PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Field manager Petter Myhlback is leaving the national ski team immediately.
Now comes the explanation for the departure, despite a year left on the contract.
– There may be talk about it from the outside, national team manager Anders Byström admits to DN.
During the Skiing WC 2023 in Planica, the Swedish fence manager ended up Petter Myhlback in the spotlight several times. The big snack was after the Swedish ladies’ failed relay and then it really heated up.
The blue-and-yellow women’s team went in as big gold favorites but had to settle for just a bronze medal and complained about a poor slide afterwards. At the same time as the ski national team’s head coach came out openly on live television and claimed that there was nothing wrong with the skis.
It led to an internal conflict where Myhlback had to go out and apologize to Frida Karlsson and the rest of the relay team the following day. Now Petter Myhlback has made the sudden decision to leave the national skiing team altogether.
Leaving Sweden
Even though he had one year left on the contract, he chooses to terminate the employment early.
– It is sad that he quits. We have had a great collaboration. He has been working for three years and started at the same time as me. I think he has done a great job and made the bullpen team work well together, says the national team manager Anders Byström. in an interview with Dagens Nyheter.
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Byström admits that they would have liked to keep Myhlback as herd manager, but that the decision to leave is at his own request. The conflict during the Skiing World Cup should also have had nothing to do with the dropout.
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Gives the explanation
Instead, the explanation is that he wants to be closer to his son and the giant talent Alvar Myhlbacks skiing investment. He broke through last season as a 16-year-old with a third place in the sprint in Bruksvallarna and then a historic eighth place in the Vasaloppet.
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He is described as one of the world’s greatest skiing talents and next season it could very well be a debut in the World Cup for the teenager. Therefore, father Myhlback steps aside and leaves a place for his son in the national skiing team.
– It’s like in some teams at the highest level in hockey and soccer where there are coaches who are also fathers of players. But I still think it will be difficult with the discussions you can get into as a father, to keep it separate from your professional role. It’s not always that easy, I think. There can be talk about it from the outside as well if you end up in such situations, says national team manager Byström in the interview.
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No father & son
But we don’t get to see father and son Myhlback in the Swedish national ski team together as father Petter has decided to resign as head coach.
– It would certainly have worked and it has worked before as well. As long as you are professional, it will work, but I think Petter wanted to spend more time for Alvar and then it was difficult to combine the two jobs, Anders Byström tells the daily newspaper.
Petter Myhlback is thus leaving the national skiing team after three championships that resulted in seven WC medals in 2021, four Olympic medals in 2022 and a total of twelve WC medals in 2023.
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