The next ski season promises to be interesting. Of course, not as brilliant as five years ago, because there will be no Russians at the World Cup or the World Championship. But it is possible to feel nostalgic for the old days, because the great Norwegian champion Therese Johaug will return to the ski slopes.
For a long time it was unclear whether the Norwegian would be able to run as hard as before. But as part of his fall preparations, Johaug proved he could, beating the entire Norwegian team. It seems that Teresa has no doubts about her form.
“I felt a lot of pain”
Rumors have been circulating since the beginning of March about Teresa’s return. Johaug then won the 17 km race, which was attended by fans and athletes who had already completed their race. At the end of the month, the four-time Olympic champion achieved another victory. Now in the Norwegian Championship. In the 30km time trial, she finished almost three minutes ahead of her closest pursuer, Sophie Lockley. To put things into perspective, Norway’s top World Cup finisher, Heidi Weng, finished the race in fifth position, three and a half minutes behind Therese.
But despite all this, Johaug didn’t officially announce his return until early August.
“I have to say that when I put my skis on the shelf in 2022, I was in a lot of pain. I didn’t leave because I was tired of competitions, not because I was tired of training. I liked what I did, but the desire and dream of being a mother were so great that it was worth giving up.
I used these two years to decide if I still wanted to ski or not. And because of the World Championships in Trondheim, I said to myself: “Okay, I can come back!” – said the Norwegian at the NRK press conference.
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Teresa’s form raised doubts among many experts.
“Generally speaking, Johaug is in the south with housewives and exercise equipment (in August, Teresa went to a sponsorship meeting in Greece – see “Championship”), and Frida Karlsson is in the mountains of Italy. The bottom line is that Johaug’s strongest competitors don’t do what she does. Yes, Johaug is the best. But she became that way because she trained harder and longer than everyone else. Now the question is whether he can reach the same level after his return,” said TV2 expert Petter Skinstad.
Terese herself confirmed that she did not seem to be in her best shape. In VG footage from a sponsorship meeting in Greece, where the skier was a coach, Johaug showed off her heart rate monitor. The gadget wrote that the athlete needs a lot of time to recover.
Teresa Johaug
Photo: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
“I have crazy reservations”
But the uniform did not affect Johaug’s mood. Terese said she trained like this before the break, but she didn’t talk about everything.
“The difference between me and the younger athlete is that I trained extremely hard for many, many years. I have a crazy training reserve. I will use it in winter! I know I can be successful training 10 or 15 hours a week,” explained the multiple VG world champion.
Since September, Therese has been working for the Norwegian national team. Her colleagues valued the athlete’s work positively.
“When Terese comes to train, she sets high standards,” Lotta Udnes Veng admitted to NRK.
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And on October 19, Johaug confirmed his high level in the national team’s control training. In the 10 kilometer race on the World Cup circuit, Terese won with a score of 30.36. Lotta Udnes Veng was 19 seconds behind the leader. The rest of the competitors lost more than two minutes to the winner.
“I definitely enjoyed it. It was rough and tough, but I can get incredibly good things out of it. In the morning I checked that Victoria Karl ran 28.13 minutes this winter, so I wanted to see how far behind she was,” Johaug said after the race.
And this despite the fact that Teresa’s warm-up was blurry. On one of the descents, he almost crashed into a car that suddenly appeared on the road.
Special plans
It’s obvious that Terese’s form is extremely good, but whether she will be enough to compete with the invincible Swedes in winter is a big question. Unfortunately, it is impossible to constantly compare the multiple champion with the current World Cup leaders. Johaug has already stated that he does not intend to compete much in official competitions before the World Championships.
Terese is expected to make eight starts before the World Championships in Trondheim. According to the athlete’s plans, these will be two races at the beginning of the season in Beitostolen, two at the World Cup stages in Ruka and Lillehammer and two at the Norwegian Championships in January. Johaug mainly focuses on 10 km distances (classic and freestyle) and 20 km skiathlon.
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It is also worth noting that at the home World Championships, Teresa is looking forward to running a long 50km race. But this will only happen if Johaug realizes that she is competitive at other distances. Although we won’t see Teresa often at the World Cup, her return generates a lot of intrigue. This means that the next season will be interesting.
