Neither pouring rain, strong winds, war in Europe nor all the current international crises managed to spoil the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships this past week. They kept carrying on in Trondheim and were wrapping up over the weekend, after almost total domination by skiers and ski-jumpers from host country Norway.
Norwegian fans of both cross-country skiing and ski jumping eventually all but rescued the major international event. They also dominated in the grandstands during the day and at medal ceremonies downtown in the evening. Organizers could report on Friday that they’d finally met their goal of selling 220,000 tickets over the course of the championships that ran from February 26 to March 9.
“We are incredibly satisfied and relieved,” said Åge Skinstad, chief of what the Norwegians simply call “VM,” short for Verdens Mesterskap (World Championships in Norwegian). “There are many people who’ve been working hard for many years towards all this.”
The organizers admitted to earlier doubts over the current level of public interest in Nordic skiing and enthusiasm for the championships themselves. Ticket sales had started off slowly, so slowly that it raised concerns last fall and through the winter. They still had to sell at least 50,000 tickets just two weeks ahead of opening ceremonies to meet their goal.
Attendance at some events, including the women’s first ski jumping events, was low and coaches called it “disappointing.” School children were brought in during the day to fill empty seats. Sports commentator Erlend Nesje had written in Norway’s biggest newspaper Aftenposten just days ahead of the opening that the country’s “Golden Era” of skiing was over.
There were also lots of other worries ahead of the championships, as all the trauma caused by the new US president, Donald Trump, grabbed headlines and pushed the World Championships off front pages and the tops of newssites. So much else was happening in the world and dominating newscasts that relatively little major media attention was afforded to the championships, also when they got underway in Trondheim.
Then the weather went from bad to worse, forcing some events to be delayed when strong winds caused damage at the site and made ski jumping hazardous. Unusually warm temperatures and heavy rain also turned the ski trails into mushy snow that froze at night, making them hazardous, too. Organizers feared the bad weather would keep spectators home.
It didn’t, as flag-waving sports fans ended up filling the arena at Trondheim’s Granåsen skiing center in the hills above the city and lining the ski trails, day after day. Both Norway’s national sport and the championships themselves seemed to “rise from the dead” in Trondheim, as Aftenposten later put it.
Ticket sales had picked up and hometown sports fans turned the championships into what the Norwegians are fond of calling a folkefest (literally, people’s party) that Aftenposten’s Nesje later wrote the locals would “remember for generations.”
All events were sold out on Saturday March 8, highlighted by the men’s 50-kilometer race. It was won by Norway’s own undisputed skiiing king, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who also made history by winning six out of six possible gold medals during the course of the event. No other cross-country skier has ever achieved that in a World Championship.
“This was a miracle of an athletic presentation,” said Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) commentator Martin Johnsrud Sundby, who also won plenty of gold during his earlier skiing career. Others were also calling Klæbo, who’s earlier won both World Championship and Olympic gold as well, the greatest skier of all time.
Another Norwegian skiing star, Therese Johaug, had tried to win gold herself in a major comeback, now at an age of 36. She didn’t do as well, “only” winning silver in, for example, the women’s 10-kilometer classic and losing to Ebba Andersson of arch-rival Sweden. She’d also lost an earlier duel against Andersson.
Norway’s ski jumpers and those taking part in the combined cross-country and ski jumping did well, though, with the mixed men’s- and women’s jumping team among those winning gold. Individual ski jumpers were hit by protests from other nations on Saturday, though, and Marius Lindvik lost his silver medal over violations of regulations applying to their jumping suits.
Jarl Magnus Riiber, by contrast, ended his brilliant racing and jumping career by winning solid gold and the company of his four-year-old daughter Ronja when making the honorary trek up to the royal viewing platform to accept congratulatons from Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Prince Mette-Marit.
All told, Norwegians had won 13 gold medals by Saturday evening, 10 silver and seven bronze. The total of 30 medals was triple that of the next runner-up, Sweden, and six times that of Slovenia, which landed in third place in the medal overview. Critics contend that Norway’s domination of Nordic winter sports continues to be a problem, but there wasn’t much evidence of that as Trondheim’s championships ended mostly amidst jubilation.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund