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ONESELF After a winter in which the sport has seen nothing close to speed on the piste, the ranking in Norwegian cross-country skiing is clear:
- Marit Bjørgen remains the queen of the cross country, with Therese Johaug eight years younger as the closest in line of succession.
The two also have close ties off the track. Both are peasant women and immigrants to the capital, they like to train together and live in the shadow of Holmenkollen; the heart of organized skiing.
Since Holmenkollen, this sport has been managed for 138 years by the “Association for the Promotion of Ski Sports”; now only known as the ‘Ski Association’, which has awarded the prestigious ‘Holmenkoll Medal’ for almost as long.
Both Bjørgen and Johaug have long been honored with the generous award. But now the ski leaders certainly regret handing out these medals.
The board of the Ski Federation has not agreed with Marit Bjørgen on what doping really is. Now the management has introduced new rules, which means that people like Therese Johaug are now being asked to send in their Holmenkoll medal in return.
But that’s exactly what Therese better do herself ASAP.
In protest against the flagrant injustice.
FOR With this change in the criteria on who deserves the Holmenkoll medal, the association breaks with the prevailing Norwegian anti-doping policy:
- Now they have acquired rules that only help all the doping scammers in the world.
This is how this environment has been consolidated for some years as the “Association for the Promotion of Immorality”. This dramatic change has taken place without any open debate between the members and in conflict with the rest of Norwegian skiing.
It is a scandal that both the 70,000 members and the Norwegian Ski Federation should not let it go unchallenged.
A shame to forget Teresa
THE OTHER DAY The Holmenkoll medal for 2021 was presented to Maren Lundby, Johannes Thingnes Bø, Swiss cross country legend Dario Cologna and German combined runner Johannes Rydzek. Really great skiers all.
The problem with ski medals is that, after all, it turns out that some were not that good. There are several of them on the Holmenkoll medal winners list.
They are found in different categories in resistance exercises. East Germans Gerhard Grimmer and Ulrich Wehling, as well as Russian skiers Galina Kulakova and Raisa Smetanina, come from the communist doping regimes of the 1970s. It can be difficult to find out if they were personally responsible for the deception.
Later this has become clearer. Among the winners are famous drug addicts such as Russia’s Larissa Lasutina and Julia Tsjepalova, popular Finn Harri Kirvesniemi and Estonian fallen national hero Andrus Veerpalu.
SKI ASSOCIATION it has refused to settle with foreigners who obviously bear personal responsibility for the fraud. Instead, this historic Holmenkollen association has thrown itself into the national debate on doping with all its moral outrage.
It happened by pure chance
And it has gone completely wrong.
Bjørgen wondered and disappeared
IN once during another sporting fad, the Ski Association got ugly; but precisely, called the “head seat”. Organized ski activity has always been strong in the far west of Oslo; It is also now reflected that cross-country skiing as an urban sport is characterized by high education and high income.
But this term snobbery is grossly unfair to the extensive ski social work carried out by the Ski Association in and around the capital. This is important work for public health. It is even more reckless that some board members, on their own initiative, have dragged such work to the wrong side in the fight against doping.
Why is Bjørgen not allowed to say what Therese Johaug is about?
IS The personal stupidity began in connection with the awarding of the medal in 2018. In the committee that at that time had to find new worthy winners, the top leaders sat down for the Ski Federation, the Biathlon Association and the Ski Association. They unanimously nominated Martin Johnsrud Sundby.
The choice was obvious both from athletic accomplishments and the way Martin had built the training environment in Norway’s new men’s national team after Petter Northug disappeared in the spring of 2013 as a private running back. Furthermore, it was important for these leaders to emphasize that there was obviously nothing ethical about Martin Johnsrud Sundby as a cross-country skier after the verdict for incorrect asthma medication.
No one had accused the Norwegian star of cheating. The judgment of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, on the other hand, emphasized the opposite. In Martin do not he had tried to get some benefit from his doctors by using the so-called “nebulizer” to treat his asthma as effectively as possible.
Before that, everything went wrong immediately afterwards during a spontaneous discussion at a meeting of the board of directors of the Ski Federation.
