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Coach Lage Sofienlund comes out of the den and answers Kristine Stavå’s Skistad’s stomach surgery, the road to the WC dreams and the run-up.
– Super cool to lose your flow right before the season starts. I feel very sorry for Kristine. You are a super-dedicated athlete who has put in a lot of work all the way up, then comes a blow like this in the face, says Sofienlund.
He and Skistad (25) have deliberately avoided the media throughout the training season, but now he is standing up for VG before the national opening at Beitostølen this weekend.
However, there is no Skistad. She was through an abdominal operation almost two weeks ago. Sofienlund still does not want to share concretely what the sprinter has been through.
– What is your status now?
– The first phase was to get back on your feet. It went very well. Now it’s about moving more and more again – with more and more power. It is difficult to know how long it will take.
– Well, you are a hungry, wounded predator. Now she’ll get up and smile again. There you are, Kristine, good. I think it’s a very good place to be in a season. But it’s a strong performance if she manages to get up to world class in a month or two from where she’s been in the last few weeks.
– How did Skistad take this?
– It’s a blow in the face to be told that you have to have surgery and lose several weeks of training. It’s a shock. But when you find out that things are going well health-wise, your thoughts quickly come back to sports.
Sofienlund says that he and Skistad do not want to set a date for when they think it is appropriate to have competitions again. It only happens after she gets good answers to some regular training sessions that she usually tries on.
Before the stomach operation, he reports a very good drive in peace and quiet at Konnerud.
– It was crap when things had gone so well for so long, but the advantage is that we have a good foundation to stand on so that the fall is not so big.
– There are 98 days left until the WC in Trondheim. What do you think about it?
– 98 days you have a good time. You can get til mye and tukle til mye. We have to be patient and let the training take its course, but the ladies can ski. Once she’s “good” again, I’m sure she’ll get in shape. She has a sick desire to compete.
They have a specific rule about challenging each other on how the training load should be. It becomes extra important now.
– If one pushes, the other must hold again. We have a nice chemistry on it. It will be extremely important going forward, the biggest mistake we can make now is that both get excited.
Last winter, Linn Svahn and Kristine Stavå’s Skistad won five sprints each. Svahn has announced that she will specialize more in sprinting this winter.
– Super cool! Get Svahn as good as possible. Then the only cooler thing is to beat her in Trondheim, grins Sofienlund.
– TV 2 expert Petter Skinstad pointed out that Skistad’s absence means that the Swedes may lose opportunities to test the tactics before the WC. How do you see it?
– It’s well thought out. There will be fewer opportunities for the Swedes to outmaneuver and test what works against Kristine. So they don’t know what she has up her sleeve. Is she the same as last year or has something happened? It will be exciting to see!
– Who will win the sprint in Trondheim?
– It will be a dogfight between Skistad and Svahn. Svahn leads when there is a minute left. The last minute … we’ll see how it goes, Sofienlund answers with a sly laugh.
Skistad formally entered the national team in April, but the other athletes have hardly seen her. Experts, national team coaches and national team athletes have stated that they hope Skistad can contribute more to the team to provide matching in training and raise Norwegian women’s cross country.
Sofienlund herself is excited about what she chooses in the future and believes that anything can happen.
– But the best way she can contribute to Norwegian cross-country skiing is to go as fast as possible. It is primarily her contribution and the way she thinks, says Sofienlund.
– Does Skistad get enough matching in Konnerud, or should she train more with Therese Johaug or one of the others?
– There is no point in Kristine running intervals up the Wyllerbakken with Johaug, because she is not nearby. In the same way that I don’t think Johaug had gotten faster from training with Kristine, because she had been at the finish line before Johaug had started. But it’s really cool that Kristine has made big strides in fitness over the past three years.
– We have some younger guys who are a bit better than Linn Svahn in Konnerud, so Kristine always wins the match against someone who is a bit better than Linn Svahn.
In TV interviews, Skistad is often short-tempered, in addition to delivering a few jabs at the Swedes. At home in Konnerud, Sofienlund tells of a more talkative person.
– Generally at home at Konnerud, a female is a fabulous resource in the environment. She is a cultural leader on professionalism and being dedicated. But the woman you see on TV is also the woman you are. She’s not a super jovial mess maker who stands on the table at the team party and rules the roost, says Sofienlund.
– She is a fabulous resource at home in the environment. I am super happy for her and that we have such a diamond in the environment we are building up in Konnerud.
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