Up Close And Personal With Astrid Øyre Slind, Part 2

Part II of a profile of Astrid Øyre Slind, star of long distance ski racing from Team Koteng ( ex Team United Bakeries) . See Part 1 here: 

 

….On the role of the media, both traditional and social:

Kim Kardashian has 100 million followers on Instagram and you have one – one thousand. How come?

– (laughs) I don’t have my TV series.. it’s about being posh, something that normal people don’t have. It’s a lot about being confident and willing to sell yourself.

Is Astrid Slind confident?
– She’s pretty confident in a way that she likes her life and likes who she is. I don’t want to change but I don’t think many people would necessary wish to have my life. –

– This photo of five female skiers taken on Mallorca in October 2016 was rather widely shared on social media – and for a reason. So, let’s hear from the source; who’s got the best abs?

www.instagram.com/p/BL9WMtRhMzO/

– Silje Theodorsen, her tan helps (laughs) but we all here have pretty strong abs. I looked like that as long as I could remember and I kinda take it for granted. I’m happy that I look the way I look but it’s not something I go around thinking: “hey, look at my sexy body!” I know girls who are as strong as me who don’t have six-pack stomach. However, I do recognize that looks matter – probably, more so than I would prefer.

– ESPN Body Issue invites you for a photo shoot. Yes or no?
I’d have to say yes to it. Wait – isn’t it full naked? No, no way then!
(pauses) …I do not have sponsors that demand risque media exposure, questionable photo-shoots and such. I choose to focus on training and get good results and I hope fame comes with good results rather than with having to sell my face, kind of . It’s not my choice not to be a celebrity, if you know what I mean. But I would not want to adopt a personality that is not mine just to become a big media star and it would be hard role to play all the time anyway, not worth it even for a lot of money.

www.instagram.com/p/BYKs6rWA0UH

– Marit Bjorgen was very good from the young age, so she drew a lot of attention to her. She was pretty, she looked healthy and natural so everything just added up to being a dynamite media package… Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is popular because he’s really smart and when you listen to him talk to the media, he knows what to say and he always has interesting perspective to share.

And Ski Classics…?
– …Ski Classics hasn’t got enough attention yet. And of course, for us the more attention we could get, the better it is. We want to be big, we want people to understand how hard it is and how much effort we put into it.

Astrid Øyre Slind in her own words:

– I am a dog person. I would like to have a bird dog so I could run with it in the mountains.

– I have a boyfriend; his name is Anton Sjökvist and he is an elite orienteering athlete from Sweden. We’ve met at Midsummer celebration in Sweden and have been together for two years. And no, we haven’t decided when and where our wedding would take place.

– I drive a car that is a mix of Peugeot and Citroen, pretty old – not my dream car, but it’s working. It would be good to have 4WD that could get you anywhere on snow and would fit a big bag of skis – something like Volvo XC90.

– I drink tea for every day – and coffee for special occasions. I’m trying to cut down on coffee so I could sleep at night and also to get a good Caffeine kick during the competitions when we drink coffee on the distance.

– I normally sleep very good at night, unless I had late coffee.
My weakness is in a fact that I’m to competitive. It’s important for me to be good and I hate myself when I’m bad. It makes it hard to cope with bad races.

– I don’t normally train with earphones. When I’m in the woods, I’d like to hear nature, and when I’m rollerskiing on the road, I need to hear traffic.

– I have to have music, however, when I do strength training. Sometimes rock-n-roll, sometime pop music – whatever they are playing on gym’s loudspeakers. I like Eminem at the gym, my favorite tune is Let’s get Down to Business https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6J_vbXyx-Y
My favorite pastime is AT (alpine tour) and  backcountry skiing, I’m doing that a lot. I like to do climbing and generally just be outside, the way we Norwegians do – light a fire, go into woods, bring a fishing gear, climb on top of the mountain. That sort of stuff.