Photo: Bildbyrån
Calle Halfvarsson is still hated in Norway after the years when he and Petter Northug were bitter rivals.
In SVT’s Kallprat, he talks about the hate, mockery and all the nasty comments he received, which made his mother take offense.
– She takes it quite hard when things go badly for me, he says.
Then Johan Olsson44, and Marcus Hellner39, retired seven and six years ago, respectively Calle Halfvarsson35, has been Sweden’s biggest cross-country skier on the men’s side. He has indeed won three WC medals in relays, as well as 17 individual podium places in the World Cup, but at the same time he has experienced many setbacks during his career.
When Calle visited the sports journalist Johan Kücükaslan in the SVT program Kallprat, he got to talk about and summarize his career. Among other things, they watched the attention-grabbing clip from 2019 when Halfvarsson participated in a comedy song with Robin Bryntesson where he dissed the Norwegian riders.
– This was in 2019, in connection with the cross-country WC in Seefeld. It was a Norwegian comedy program that you recorded a sketch with. If you read the headlines after that video came out, it was described as “embarrassing, sexist and tasteless” by Patrick Brenning on Sportbladet. Looking at this now, was it that dangerous? With a little perspective, says Kücükaslan.
READ MORE: Calle Halfvarsson’s difficult admission about his career
Calle laughs a little nervously and says that he’s gotten over it a little, but that he remembers that it was very difficult then and there when the video was released and everyone thought he was a jerk.
– I still think it’s quite embarrassing. Now I have gained perspective on it, it is quite far away now. I don’t think it’s that dangerous actually. There are certain words that are not suitable for children. At the same time, it’s the type of children and young people who come forward and think it’s the funnest thing they’ve seen. They like that one and I understand that, he says and continues:
– I got an incredible amount of hate for it. Comments on social media. I felt then, that night there were some pearls in the forehead. At the time I thought it was pretty useless. I still think it’s embarrassing, but what I thought then… “What have I done?”.
Calle’s mother is badly affected
Kücükaslan then says that he heard that Calle’s mother Marja Halfvarsson64, finds it very difficult when the son gets lots of negative headlines in the media and when people write to him and are mean.
– According to your mother, this is still an open wound for her. Is it that bad?, he asks.
– She takes it pretty hard when things go badly for me. I can imagine she reads quite a lot of comments in the background. She probably sees a lot of this “haters crowd” I have, says Calle Halfvarsson.
READ MORE: Calle Halfvarsson’s new family decision before the season
Much of the hatred and mockery that Calle received from his neighbors in Norway was due to the fact that he was often in a war of words with Peter Northug38. About ten years ago, they were firmly in each other’s shoes and ended up in dispute almost every competition. Johan Kücükaslan wonders if the rivalry between the two was really completely genuine.
– Very genuine. This biting at each other and wanting to hit each other, my drive was as strong as his. How he wanted to beat me there during these years when we met in relays and at the World Cup. It was genuine, but then this with people coming today and asking: “How much do you hate Petter Northug?”. I have never hated Petter Northug. I guess he hasn’t hated me either, he says.
– It feels like he played with quite a lot. He’s quite good at that and knows what makes headlines. Somewhere I wonder if you did the same thing? Did you light the fire because you knew it would bring attention?, Kücükaslan asks.
– Not for the sake of the media. I’ve always been like that, it doesn’t matter if I go in and play a game of pool against my best friend in Falun, we just trash talk. That’s just the way it is. We are adamantly in favor of it and so you think it could be a gain if you could maybe crawl into his skull, he replies.
Keep fighting Calle! Ignore all the negative words people say and have said about you over the years. You don’t deserve that shit. Just focus on yours and train for the Tour de Ski and WC. Good luck!
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