Badly done by Norway
OF THE most were against both Norwegian skiing and their own management. Suddenly, the board decided to remove Martin from the list of candidates and he has since barricaded himself in a corner.
Without any informative discussion at the annual general meeting of the Ski Federation, the board adopted new rules for those who are henceforth worthy Holmenkoll medal winners. These regulations state that «Anyone convicted of violating doping rules is disqualified for the medal.».
The rules therefore differ do not between practitioners who are convicted of deliberate doping fraud and completely different practitioners who unknowingly violate a doping rule.
This lack of distinction means that, for example, Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk never gets the Holmenkoll medal she deserves for opening up a huge new television audience for cross-country skiing. Justyna also unknowingly received the wrong drug and is therefore blacklisted on the Norwegian honor roll for sport.
It serves neither the Ski Association nor the honor of the sport.
Rumors strike back
FOR With these ethically inconsistent rules, the Ski Federation ends up on the wrong side in the international fight against doping.
Now Holmenkollen leaders promote the vision of those who want immorality in sport to continue. Like Russian cross-country coach Jelena Välbe; of course, honored with his own Holmenkoll medal, who would rather spread rumors about Norwegian asthma medication than oppose Russia’s corrupt doping culture.
According to the Ski Federation, all those who violate the doping rules are exactly the same ……….
EXACTLY Such a thoughtless attitude towards anti-doping work is the best help that cheaters could wish for.
The most common excuse for using drugs has always been the claim that everyone does it. That is, it is the same if you are involved in organized fraud or if you more or less carelessly violate a doping rule.
Most people agree that these individual unconscious violations must be prosecuted. Practitioners’ own legal responsibility is crucial, but here punishment and imprisonment are not at all the same as ethical responsibility.
Punish doping: – Unreasonable
IS The top Norwegian anti-doping hunters have long worried about the crucial difference. Differentiating the judgment between fraud and random errors is a common goal for independent Western anti-doping organizations. Uncovering the real culprits has been important in the deal against Russian state fraud.
That is why Marit Bjørgen was so interested in emphasizing that Therese Johaug do not has been convicted of doping:
– In my eyes Therese is not druggedhe said during the Norwegian debate.
The same said the judges of the CAS, who in the sentence emphasized that Johaug do not he had used lip balm to gain some competitive advantage.
So why does the Ski Association think the exact opposite of Norwegian skiing, our two most important skiers and completely independent international judges?
THE the members of the Ski Federation should consult their board of directors. The truth is that current regulations overshadow Therese Johaug’s medal:
– If someone who has received the medal later is convicted of violating doping regulations, the person concerned is credited with a request to return the medal.it says on the ruler.
Formally, this invitation to send the medal in exchange only takes effect from January 1, 2019. Therese Johaug received the Holmenkoll medal in 2013 and therefore runs away.
But it does not escape the fact that the board of directors of Norway’s most important ski association places it in the same position as the biggest scammers in the sport. Because you can’t honestly date it. In any case, the ethics are the same before and after January 1, 2019:
- The new rule states in clear text that the board of the Ski Federation has decided that Therese Johaug is no longer worthy of the Holmenkoll medal that has been awarded to her.
It is a scathing ethical judgment that does not rhyme with reality.
This stops the heat
LAST YEAR the rest of Norwegian sports took an agreement with this unfair label. Then Therese Johaug received the Egeberg Honorary Award. It was delivered by a wise jury who just discussed the importance of distinguishing between fraud and rape.
– This stops the heatI wrote at the time, and it was far from correct. It’s only been a few days since Therese was praised on Swedish television for the honest way she has been decidedly the best on the track.
That honorary award should have been the final deal, but unfortunately an inconsistent board still remains at Holmenkollen.
They may not understand the seriousness of the case until Therese and Marit return their medals in protest of the injustice. Or to the honorary member of the Ski Association, King Harald, the steep board members explain the consequences of this rule in a serious moment at the Stand of Honor.
Because that’s where the king usually embraces Teresa when he has the opportunity to do more to her than send her a congratulatory telegram. Because he knows Norwegian skiing and he knows that she still deserves both the hug and the credit.
And this should be enough for the nobility of Holmenkollen as well.
