HONEYMOON. When Matti Heikkinen advanced on March 1, 2011 on the routes of Holmenkollen towards the 15 km (p) world championship, his departure was followed with mixed feelings of admiration and longing by a guy who had just turned 22 years old from the side of the track.
Hans Christer Holund led a shout sack in a group of friends who had camped in a tent village in the forest of Frognerseteren. With high-quality winter sports and beer cans, a slice of 10 days passed in the forest.
When Holund announced his retirement last spring, the balance was eight medals, four of which were gold. The weapon of the skier who grew up in the Oslo area was above all a diesel-like, but extremely efficient and inimitable skate ski.
The money ran out
– I was watching the 2011 World Championships as a practically retired skier. I had not reached such a level that professional sports would have been possible after the World Youth Championship gold (2008). The money simply ran out, Holund told Urheilu in Kuusamo.
In 2019, he gave an interview to Urheilulehti, in which he assured that his career will end in the Olympic spring of 2022, and after that there will be a complete break from skiing.
The career ended in the spring of 2023, and immediately after that, Holund signed a contract with Norway’s Viaplay to work as a TV expert.
The sympathetic Norwegian laughs when these facts are fed to him.
– Now I’m already interested in coaching. I can’t get rid of skiing, says the father of two small boys.
When the Oslo Games 2011 ended, Holund, who had studied economics at the University of Oslo for a bachelor’s degree, returned to his work. He worked in a sports equipment store and as a janitor and managed to run once a day. In Norway, such a pace is not enough even for representative tasks.
Strong exaggeration
The turning point came when Holund’s good friend, the current head coach of the Norwegian men’s national team Eirik Myhr Nossum overheard the extremely gifted, more than 90 milliliter blower to try one more time.
Let’s go to Otepää, Estonia. February 19, 2017, on the eve of the World Championships in Lahti. 15 kilometer (p) medalist info winner Martin Johnsrud Sundby and the future hero of the home games Iivo Niskanen have said what they say. A local reporter asks Holund about his World Cup goals.
– There can’t be any, because I haven’t been selected for the team, this answers.
The moment strongly symbolizes the requirements of men’s skiing in the fjord region. In the end, the invitation went to Lahti through the Alternate Service, and Holund skied the final distance, i.e. 50 kilometers (year) in 10th place in his first prestigious race start.
No red carpet
A year later, in his first Olympic start, Holund took 3rd place in the combined competition in Pyeongchang. On top of this, the man took the 6th places in both the 15 km (v) and the 50 km (p) won by Iivo Niskanen. In Finland, such a guy would walk along the red carpet, in Norway at that time there was no such thing as a 4×10 kilometer relay team.
Holund states that there is no longer a need for competing and the related adjustment, stress and eternal travel.
– I miss our training group and team spirit very much. Fortunately, our connection and friendship has remained very close.
It wasn’t just any training group outside of Norwegian national team meetings. Holund, Sundby, Surr Röthe and Simen Hegstad Krüger formed the so-called Oslo group within the national team, which trained together regularly.
A belated gift
Six days after his 30th birthday, Holund got, or took, a belated birthday present at the World Championship tracks in Seefeld. He didn’t break free until the final day of the Games for the 50 km (v) mass start, ran away from the start and held on Aleksandr Bolshunov’s half a minute away. This made him the fourth Norwegian individual winner at the Games, where Norway took all six men’s skiing golds.
The value race victory of the intermediate start came at the World Championships in Oberstdorf 2021, in the 15 kilometer (v) intermediate start.
– That’s why I got a free ticket to defend the gold at the Games in Planica. That was part of the reason to continue my career, says Holund, who took bronze in the intermediate start at last winter’s World Championships and was in the gold relay in the opening leg Cross mat Hakola in his butt.
The Olympic Games in Beijing were a bitter disappointment for Holund and several other Norwegian skiers. The individual medal was close in the combined competition, but surprisingly the superman of freestyle skiing did not reach Niskas in the free part of the combined competition.
– Iivo ripped through the traditional section at such a speed that I was way too hard when changing skis. High altitude took care of the rest. Iivo is in top condition with a completely sovereign traditional.
Viaplay’s TV work only takes up part of Holund’s time. The rest of the time goes to family and main job. Holund has finally put a nice nest egg left over from his skiing career to hatch.
– I am a private investor. I sit at the computer, read, analyze, buy and sell shares.