Kjetil Jansrud at the helm of "new" Norway: discusses the exclusion of Saugestad

Revolution in the Scandinavian team, not only on a technical level: athletes divided by "status" based on last season's placements and one of the most talented youngsters ...

Monday 6 May 2019 4 minutes reading time

These are not very simple weeks within the Norwegian alpine skiing team and, perhaps, the latest choices at the federal level will only fuel the controversy. In fact, the staff have been made official in view of the next competitive season and, in addition to the various changes related to the coaches after the farewell of the great head of the male sector Christian Mitter (replaced by Steve Skavik), who followed those of the manager of the technical sector Stefan Kornberger (even during the 2018/19 season) and that of the sprinters Reto Nydegger, the athletes were "cataloged" based on the placements obtained last season. "A choice linked to cost control", explained the Alpine skiing sporting director, Claus Ryste, thus justifying the new statuses that lead to only 28 athletes, equally divided between men and women, around the national team. At the male level, we find with the "status A" the only Kjetil Jansrud, absolute reference for the speed sector after Svindal's departure, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Adrian Sejersted, Rasmus Windingstad, Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen and of course Henrik Kristoffersen. "Status B" for two slalomists who have disappointed in recent times like Sebastian Foss Solevaag and Jonathan Nordbotten, in addition to Bjoernar Neteland, Timon Haugan and another very young talent like Lucas Braathen. Finally, status C for athletes who will try to win some places in the World Cup like Bjoern Brudevoll, Fabian Solheim and Atle Lie McGrath. Discusses the exclusion of Stian Saugestad, a sprinter who was definitely growing before the big bang in the Bormio super-g on December 29th. The '92 class thus returned only to Kvitfjell for the last Cup races before the finals (to which it had not clearly qualified), going immediately to points with 26th place in super-g and winning the national title in the same specialty . Nothing to do, though, as the new rules basically take into account only the numbers (status A for the top 15 in the world in at least one discipline, status B for the top 30 and C for the other selected). Female sector? There are no particular news, with Ragnhild Mowinckel and Nina Loeseth (expected to return after the respective physical problems) in the company of Kristin Lysdahl and Thea Stjernesund in the first group. Status B instead for Mina Fuerst Holtmann, Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, Maren Skjoeld, Maria Tviberg, Kristina Riis-Johannessen and Kaja Norbye, while in C we find Mars Monsen, Marte Berg Edseth, Hannah Saethereng and Kristiane Bekkestad.

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