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FROM WATER TO PARQUET: Birgit Skarstein and her partner Philip Raabe are ready for a new round of “Skal vi danse”, just hours after Norway’s rowing gold favorite ended last season with the National Championship in Årungen . Photo: Espen Solli / TV 2
Birgit Skarstein (31) sped up the last rowing dance of the season on the water in Årungen on Saturday in order to prepare for the tango “Skal vi danse” on TV 2 with her partner Philip Raabe (20).
– It is very strange that it is over, says Birgit Skarstein.
The statement requires an explanation.
It is the oar that is finished. That dance ended after the director of the national team, Johan Flodin, sent an email a few days ago to the eight rowers of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic teams with a short message: “From Monday they have holidays.”
The only remaining international competition this year after the crown cancellations: the European Championship in Poznan 9-11. October: will not be for Birgit Skarstein & co.
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– It is very strange because the season always ends with an (international) championship. Suddenly it was over, without us having traveled or competed internationally. There have been no seasonal highlights, Birgit Skarstein notes.
– It has been an absurd season. It has been more than a year since the last World Cup, and still more than half a year until the next one, he says.
The next rowing meeting will be “hopefully” in November. However, the planned meeting of the national team in Portugal starting on November 3 marks the start of the next season, that is, the preparations for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games postponed in Tokyo in the summer and fall of 2021.
On Saturday, she gets “the last time” on the boat to row the NC final in Årungen, we noticed a little earlier than the originally set time. After a meeting of judges on Thursday, her final departure was postponed until 11.10.
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– Then I have time to row before going to dance in Fornebu, confirms Birgit Skarstein.
She is by no means finished with “Shall we dance”.
– It’s a nice photo: the dance replaces this season, she says.
On Friday morning, she went to bed and slept a bit on a couch in Årungen, to gather strength for dance training later in the evening. The hours leading up to the broadcast of “Skal vi danse” starting at 7.30 pm on Saturday will be no less exhausting, if you take a look at Birgit Skarstein’s daily program:
By 09.15 you should be at the Årungen rowing track, 30 km from home and south of Oslo.
10.00: Warm-up, 10.25: In the water, 11.10 is the initial shot, 11.25 in the goal.
– Then I have until 12.05 to get in the car. Attendance at Fornebu is 13 blank. I have been strictly informed about it, says Birgit Skarstein with a laugh.
– Actually, I should have been there at ten o’clock. But I put it off to have time to row in the NM final, she adds.
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In Fornebu’s recording room, the dance day begins with what she describes as a parquet rehearsal. Between shifts, she has planned to take a nap on the floor, so her partner Philip Raabe doesn’t get upset. She will be, if it turns out that she isn’t rested enough like a tango.
– An elite athlete that you should probably eat between strokes. When should you have time for that?
– Like while taking a shower, answers Birgit Skarstein.
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Before the dress rehearsal, it is the turn of “hairstyle, makeup and wardrobe”. Birgit Skarstein uses the time here for about an hour. From experience, she’s a bit excited when it comes to the latter. The seams of a previous dress turned out not to hold during the entire “Shall we dance?” Birgit says that handball stickers in vital places saved that session from some kind of grounding.
– Glad to have the dance. Otherwise, it would be special with six weeks of training on your own. I enjoy training with others. But we are lucky to have this team and the environment. I think this time it may have been difficult for individual athletes without an environment around them, says Birgit Skarstein.
