It’s been a while since my last post, but luckily this time of the season is slower than molasses for all thing nordic so there hasn’t been anything of substance to report. Today however, there was some bad news out of Norway as 22 year old Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen was in a serious bike accident while training in Sjusjøen in which she broke her jaw, elbow, and back. No more details have been released as yet but NRK has reported that there will be an official press release on Monday.
After being out injured all of last year with a bad achilles injury, the bad run of injuries continues for Jacobsen and this accident will definitely bring her season to an end almost before it even started. Hopefully, she’ll have a great recovery and be back to the ski grind sooner than later.
Before today, there has been some other notable news including the German ski federation hiring Tor Arne Hetland as the “external adviser” to sprinters Josef Wenzl and Daniel Heun. Initial reports had Norway wanting Hetland for their own sprint team but Hetland decided to “broaden his horizon” and opted for the German team instead.
The German sprint team is a fraction of it’s distant counterparts with no skiers finishing in the top 22 of the sprint overall while Norway had 7 in the top 13 and 4 of the top 5. It’ll be great experience for Hetland as his transition away from the athlete lifestyle to a more coaching oriented position in the ski world. I would not be surprised at all if he ended up back in Norway as one of the coaches there somewhere down the road.
A great interview with Alex Harvey from Fasterskier a while back which touches on plans for the Olympic year, the media attention after his great year on the circuit and how he’s fitting into his home away from home in Canmore. Points out that Inge could be the missing piece of the puzzle. He has the ability to brings people together, which is “supper good for team spirits”.
In other news, the FIS has proposed rules changes with regards to the B-final for the sprints. The FIS intend to skip the B-final to allow more airtime after the A-final is run for “emotions and interviews”. This a good move for the average spectator as it’ll give them a better look at the reactions of athletes after the races but in terms of points. However, I imagine a lot of athletes will draw strong opposition to the proposal. Even though the B-final is only for 7th to 12th place, there are still some crucial points up for grabs that could change the looks of the season and if the B-final was thrown out then how would the 7th to 12th places be ranked; by their semi-final time or by their qualification time?
That’s all the notable news the last little while. All the best in the mountains and on the trails this summer.
Til Next Time.
