The World Ski Championships will be held in Trondheim, Norway from 26 February to 9 March 2025. shows the races on its channels.
Gåsbu on January 15, 2025. Norwegian skier Henrik Dönnestad crosses the finish line as a champion of its country in a 10 -kilometer traditional skiing departure.
Dönnestad beats, among other things Pål Golberg By 35 and Erik Valnes 53 seconds. Simen hegstad krüger ice from dönnestad for a minute as well as two seconds, Andreas Ree one and a half minutes.
The four skiers mentioned above have been selected to represent Norway at the Trondheim World Championships even before the Norwegian Championship.
A week after the Gåsbu Games, Dönnestad gets from Norway head coach Eirik Myhr from Nossum A minute-long phone call with a message for a 28-year-old skier: not in Trondheim.
“He told the news just before the last team choices were announced and said I should have skied at least one similar race to get into the team,” Dönnestad told Sports in early February.
Dönnestad says he was hopeful that the country’s championship with a fair margin would have been enough for the World Cup selectors.
– It was known that it was a selection competition. I knew I had to win to get even a small seam.
– I hoped that the winning margin would have been enough, but this time it wasn’t. If I had done a similar performance at the World Cup, I would have been high in the results list.
Dönnestad estimates that the selection process may have been influenced by the success of skiers in the same lubrication stable in the same Gåsbu race.
– I belong to the same stable for silver and fourth finished. Perhaps the voters thought we got a significant benefit from our skis, even though we were a strong team and our number one goal of the season was to succeed in that particular race.
More than half a century
When the Norwegian championships have been skied in January before the Olympics and the World Cup, a personal trip to the championship skier has not been dropped from the value team.
The previous case is ten years ago when sprinter Timo Andre Bakken did not fit into the crew of the Falun World Cup.
Distantad’s latest fate on Dönnestad can be found in 2014, when Simen Östensen Didn’t fit in the Sochi Olympic team.
If the Olympics are excluded from the invoices, Norway’s fresh Distant Master, dropped from the previous World Cup, will have to apply for 55 years ago.
Quite different from Finland
There is no control for cross -country skiing in Norway. For example, the one can apply for an athletic side for, for example, Kenya’s endurance run, while in the Netherlands in speed skating.
If the Finnish national team -level skier fails in the first international competitions of the season, such as the Ruka World Cup, there have often been speeches where the athlete emphasizes the construction of top condition for the main event of the season.
Especially in Norwegian male skiing, the requirement is quite different. The athlete must be in top condition even before Ruka to open a place for Kuusamo’s snow.
– In the fall, my fitness was one roller coaster. Some of the exercises went well, but the general level was poor. I got to the top of Christmas, but in Norway it is too late.
– In order to open the place for the most significant World Cup in choices, you have to be in order in Beitostölen or at least a week later. The Norwegian system is special in this sense, Dönnestad says.
Only 14 starts
Dönnestad has experienced a tangible way in how the scratching Norwegian selection system is for the World Cup.
Although he is 28 years old, the CV is adorned with only 14 World Cup starts. Half of these are from last season’s Tour de Sk.
In addition, the CV has a third place in Trondheim’s 10-kilometer break, where he defeated Iivo Niskanen Almost a minute.
Dönnestad finished fifth in the same race form last season’s closing weekend in Falun. There, Niskanen, who was second, hit him in five seconds.
-If I were in the World Cup, I would be sure to fight for the medal. On a perfect day, I could even win. Being in this situation is not a great thing.
When the World Championship medals were competed in Trondheim last time in 1997, 1-year-old Dönnestad was unaware of the people of the country of skiing.
Unlike the Oslo World Championships in 2011, when the youngster was along the track watching his idols.
– Even though getting out of the team is a bit of a piece of swallowing, I’m going to watch the race completely. I’m so skiing crazy.
Olympic season even more difficult
Next season, competition for value races in Norway is becoming tougher.
Norwegian men got ten skiers in Trondheim because Johannes Hösflot Kläbo There is a sprint, Simen Hegstad Krüger Skiathlon and Intermediate Start, and Pål Golfg’s 50 -kilometer world champion.
Personal trips masters are entitled to defend their title.
For the Italian Winter Olympics starting in February 2026, Norway will receive a maximum number of male skiers, which at the Olympic level means eight athletes.
– To reach the Olympics, you have to succeed in several races. I hope I will get several World Cup starts next season and get to Tour de Sk.
– The number one goal is to be in top condition at the beginning of the season. The Olympics would be a great bonus.