PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Norway has suffered a crisis in the national skiing team.
But now Sweden comes with a completely different message than the rival.
– No, we don’t do like Norway, says national team manager Anders Byström for SportExpressen.
Skid-Norge has been shaken by some tough blows after the end of the season. Three star skaters have already announced that they are leaving the national team to train themselves with their own arrangements during the pre-season.
Norway’s crisis
It’s about the big stars Johannes Hösflot Kläbo and Kristine Stavå’s Ski City and Astri Öyre Slind who chose to drop out of the Norwegian national team. But recently, an economic crisis was also revealed which is hitting skiing Norway hard.
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The Norwegians have been forced to make several savings for the coming season, which affects reducing the national team squad from 24 skaters to 20 and the costs for training camps will be reduced.
– It will be a savings package. We have to make it more efficient, says the Norwegian national team manager Espen Bjervig to the newspaper VG.
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Sweden’s response
But when the ski dominant and arch-rival Norway is forced to act immediately, there is no panic at all in Sweden. Now comes word that it will make no savings – possibly the opposite in fact.
– Yes, it’s going well. Everything feels stable. We are planning for a season that looks much like before, we have the same money to play with, announces the long distance manager Lars Öberg for SportExpressen.
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No cuts are planned for Sweden, which has its sights set on another successful season for Swedish cross-country skiing.
– No, we don’t do like Norway. We do not want to remove any skaters from our national teams. Whether at A-team level or below, admits the national team manager Anders Byström for the evening newspaper and also opens up the possibility that there may be more skaters in the national team.
– It is absolutely possible. If those who were outside want to come in, there can be more.
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He thinks above all of the star trio who left the national team last season when Frida Karlsson, Maja Dahlqvist and Lynn Svahn chose their own set-up during the pre-season. Now the hope is that all three will return to the blue and yellow national team uniform again.
– We have a very fruitful dialogue and I am hopeful, says Byström in the interview.
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