PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Charlotte Kalla once went to a fortune teller.
Then she heard something that for her was unthinkable.
But four years later it hit home for Therese Johaug.
Charlotte Kalla36, and Therese Johaug, 35, were major competitors during their respective heydays. They are both seen as two of the best in their sport of all time, and Johaug is considered by many to be the very best female cross-country skier ever.
Called autobiography
The Norwegian has six Olympic medals, 19 World Cup medals and 79 World Cup victories. During his career, Kalla won nine Olympic medals, 13 World Cup medals, and took 15 World Cup wins. But even though they were great competitors in the races, they became friends off the track. The duo trained with each other from time to time, and got to know each other. Earlier this year, Kalla was at Johaug’s hen party.
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After the 2022 season, both announced that they would put their skis on the shelf. Since then, they have both had their first children. Kalla had the son Alvin in July and Johaug had the daughter Christine on Norway’s national day, May 17.
On Tuesday, Charlotte Kalla released her long-awaited autobiography “Shame on those who give”, which she wrote together Johan Esk. There, she has written, among other things, about growing up, life’s greatest moments, and her career and its unknown details.
Johaug’s doping
One of the stories Kalla shares is the day she learned that Johaug had been suspended for doping, which happened in 2016.
“There was chaos in my head. Could it be true? What had happened? No doping news had come close to shocking me like this one did. It was completely incomprehensible. I had gotten to know Therese well when I trained with the Norwegian girls,” the 36-year-old writes in the book.
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Kalla also reveals that four years earlier, in 2012, she had visited a fortune teller who predicted Johaug’s doping conviction.
“Wait, I see a Norwegian. She is caught for doping. She’s blonde,” the Swede writes that the fortune teller said, whereupon Kalla retorted:
“Stop now, Norwegians don’t dope. Now you’re just another jealous Swede who can’t see how hard they’ve worked to get where they are”.
READ MORE: Therese Johaug’s enormous joy together with Charlotte Kalla – the Norwegian skiing profile shows the private pictures with the Swede
“My biggest fear”
But four years later, the news came that Johaug was suspended for 18 months for using the anabolic steroid clostebol, which she said was due to her using a cream on a sunburned lip. Then Kalla made direct contact with his press agent Torbjörn Nordvall.
“I called Torbjörn straight away. The first thing he said was: ‘the fortune teller’”.
Kalla texted Johaug the same day to express his support for the Norwegian. She also writes that what happened to Johaug was her worst nightmare.
“What happened to Therese was my biggest fear as a skier. If I had been caught for doping, everything would have been ruined. The whole image of me would be destroyed. My entire career with all my credentials would be called into question. The reason for a doping verdict does not matter. I would have been condemned forever,” writes Kalla in the book.
READ MORE: Charlotte Kalla’s shock confession after her skiing career – now reveals the most criminal thing she has done in her entire life
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