Norway urged Elvira Öberg to end the season.
Now Björn Ferry strikes back.
– There is only one thing that counts, says the SVT expert.
The season looked fantastic for Elvira Öberg. She entered the WC as one of the biggest medal candidates in each distance, and was also in a brilliant second place in the battle for the overall World Cup. But then the disease came.
Strikes back against Norway
Elvira Öberg caught a cold in the middle of the WC, missed several races, but came back in time for the ladies’ relay. But she did not recognize the body, and after the World Cup competitions that followed the WC, she has not been recognized at all. The bad results have been put in a row – and it made Norway come up with a plan about her. It was believed that she should end the season immediately, and instead focus on getting healthy for next season.
But Björn Ferry, expert at SVT, disagrees. Now he strikes back against the words in Norway, and believes that Elvira is right to continue.
– She is now down to fourth place, but if she can have a good week in Oslo, there is still a chance to get into the top three and that is a big deal, he says, and continues:
– She is competing in this World Cup and it is what is static, what counts. They have high goals, the sponsors expect them to be there. The association expects them to be there, the TV viewers – all of them. So there is quite a lot of pressure to compete. That’s her job. So it is entirely up to Elvira whether she will compete or not and she knows her body so well that she knows what is the right thing to do. And there’s only one week left, so I think Elvira will continue.
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“If you’re going to use hindsight…”
However, Björn Ferry believes that Elvira should have thought differently.
– If you have to use hindsight, Elvira should have passed the relay at the WC and gone home instead, and then also passed the Nove Mesto competitions in the Czech Republic, and focused on getting back to the competitions at home in Östersund. But now she left, the illness took over, so it has not turned out at all as she had imagined.
Björn Ferry also does not think that it will significantly affect her going forward. But there are extreme cases.
– Coming back after a cold like this… Sometimes it goes quickly, and in Elvira’s case it is clear that she is far, far, far from her top level. And it is hard to know: What is the right thing to do? Because on May 1, training starts again, and then you have to be ready to train hard again. I think she will be even if she competes next week in Oslo. But there are examples of those who don’t come back for a whole year, because they make the wrong decision at the end of a season.
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