A mate of mine, his name is Christen Horn Johannessen, became world champion in sailing in a class called 5.5 meters sometime in the early 1990s. Since then he has only been called “The World Champion”. Of the Norwegian athletes who won World Cup gold a few years earlier, in 1987, people often talk about runner queen Ingrid Kristiansen, cross-country star Anne Jahren or combined runner Torbjørn Løkken. Our world champions. He who had earned the same honorable nickname already had titles that far surpassed this one. The world champion in 5.5 meters was crown prince in 1987 and became king less than four years later. Then you won’t be called anything else, regardless of your sporting achievements. A very skilled helmsman But our sailing master from Kiel in June this year has not received the attention he deserves to the same extent either. Norway probably has the world’s most popular king. But his achievements as a sailor are probably at a higher level than many of us have really realised. Because when the king now gives up, it is not only his unique status that makes it interesting. In purely sporting terms, King Harald is also considered a very skilled helmsman, with particularly well-developed tactical qualities. This has also made it possible to have a career that has stretched all the way to the young age of 85. As recently as July, the king was skipper when he and his crew participated in the WC for 8-meters in Switzerland. This time it was 10th place. So it has gone better before. WC GOLD: During the WC in Kiel in 1987, King Harald took WC gold in one-tonne. Photo: Bjørn Sigurdsøn / NTB The Olympic wound The then Crown Prince Harald considers the World Cup gold in one-tonnes in Kiel in 1987 to be his greatest sporting achievement. In a series of triumphs that could have been even longer. In connection with the news series “Karsten and Leif”, a usual shorts-clad Karsten Warholm and trainer Leif Olav Alnes got a rare audience at Kongsgården on Bygdøy in 2020. It was a particularly candid meeting between three of the nation’s biggest sports personalities. In the conversation, an open soreness emerges about what the king himself describes as clearly the biggest thing for a sailor – namely the Olympics. Because when Warholm asks the king what he thinks of his own impressive sports career, he answers bluntly: “If I had achieved something in the Olympics, I would have been satisfied. But otherwise not.” King Harald receives Karsten Warholm and trainer Leif Olav Alnes at Bygdøy royal estate. Season 1 (1:5) The king was a participant in three Olympic summer games. First in Tokyo in 1964, where he was flag bearer and finished in a very capable 8th place in the 5.5 meter class, then an 11th place in the same class in Mexico City in 1968, before it culminated in 1972, where the Olympic sailings took place in the aforementioned Kiel, in the north of Germany. The king and his crew in sunbathing, who had taken over for the 5.5 meter as Olympic class, were in the top favorite layer, after impressive sailing in the run-up to the Games. But the medal chances disappeared in the sun over the Baltic Sea. And with it also the big sporting dream. The one about repeating his father Olav’s achievement, when he became Olympic champion in 6 meters in Amsterdam in 1928. The son was so disappointed after the Games in 1972 that he and his crew took a break from sailing for two long years. Fortunately, the king continued. For another 48 years. Before he hangs up. At the modest age of 85. 2022: King Harald during the WC in sailing for 9 meters in Geneva, Switzerland this summer. Photo: Trond Reidar Teigen / NTB A question of time King Harald himself claims he has never been a top athlete. He simply hasn’t had time. Unlike many of the competitors and athletes in other sports, he has never been able to take time off from other duties for a long enough time to really focus on the sport. “Time is my minimum factor,” as the king himself puts it. His track record speaks against his claim, but Kongen has an obvious point. Now the king has decided that a more than 80-year-long career is over. Where the king has not been able to prioritize quality in sailing to the desired extent, he has at least made up for it in quantity. 1939: Crown Princess Märtha and Prince Harald on board the sailboat Sira at Vollen in Asker, 1939. Photo: The Royal Court A royal free minute The first pictures of the little Prince Harald in a sailboat on the Palace’s own pages are from 1939, i.e. when the King was 2 small years. By his side sits his mother, Crown Princess Märtha. Since then, sailing became both a passion and probably also a break from all the tasks and all the attention. The latter has also been reflected in the recognition of the king’s sailing achievements. Sailors do not easily become sports stars, simply because they disappear away from the camera lenses and TV viewers for long periods. That is why we have placed enormous value on our own sports king – as a spectator. But hardly enough as a performer. An example that illustrates this is that from the time the king and his crew won the WC in 1987, Norway had to wait until 2016 before we won a new international title in so-called big-boat sailing. Then it won gold in the so-called Landmark 43 Santa in the ORC WC. And one can almost suspect the crew who carried on the sailor king’s exploits to know their history. The first thing one of the crew on the boat, Erik Brunborg, expressed to Fædrelandsvennen after the victory were the words we would all like to use about King Harald’s career today, but don’t quite get us to pronounce: “It was completely king”
ttn-69
When the king himself gets to decide – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
