PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Norway has launched a fierce attack against Sweden.
The neighboring country expresses strong criticism of Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson.
Now comes the response from the Swedish national skiing team after the attention-grabbing outburst that “they piss on skiing”.
The World Cup enters its absolute final stage of the season with a grand finale in Finnish Lahti this coming weekend. On the women’s side, Norway leads Tiril Udnes Weng the overall World Cup while the Swedish stars Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson is far behind.
Norwegian attack
The big reason is that the blue-and-yellow WC heroes rode significantly fewer World Cup races this season due to illnesses and other ailments. But that doesn’t stop the Norwegian skiing expert Petter S Skinstad from going to a strong attack against Sweden.
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The Norwegian thinks it is disrespectful of Frida and Ebba not to compete in more races at the World Cup.
– It is perfectly fine to sit out World Cup races if there are health reasons. But otherwise they have a job to do. They piss on their own sport, says Skinstad to the Norwegian newspaper Nettavisen.
READ MORE: Unexpected words in Norway after Jonna Sundling’s new loss – and clear irritation: “Understand that she is irritated”
The Swedish answer
The harsh outcome in Norway has aroused strong reactions in the past 24 hours and now the Swedish national ski team is going out and responding to the challenge.
– Mmm, it’s not the first time he’s spoken out, that man, says the Swedish national team manager Anders Byström with a sigh to SportExpressen.
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The national team manager clearly does not think that Ski Sweden or Karlsson and Andersson are pissing on skiing. And then explains why the duo missed a number of races during the season.
– No, we pee in the toilet. So I really don’t agree with that. We said before the season that the WC is our biggest priority this winter. And it turned out to be quite a wise choice considering that we took most of the medals there on the women’s side. It is clear that whoever takes home the World Cup is also a winner in that way. But we took most of the gold at the WC, says Byström in the interview.
READ MORE: Norway’s sour pass to Jonna Sundling after the Norwegian star’s new performance: “Now the Swedes must…”
Both Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson have had tough seasons, where Frida fought against a total discharge during the Tour de Ski and Ebba suffered from covid-19. Then both got sick with colds right after the World Ski Championships, but are now back for the World Cup finals in Lahtis, Finland.
– I can’t really remember that either Frida or Ebba opted out of World Cup starts. They have both had their illnesses, or been very worn out like Frida after the Tour de ski – and then you can’t force someone to compete. That’s not how we work anyway.
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