. Among the Norwegian courses, Grenaderløpet (90 km) rises above Birken, in purely sporting terms. – It is ten times tougher and ten times better to walk the Grenadier ten times, as Eva has done, says Netten. It was still 20 marks in Birken for the two friends, before they found out that enough was enough. REGULAR PERSONS IN BIRKEN: From left Randi Paus, Ella Kaasa, Eva Fixdal and Netten Grav, sometime in the 1980s. Photo: Privat Since the Birken match was won in 1976, something has happened to the nation’s perception of fitness and women. We got the running queens Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen. We got the all-time Winter Olympian Marit Bjørgen. To mention a few. And sports journalists can see pictures like this, without feeling sick in the newspaper the next day. NORMAL SIGHT: Good fitness and the ability to push oneself have been shown not to be linked to the male genitalia. Here from the finish of the Tour de Ski in 2022. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB At some point Eva and Netten stopped being impressive because they were women who wreaked havoc on the ski track. The most impressive thing now is that they never give up. The value of keeping you going That is; Netten had to reluctantly put her skis on the shelf last year, after a fall that took a long time to recover from. She was then 95. Eva still goes skiing two to three times a week. OLDEST IN THE TRAIL: No peers are with Eva on the trip anymore. – There are many who have adult children! Which forbids them to go alone, she says. (She has not asked her own.) Photo: Kamilla Marie Johnsen / news – There are a lot of myths, you know. “Then you can’t do that, you who are so old,” she says. She can get frustrated with the limitations people put on themselves. She can recognize the fear of falling, but it is possible to prevent it with some rules. If it’s icy and hard to plough, she always takes her skis in hand and goes. Another rule is to always have your phone with you on your trip. – There is not always coverage, then. So I have to make sure I fall on a peak, not down at the bottom of a valley. It is no longer appropriate to walk several miles, the muscles become too stiff, she has some heart valves that have been operated on. But the same will that took her and the other women into the male bastion Birken shines through when she talks about skiing in old age. CLASSIC DIAGONAL WALKING: Some enthusiasts were just whizzing past, perhaps in training for one of the winter’s long races. – Now everyone is on strike, nobody goes skiing anymore, comments Eva. Photo: Kamilla Marie Johnsen / news Her most important advice is this: – You have to adjust your expectations. Forget all thoughts that you will not achieve what you once could. Don’t compare yourself to yourself 40 or 20 years younger. – Skiing is fun! To just slip away and be in the forest. I am very fond of the forest, summer, autumn and winter. – Do you get upset if you haven’t been out here for a week? She thinks about it. – It is not going to happen. That a week goes by. Eva resolutely pushes away. Then she slides limply down towards the marshes. PS. Former ski star Therese Johaug won a long-distance race in the Engadin in Austria on 3 March (a race Eva and Netten have run several times). In May, Johaug will test his form further by running a half marathon. The goal is to spend less than 1 hour and 10 minutes (pretty fast). No one has gone out in the media and complained that Therese Johaug is going to be disgusted and sweaty from this. But part of the motivation for the comeback is that women will only be allowed to ski 5 miles in a World Cup next year. *** Hey Hey! If you have thoughts on the matter, or tips for other stories, feel free to write to me. Have a nice day! Recommended further reading:
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The first ladies who went Birken – Culture
