Skitsnack Or Making News Out Of Nothing At All

Today we tell you how to cover the ski-related news in 2019.

Or, better said, to make the news.

And we do it backwards.

This week literally every single Russian newspaper and internet resource went with their version of the story that had pretty much same screaming headline:

Swedish female skiers made fun of mass pregnant Russian rivals! /Шведские лыжницы высмеяли массово забеременевших российских соперниц.

Wow! Why would they?

If that was not enough for you to click immediately, there was also a sub-head along the following lines:

The Swedes called Yelena Vyalbe “a woman from the old Soviet culture”

Vyalbe is a true household name for the most of the Russians ( there is full-size biopic in the works, if case you forgot), but the skiing itself rarely graces pages of major papers, unless there are the Olympics or the world championships underway.

Don’t get us wrong, any mentioning is good for the sport – but where on Earth are they taking that “Swedish slander” from?

Turns out, from this particular source

It does actually say point blank: Russian national team manager Yelena Vyalbe more or less ordered her athletes to have children – and half the team obeyed / Vyalbe mer eller mindre beordrade sina åkare att skaffa barn – och halva laget lydde

Ordered to conceive? Really? And never mind the fact that there are four pregnancies out of about twenty national team skiers.

We reckon the Expressen reporters did a sloppy job after all, however.

Like, where is mentioning that raising birthrates is a cornerstone of president Vladimir Putin’s domestic policies with significant resources directed to that, huh?!

At the very least, you could have mentioned that some of the pregnant skiers run for the Army or the National Guard’s clubs and therefore have military ranks! take Yulia Belorukova here:

The fact that Vyalbe – who had her first child at a tender age of 19 and openly admits it wasn’t entirely a planned development in her then-budding career – serves as much as life coach as manager to her skiers is…just kinda boring and doesn’t make for a good headline, now does it?

And yes, there is a difference between sharing one’s life story and ordering. At least we reckon so.