Linn Svahn, Ebba Andersson and several Swedish skiing stars won the SM.
This causes Torbjörn Nordvall’s profile to go through the roof.
– It’s terrible, he says.
The WC is only a few weeks away and the skiing stars are doing everything to find the form for the season’s big highlight. Unfortunately, for the majority of the stars, the SM is not part of that plan. The WC is this week, but many are opting out of the competitions in Sweden to focus on the World Cup instead.
“Must realize the seriousness”
Linn Svahn talked last weekend that it hurts her, and that she is ashamed to miss the SM, and Ebba Andersson was on the same track. But Sweden is not alone. The same situation has occurred in Norway, where many simply chose to skip the NM, as it is also in the middle of the World Cup weekends. In Norway, the skaters have received strong criticism for skipping national competitions, and now Ebba Andersson and Linn Svahn are also receiving criticism.
It is the former press manager Torbjörn Nordvall, a Swedish columnist for the Norwegian Nettavisen, who believes that the skiers are making a complete mistake by not prioritizing the SM competitions.
– The Swedish Skiing Association must seriously realize that they do not have the best participants in what is the very foundation. The national is actually the most important of all, he says.
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“It’s terrible”
Nordvall believes that Sweden, and other nations, should do more to ensure that the competitions do not clash.
– I think it is terrible that Sweden and Norway have not tried to get Fis to change the World Cup calendar. They have known that for a long time, and they sit with members of Fis, he says.
Last year, Sweden’s SM competitions took place after the regular season ended. In this year’s competitions, Anna Dyvik, who misses the WC, won the sprint on Wednesday, while Olof Jonsson won the men’s competition. In addition to Dyvik, Calle Halfvarsson is the most famous name participating and competing.
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