It’s like a Norwegian Hunger Games, like a Scandinavian Lord of the Flies, like Nordic skiing’s version of Survival of the Fittest. Norway just announced eight members (5 men, 3 women) of its Olympic Team for Milano-Cortina. Those eight are in, while the committee has the opportunity to choose eight more skiers (3 men, 5 women) in weeks to come. Those already chosen can relax a bit, get back to training, stop worrying about what they might need to prove in the Tour de Ski. For all the other would-be Norwegian Olympians, the highest pressure—and the hardest racing—starts now. Prove your worth in the exhausting Tour de Ski, and you might be chosen for the Olympics . . . though you might find yourself too physically exhausted and mentally spent to ski like a hero when Olympic events get going in Val di Fiemme. That’s the dilemma: it’s an old-school, winner-take-all qualification strategy that seems a bit strange to have been instituted by ski-dominant Norway. But Norway is a nation that’s likely to sweep many of the individual Olympic podiums in cross-country skiing—especially in the men’s field—regardless of which Norwegians are nominated to the Olympic Team. The selection committee can pretty much do whatever it wants, and things will still turn out just fine.
In January, I’ll be attending the US Speedskating Olympic Trials in West Allis, Wisconsin. It’s like a family reunion for me, a bit of a walk down memory lane: I competed in those Trials numerous times (though never achieving the desired result) and coached numerous athletes to success on many other winner-take-all days. The holding of an actual Olympic Trials always seemed like a fair, but brutal, enterprise. Fair in that team selection processes were plain and simple—top four skaters in each distance earn the right to march into the Olympic stadium, to wear USA on their chest, to compete in an Olympic Games. Do well at the Trials, go to the Olympics. Pretty straightforward.
Years later, Olympic selections have become more subjective—certain athletes must be protected in the process. The stars and potential medalists in Americn speedskating (Jordan Stoltz, Brittany Bowe, Erin Jackson, and members of USA’s world-record Team Pursuit team) will still be competing at the Olympic Trials, but their results will matter less since they’ll already have achieved protected status earned through last season’s performances and/or early season brilliance on the World Cup circuit. There are spots on the team that can still be won at the Trials, but those spots will be claimed by skaters who are less likely to contend for medals in Milano-Cortina. The potential medalists are protected in the process (I’m all for that), and there are opportunities for dreams to come true for others who skate the race of their lives at just the right moment on just the right day (and I love that). It’s an old-fashioned way of doing things . . . one that definitely limits the ultimate Olympic potential of athletes forced to run this qualification gauntlet. That’s why it seems so strange that Norway is utilizing a similar system to select the remaining spots on its Olympic cross-country roster.
Eight athletes have already been named to the Norwegian Olympic Team:
Men
Harald Østberg Amundsen, Asker Ski Club
Einar Hedegart, Inderøy IL
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Byåsen IL
Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, Lillehammer Ski Club
Erik Valnes, Bardufoss and the surrounding area IF
Women
Kristine Stavås Skistad, Konnerud IL
Astrid Øyre Slind, Oppdal IL
Heidi Weng, IL in BUL
The winner of the last two Men’s World Cup individual races—Einar Hedegart—is in. The winner of the most recent Women’s World Cup individual race—Karoline Simpson-Larsen—not yet. That’s kind of crazy: she’s the only Norwegian woman with a win this season in a World Cup distance race, though the selection committee suggests she’s not yet proven enough to warrant a place on the Olympic Team. Norwegian Sprinter, Skistad, has stood on top of a World Cup Sprint podium this season, and she’s been given a spot on the team—granted, Skistad has been a dominant sprinter on the international scene for a couple of seasons, especially in Classic Sprints (which is the format in which the Olympic Sprint will be conducted). We understand making Skistad an early announcement for the Olympic Team. What we don’t understand is the early announcement that leaves Larsen off of it. Now Larsen will be forced to fight her way through the exhausting Tour de Ski in order to claim her spot. Unfortunately, she might leave her Olympic potential strewn along the course that climbs up Alpe Cermis.
How ironic is it that a team with the potential to secure medals from any individual member of their team has decided to protect only the top few, while forcing the remaining medal contenders to swim with sharks and battle to exhaustion through the often-debilitating Tour de Ski (which many fans continue to wish would not be staged during Olympic and World Championship seasons)? Team Norway has the ability to pick five more women, and three more men. The remaining contenders will be expected to race it out in the Tour de Ski. With that in mind, the Tour de Ski entries have been announced. Klaebo, Amundsen, and Valnes are set to compete. Evidently, either they’re each still coveting World Cup Crystal Globes (in addition to Olympic medals), or they just don’t think the Tour de Ski will be all that taxing. It seems like a heady roll of the dice, but they’re big boys: I hope they know what they’re doing. They’ll be joined in this multi-day endurance slugfest by Simen Hegstad Kruger, Mattis Stenshagen, Emil Iversen, Iver Tildheim Anderson, Oskar Opstad Vike, Lars Heggen, and Ansgar Evensen—all hoping to prove that they deserve one of the few remaining spots on Team Norway.
Having already been named to the Olympic Team, Nyenget and Hedegart won’t compete in the Tour de Ski—kicking back in their newly-distributed Olympic uniforms, comfortably watching while every else scrambles for the few remaining prizes. Such is the depth of Norwegian supremacy that a number of legitimate medal contenders weren’t even selected to compete for a spot on the team. The Tour de Ski offers limited entries: Even Northug and Andreas Fjorden Ree didn’t make the cut. They’ll sit at home where their World cup medals hang on the wall, wondering how circumstances transpired in such weird ways that they weren’t even allowed to compete.
In the Women’s Tour de Ski field, all three Norwegians who were recently named to the Olympic Team are entered (including Skistad, who will likely drop out after the second Sprint day). With regard to selections affecting the women’s team, Norway will choose the remaining five Olympic spots from among Kristine Austgulen Fosnaes, Julie Myhre, Mathilde Myhrvold, Lotta Udnes Weng, Eva Ingebritsen, Ingrid Bergene Aabrekk, and Julie Bjervig Drivenes. Five Women’s Olympic Team spots are still to be named, meaning two of the ten Norwegians entered in the Tour de Ski will see their Olympic dreams end on Alpe Cermis. For other consistent World Cup performers, their Olympic quest is over: Nora Saness, Ane Appelkvist Stenseth, Anne Kjersti Kalvaa, and Tiril Udnes Weng have not even been offered spots in the Tour de Ski, as the committee underestimates their chances of performing at medal-winning levels in Olympic events in Val di Fiemme. They’ll stay home and watch.
Norway’s selection process is a bit of a throwback. As a long-ago athlete who once chased Olympic dreams on the windswept backstretch of an ice oval in suburban Milwaukee, I kind of love that. But for the many Olympic medal contenders among Norway’s crop of cross-country skiers, it must be terrifying. One way or another, Norway is likely to collect many medals from the Olympic podiums of Milano-Cortina. It remains to be seen which Norwegian heroes will be wearing those medals on the flight home.
