Many – or at least some – of you remember the children’s rule “What day is it today”, immortalized through the series Portveien 2 on news sometime in the Vegard Ulvang century. Hopefully Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is one of those who both remembers and hums along. And in addition at all times know the answer. For the coming winter, the focus is, most of all, on remembering which day of the week it is for the world’s best cross-country skier. Klæbo is going into something that can only be described as a kind of skiing schizophrenia, where Klæbo on paper becomes a cross-country version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dr Høsflot and Mr Klæbo He is the Community’s loyal Dr. Jekyll during the competition weekends, roughly from Thursday afternoon to Sunday, dressed in national team clothing with the Norwegian flag and the approved sponsor marks. Here, everything will be smiles and pats on the back and victory hugs from and to the teammates. Everyone wants Klæbo with them. They just wish he was on the national team. He definitely won’t be this coming season. Therefore, he can do as he wants, at least as far as the Skiing Association is concerned, from the time he finishes competing until it is ready for the new World Cup weekend. The Ski Association has created a monster. Without realizing what they were actually doing. In practice, this means that the community’s Mr Hyde can appear from about Sunday evening until mid-day on Thursday, with variations. On those days, Klæbo can wear the clothes he wants and show off exactly the sponsors he likes, regardless of whether they are in direct competition with the ski association’s own in the area. If he has main sponsor Sparebank1 above his heart during the warm-up in Davos, he can advertise share savings in DNB from the moment he leaves the arrivals hall at Værnes. If he drinks Isklar in the finish area in Dobbiaco at the weekend, he can post pictures of himself drinking Monster anytime between Monday and Thursday. And while Klæbo chews Mellombar and shows off Norgesgruppen’s Eldorado brand in Lillehammer on Sunday, all Rema stores on Monday will be filled with full cardboard figures of the cross-country star, reminding customers how sustainable the Solvinge products in a fridge very close to you actually are is. What no one can yet answer is where the Rema stores will dispose of the cardboard figures over the weekend. But it is very possible that the Reitangruppen has a plan for this as well. Now, of course, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in reality has completely different things to spend his time on than standing and handing out tastings at Rema in Lade. Like training and recovery. But these are the possibilities and not least the freedom Johannes Høsflot Klæbo can now feel. Like that from Monday to Thursday. And what is still the most bizarre thing here: This happened without Klæbo ever asking for it. Lex Northug Something has gone very wrong for the Ski Association on the road, without anyone being quite willing to admit what. The most discussed break with the national team in recent times happened when the greatest cross-country star of all time, Petter Northug, did the unthinkable in 2013. Northug was such a big star that they ended up agreeing to an agreement that he would represent the national team throughout the winter, including 24 so-called days off, and otherwise do as he pleased. The fear for the future of the entire national team model, on which many believe Norway’s consistent success for a number of years has been built, meant that the regulations were tightened as a result. In particular, this applies to the so-called “national team obligation rule”, which was introduced in 2014. The rule that was supposed to save the entire funding of the community through the national team model. “Runners who have declined an offer to participate in NSF’s national team shall not be selected by NSF to represent NSF in competitions in the season in which the offer of a place in the national team applies, unless there are special circumstances.” “Special circumstances” is the essential thing here. A completely obvious and narrow exception provision. Which has now nevertheless come into use. Because that is the only thing that can justify that the Ski Association has done what they have done. Very special circumstances in the Ski Association At the meeting of NSF’s highest body, the Ski Board, in April, the cross-country committee wanted to remove this exception, for unknown reasons. But was voted down by a majority of the board. Nevertheless, ski president Tove Moe Dyrhaug ignored the rule when, on her way out of the same meeting, she guaranteed to news that Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who had just said no to the national team, would be allowed to go to the World Cup anyway. Without specifying what the special circumstances were that no one else could quite see existed. Cross-country manager Espen Bjervig did the same in practice, when in October he gave Klæbo a commitment to an ordinary representation agreement to news. And it is therefore worth repeating that Klæbo himself had never asked for one. CENTER: Outgoing cross-country manager Espen Bjervig. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB The Klæbo camp thought they were negotiating a much more restrictive agreement than this. Because Klæbo had said no to the national team – and had to come to an agreement with the association. He thought. And still no one understood what the special circumstances that made such an agreement possible were. Only a little over a month later, the head of the cross-country skiing committee, Torbjørn Skogstad, now finally gives news an explanation of what kind of “special circumstances” have given Klæbo an exception: – Johannes wanted to carry out a different assembly plan than the rest of the team, among other things related to height and would therefore, to a limited extent, be together with the others at gatherings. The cross-country committee considered this to be a good enough reason to grant exceptions that NSF’s regulations allow. Skogstad is talking here about a runner who, as recently as last year, had a completely separate plan with more than 100 days at altitude. Within the national team. This year there are even fewer – but must still qualify as “special circumstances”, under the rule which was introduced at the time to save the national team model. It is, with all due respect, difficult to understand that they really believe in what they themselves say. Several of the athletes in other branches of the association probably think the same. If this is all that is needed, the road to such a favorable solution is not long for anyone who wants it. Change of scene on Sunday Now the agreement for the coming season will soon be formally signed between the Norwegian Ski Association and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. The intersection will be there as he gets on and off the plane, which in most cases takes him home from the weekend’s World Cup race. Somewhere at an altitude of many thousands of feet, unsuspecting air passengers may therefore be able to witness a spectacular change of scene between the national team representative and the civilian Klæbo. A lightning-quick change of outfit in a cramped airplane toilet before arriving in Værnes. In many ways symbolic of a kind of cross-country Superman. Not least when you think about the color of the jersey of the original – which would have been perfectly adapted to go straight to Rema in Lade to hand out samples of sustainable Norwegian chicken.
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