Comment: Superlatives left the glove, Therese Johaug’s adulation takes on special features in Norway | Sport

Therese Johaug returned to the Games and did not perform anything amazing considering her level, writes journalist Atte Husu.

Knockout! Scary good! Stunning superiority.

When Norway’s star skiers opened their season on Saturday in Beitostölen, the competition was seen both on and off the track.

Returned to the Games after a two-year break Therese Johaug hadn’t even made it to the finish line in the 10-kilometer intermediate start, when some of the Norwegian experts were already making him a three-time individual distance champion at a good pace for the Trondheim World Ski Championships in February-March.

In the end, Johaug won his comeback race with a difference of 39.4 seconds.

– Therese Johaug is only improving on this day by day, although it is not even necessary. Today’s performance was World Cup gold level, TV2 channel commentator Petter Skinstad wrote in his column.

Johaug’s performance was invariably described as superior. Such a margin of victory of almost 40 seconds undoubtedly is.

In the hype, it was less noteworthy who the comparison was with.

Superior compared to whom

On Saturday, the 33-year-old finished second on the tracks of Beitostölen Heidi Weng.

Weng is a multiple medalist who has won both the overall World Cup and the Tour de Ski twice.

Last season, Weng was second in the Tour de Ski and eighth overall in the World Cup. So she is undoubtedly one of the elite of women’s skiing and was a good yardstick for Johaug in her comeback race.

However, intermediate starts of the traditional way of skiing are not Weng’s forte. Last season, he finished 6th-10th in five traditional split starts each time and was ten behind the winner with an average of 45 seconds.

The last time Johaug and Weng met in the traditional skiing race in Beitöstölen in November 2021, Johaug beat his rival by 43.9 seconds.

A week later, Johaug finished second in the World Cup on that trip in Ruka. At that time, Johaug fell short of Sweden, who skied to victory About Frida Karlsson 13.7 seconds and beat 10th-placed Weng by 42 seconds.

In his career, Johaug has won nine World Cup races with 10 kilometers of traditional skiing in intermediate starts. In seven of these races, Weng has participated and lost to Johaug by well over a minute on average.

When the traditional level of the 33-year-old Weng is this, it is reasonable to ask whether Johaug’s pace was as wild as the Norwegian experts let it be understood.

Nothing surprising

Therese Johaug, who has won everything in her career many times, did it in October for NRK it is clear that he has not returned to compete for places 6–10 – i.e. precisely the places that Weng knocked steadily last season in the traditional intermediate starts.

Against this background, for Johaug, the victory that the Norwegian experts praised with exaggerations on Saturday came rather with a margin that places him among the winning candidates in the Ruka World Cup. In this sense, there is nothing surprising and new on the skiing front.

Although Johaug lost to Weng by 0.6 seconds in the intermediate start on free skiing on Sunday, the return of the fjord skiing queen to the race tracks can be considered a success.

It definitely gave him the most essential resource of top sports, self-confidence.

When you also take into account Johaug’s non-existent competition routine, for which the next weeks’ World Cups are of paramount importance to increase, Johaug’s performances may still be associated with superlatives this winter, which are really covered.