William Poromaa used a child-prohibited word to say the least to describe his skis.
Many have been critical – but in Norway he is now celebrated.
“Skiing needs that kind of thing,” writes Torbjörn Nordvall in Nettavisen.
Sweden’s men had a lead-heavy day during Friday’s competitions in Lillehammer. While the ladies also had problems, the men were far down in the results list, and the best Swede in the 10 kilometer race was William Poromaa in eleventh place. And he wasn’t exactly happy about it.
The unexpected tribute
Poromaa felt, just as the ladies did before, that the skis were not good. When he stepped into Viaplay’s interview after the race, he shocked everyone with language forbidden to children, to say the least.
– I think it was a pretty good race, but today it was a real bummer, actually, he said.
And as it created reactions.
Sweden’s election chief was not satisfied with how Poromaa expressed himself, and the criticism of the language on television has been great from many different quarters. But now unexpected support comes to Poromaa in Norway. It is Torbjörn Nordvall, long-time press manager for the Swedish national skiing team, who in a column in the Norwegian Nettavisen praises (!) Poromaa for his way of expressing himself.
“I’ve never heard anything like it, and it’s not exactly something that I think media favorites Oddvar Brå, Juha Mieto or Gunde Svan had in their vocabulary,” writes Nordvall.
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“Desperately need it”
Torbjörn Nordvall believes that Fis and all broadcasting TV companies are thirsty for drama and profiles, and that Poromaa is exactly what you need.
“Several gentlemen now turn out to have a bit of what Petter Northug had – what is needed to create reactions – regardless of whether you came first, last or just took a walk in the forest. Calle Halfvarsson is a reliable supplier of saying what he thinks and thinks. William Poromaa and Emil Iversen are two of the same kind. And Linn Svahn, who will soon make a comeback, is not exactly known for keeping his mouth shut,” he writes.
Nordvall also highlights William Poromaa’s girlfriend, Frida Karlsson.
“Skiing desperately needs such profiles. Such as Frida Karlsson, Jessie Diggins and British Andrew Musgrave. Skiing needs excitement and drama. The media wants everything. And we got all this in Lillehammer.”
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