Legendary Norwegian skier Therese Johaug hit the ski slopes for the first time in two years and crushed all her rivals. The 35-year-old champion easily and naturally distanced herself from her competitors at the Norwegian Championships and literally a couple of minutes after the 30 km race, she gave an interview with completely calm breathing.
Johaug is the Norwegian team’s only hope for a successful performance at the local world championships in Trondheim in distance running. Well, maybe Marit Bjorgen will return.
Norwegian skiers did not win a single distance race at the 2023/2024 World Cup. Even Johannes Klebo, known for his correct answers to any question, described the performance of his compatriots as “very bad.” The best was Heidi Weng, a two-time World Cup winner who finished in the top three six times.
In such a situation, it is at least naive to expect that a miracle will suddenly happen and at the 2025 World Cup the Norwegians will suddenly start winning distance races (they have Kristin Schistad in the sprint).
Not in vain in Norway, almost since the beginning of this season, there has been talk of the possible return to the ski slopes of the great and terrible Therese Johaug. Strictly speaking, she didn’t end her career. The thing is that after the 2022 Olympic season I went on maternity leave, gave birth to a daughter, Christine, and lived for pleasure.
But he still completed the ADAMS system and his status remained active on the International Ski and Snowboard Federation website.
Therese Johaug easily won her first race after returning
The great Norwegian champion returned to the ski slope and won immediately. Everyone is afraid of Johaug again!
Johaug did not deny the rumors about his possible return to racing. And at the beginning of March in Engadin (Switzerland), the Norwegian ran a 17-kilometer race, which was attended by fans and long-retired athletes. Teresa gave Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk, Marit Bjorgen’s once bitter rival, more than three and a half minutes.
The most interesting thing was before the race. Johaug gave a short interview in which he confirmed the resumption of his active racing and described his main goal: to win the 50 km race at the World Championships in Trondheim. A week later, the interview was removed from the Engadin contest website, but the news instantly spread around the world.
Teresa carefully said that everything was misunderstood, she did not promise anything. However, she entered the Norwegian championship, in the 30 km speed skating. And there she was three minutes ahead of her closest rival. It was as if Johaug had never left. She seems to have become even stronger. The Norwegian always won with her incredible speed over distances, nothing has changed even two years later.
If you look at Johaug’s career, she chose for her first official start after a two-year break a career in which she has always been successful. The last time Teresa failed to make the top thirty was at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Then the Norwegian took seventh place.
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Since then, he has run 24 30 km races (different styles of mass starts and time trials) at the Olympics, World Championships, World Cup and Norwegian Championships, winning 13 of them and consistently finishing in the top 3 in the rest. . For Johaug, this is the most suitable race, since he does not have a good finish and does not like to run races at an irregular pace.
As Yuri Borodavko likes to repeat, in a race you have to accelerate to the maximum once, but only to the finish line, or at the most decisive moment. Then Johaug begins his acceleration from the beginning. And even if the goal is 30 or 50 kilometers away, that doesn’t bother him. His average speed is much higher than the others.
There is now no doubt that Therese Johaug will make a full return next season. It is unlikely that she will participate in all World Cup distance races; she just she doesn’t need it. She will arrive in better shape for the 2025 World Cup at 36 years old.
