There is only one Petter Northug.
For better or worse.
For example, who can forget the time he did what no one else had done before before a finish – just to mock Sweden in the worst possible way.
Petter Northug has subsequently admitted that he took it a little too far. He really took every chance he could to psych and mock Sweden as soon as things went well. And it often did for the iconic Norwegian.
Incredible mockery
There is certainly one skater (Björn Dählie) who won more WC medals than Northug, but no one has been talked about, written about, loved and hated as much. Petter Northug loved to be in the center, and the media loved how he incited the Swedes he most often crushed out in the track.
Today, Northug is a valued and celebrated expert for Norwegian TV2, and it is rare for him to come up with pranks like he did years ago. Northug has said that he sometimes has anxiety over how gross the mockery of Sweden became, and especially the times he went hard on the Swedish royal family, which he did above all during the WC in Holmenkollen in 2011.
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Made it unique
King Carl XVI Gustaf was present during the competitions in Holmenkollen, and when Northug crossed the finish line he shouted “Can you hear me?” against the king of Sweden. But even before the finish line he had shocked everyone.
When the Norwegian came up on the race, he had plenty of time down to the runner-up, Marcus Hellner. Northug took his time to quiet the crowd, slow down – before re-securing the distance down to second.
But before Northug crossed the finish line, he did something the skiing world had never seen before. Northug braked fully just half a meter from the line, teasingly waited for his Swedish rival – and then stepped onto the finish line. Say what you will about Petter Northug, but talk about a brilliant mockery.
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