Frida Karlsson and Maja Dahlqvist have done it.
Now the big star Kristine Stavås Skistad announces that she is nobbing the national team.
– It is the best solution, she says.
It’s not exactly a small breakthrough that she got this winter, Kristine Stavås Skistad. The Norwegian sprint specialist has long been seen as a huge talent in Norway, and as a junior she was often matched with skaters such as Frida Karlsson and Linn Svahn. But this winter she has completely exploded.
Do exactly like Frida
After not really getting the chance in the national team, she was the winter’s big star in sprints. It was true that there was no medal in the WC, but after that she was completely superior and there was hardly a competition that she did not win. Stavås Skistad has become Norway’s great skiing queen, but now she has made a choice that makes just about everyone react.
Last year, Frida Karlsson and Maja Dahlqvist chose to drop out of the national team’s training group for a venture of their own. Kristine Stavå’s Skistad is now making exactly the same choice, and the reactions in Norway are strong.
– We had a good conversation and we all agree that this is the best solution for me next season. It happens by consensus and there was no bad atmosphere, she says, and continues:
– I also feel that it is the right and best choice for myself.
READ MORE: Icon Michael Johnson’s radical proposal that could change everything for Armand Duplantis: “Nonsense, nonsense”
Praised for the choice
Many interpret Stavås Skistad’s statement as some criticism of the Norwegian national team management, but neither she nor advisor Per Ola Gasmann go into it any further.
– This is primarily a choice that Kristine made entirely herself. The plan she has been following for the past year has worked very well. She has people who follow her closely many days a week, maybe that’s something she couldn’t get in the national team, says her Gasmann to NRK.
In Sweden, Frida Karlsson and Maja Dahlqvist were strongly criticized for their choice to leave the national team. But Stavås Skistad is praised.
– That’s smart! The arrangement she has had now has given her an impressive breakthrough. There is every reason to continue with that plan so she continues to be a world figure skater, says expert Torgeir Björn.
READ MORE: The sports world in shock after the terrible death – Swedish grief after the 18-year-old talent died