Marit Bjørgen is back! The most decorated skier in history is coming out of her retirement ( or was it just a planned hiatus) to join Team Ragde. https://www.instagram.com/p/CAqKjHspP-M/?igshid=1jjyf6te3xygg Yes, Marit is 40. But Anders Auckland will be 48 in September and is still kicking butts of strong skiers less than half his age.
The FIS boffins caved in to the harsh realities of 2020 and have just published their decision to postpone the much talked about absolute ban on fluorowaxes from the upcoming season to 2022/23. Wise move! Here: Fluorinated Ski Wax Prohibition The Council decided in November 2019 that the use of fluorinated ski wax will be banned for all FIS disciplines from the 2020-21 season which have been shown scientifically to have a negative environmental and health impact. Regulations have been established in USA that are already in place and will be implemented in the EU from July 2020 which impact the manufacturer of these products. Kompass has developed hand-held detector testing devices that will be certified by the Frauenhof Institute and tested during the summer months. Thereafter they will also…
World's best female skier is to return to our television screens and papers' pages when she takes a start for the first time in months. The Norwegian national broadcaster NRK reports that June 11th Therese Johaug will take part in the annual Bislett Games this year dubbed "Impossible Games". Yes, Bislett is about athletics but Johaug is a reigning Norwegian champion in 10000m so it all makes sense. Frankly, does it really matter what the multiple Olympic and world champion competes in? Last year, for instance, Johaug took part in the competitive reality show Landskampen on TV2 - and it got great ratings. In other words, the audience wants Therese first - sport later. ...Somehow, we are ready for Klaebo taking on Bolshunov in poker or chess by now -…
Blinkfestivalen, one of the world's best organized, best funded and best attended xcski/biathlon events will be held this August but out of town and with massively altered program. With large crowds banned, the competition is now mostly held for the sake of television broadcast. A long time must-have for the national broadcaster NRK, Blink is coming to the rest of Europe this year for the first via EBU (but biathlon races only - the European Broadcastng Union is interested in promoting biathlon, doesn't care about xcskiing) The venue of the Blink events is now Sandnes Arena. Which is not a bad thing at all, neither from athletes point of view, nor television viewers'. The newly built 4.2k facility with a full-size shooting range might be the best rollerski track stadium…
Yuri Charkovsky most likely is the busiest man in the international cross-country skiing world. [caption id="attachment_15861" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yelena Vyalbe and Yuri Charkovsky form a rock-solid team. Charkovsky is used to be Vyalbe's coach in 1990s and for the last decade is Vyalbe's closest partner and confidant [/caption] As a manager of the world largest team (the Russians have 40 skiers in the national squad plus roughly equal amount of coaches & support personel) he is in charge of all the logistics. As the de-facto team captain he's present on most of the race-related meetings with the FIS & local organizers. As a coach with decades on international experience ,he is involved in mentoring athletes. And when all of the above is said and done, he's doing media interviews (Charkovsky's…
