PHOTO: Bildbyrån
For a long time, Petter Northug had Calle Halfvarsson as his big chicken.
Now the Norwegian apologizes to the Swedish rival.
– It’s my fault that Calle got a lot of crap over the years, he says to SportExpressen.
Norwegian skiing icon Peter Northug changed cross-country skiing with his incredible winning skull and cocky personality. The Norwegian won an incredible 13 World Cup golds and 2 Olympic golds during his successful career.
Northug’s career
Along with the tracks, he also had a mouth leather like few others and he loved to throw glib rings in media contexts. Most often it was the Swedish rival Calle Halfvarsson which ended up in the window over the years.
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While Northug has racked up championship medals, the Swedish rival has only bagged two World Cup silvers and one World Cup bronze in relay races. At 33 years old, Halfvarsson still has no individual championship medal to show for it.
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Mocking Halfvarsson
On Sunday, the veteran will possibly do his very last WC race in his career when the five-mile concludes this year’s Ski WC in Planica.
– There is a small chance. But can he really handle five miles? Well, it’s doubtful – because I think it will go quickly. So I’ll be really surprised if he makes it. He has deserved… A bronze, says Northug with a laugh in an interview with SportExpressen.
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37-year-old Northug is now an expert for Norwegian TV2 and has been on site in Planica to cover the World Ski Championships. He also feels guilty about how he has heckled and mocked Halfvarsson over the years and built up an atmosphere of enmity between Sweden and Norway during his career.
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Apologize
Now he wants to apologize to his former enemy in the tracks. After his career, Northug can feel a sense of guilt for how much criticism Halfvarsson has had to receive from both Sweden and Norway.
– Yes, of course I have. We were active enemies – then I didn’t even greet him. He was one of my rivals, so I wanted to give Calle a bad name in Norway. And then I also got the people with me, admits the Norwegian in the interview.
The Norwegian skiing profile was also behind the mocking nickname “Calle Clown” which the Norwegian media liked to use in connection with weak races by the Swede.
– Of course, it’s my fault that Calle got a lot of shit. At least partially. But at the same time… Precisely because of that, I’ve also made Calle a bit famous, haven’t I? That thanks to that, people talk a lot about Calle. Then he’s quite outspoken himself, so you can count on getting some comments, says Petter Northug to the evening newspaper.
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