Home » Sport » Cross-country skiing, Therese Johaug | Cross-country profiles fight back against fluoride criticism:

Cross-country skiing, Therese Johaug | Cross-country profiles fight back against fluoride criticism:

Editor questioned the morale of the national ski team. Now several of the profiles are responding to the criticism.

HOLMENklusen (Nettavisen): The International Ski Federation (FIS) recently confirmed that the planned ban on fluoride lubrication will not be introduced until the 2021/22 season.

Norway is among those who have been for a postponement as the test equipment to check whether a practitioner uses fluoride lubrication is currently not satisfactory.

However, the Norwegian national team in both biathlon and cross-country skiing has had to endure criticism for their attitude.

This week, Snorre Valen, political editor at Nidaros, went hard and asked questions about the morale of the Norwegian national ski team.

“We know how harmful and environmentally damaging the use of fluoride in ski lubrication is. Nevertheless, Norwegian cross-country skiers and biathletes will use it in the coming season to win.

They will probably win a bunch of gold this season as well. But athletes who with open eyes choose to expose both people and nature to the danger of gaining a marginal advantage in a marginal sport, are not role models for anyone “, writes Valen in his comment.

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Strikes back

Therese Johaug, probably Norway’s biggest cross-country profile, is among several who do not agree with the criticism from Valen.

– I think he will be responsible for what he says. Then we who are in the game know how this works. I have not seen him start in a World Cup race, says Johaug to Nettavisen.

Johaug is concerned that the winter race should be fair and thinks it will be too easy to just point out the consequences for the environment.

– Then we can not go cross-country skiing, to be completely honest. Because we get on a plane, we get on a bus, we drive. The little fluoride we have on those skis … In the big world it is «zero and nada». Driving a car and getting on a plane to Beijing, Canada or the United States – then we are talking pollution.

– You can not come and take it, says Johaug.

She is happy that FIS decided to postpone the ban until next season.

– It seemed that they did not have the test equipment in place. To start a season with a fluoride ban and that it’s a bit hip how happ that device turns out, it simply does not work. It had offered great speculation, dissatisfaction and confusion among all. You must first have a rock-solid test device in place, says Johaug firmly.


Click on the image to enlarge.  CLEAR SPEECH: National team coach Eirik Myhr Nossum.

CLEAR SPEECH: National team coach Eirik Myhr Nossum.
Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum (NTB)

Johaug receives support

That attitude is also shared by the other athletes and coaches Nettavisen speaks to in the Norwegian team.

Eirik Myhr Nossum, national team coach for the Norwegian men, is positive about a future ban on the use of fluoride, but believes, like Johaug, that sport must have a set of rules that it is possible to comply with.

– We know that fluoride has a lot to say. If it does not have consequences or it is possible to discover that someone is using it, then it is difficult for me to relate to it, says the national team coach to Nettavisen.

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Nossum is convinced that it would have been practitioners who would have cheated if there had been a ban on fluoride for the winter and there had not been a functioning test apparatus ready.

The national team coach points out that there are still athletes who dope themselves despite the fact that it can lead to long exclusions and in addition be dangerous to health.

– If we are to compete against people with fluoride then we can just drop it. Then we could have shut down and said that in anticipation of this we lay off all employees because there is no point in going international skiing. Then we can arrange cross-country skiing in Norway. It would have been an option. But so far, the job of many of those sitting here is to represent Norway internationally. Then we are interested in doing it in a fair way, says Nossum.

The national team coach repeats that he is in favor of a ban, but says that the athletes must compete on equal terms.

– I am responsible for X number of jobs here and the workplace is about competing on skis. My job is to make sure that it is done in the best possible way and that it is done in a fair way. I am in favor of when things are so uncertain, then it must be postponed, says Nossum.


Click on the image to enlarge.  SEASON RUN-UP: Hans Christer Holund is recharging for a new winter season where he can again be allowed to use fluoride under the skis.

SEASON RUN-UP: Hans Christer Holund is recharging for a new winter season where he can again be allowed to use fluoride under the skis.
Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum (NTB)

The world champion will not have unnecessary suspicion

Also reigning world champion in the 50-kilometer, Hans Christer Holund, thinks the only sensible thing was to postpone the ban on fluoride lubrication when there were no satisfactory test options available.

– First I must say that the best thing would have been to avoid fluoride. It is harmful and something we do not want to have in nature. The very best thing would have been if it had been fair to introduce the fluoride ban as of today, but as it is now, we do not have good enough test routines for it. Then it is also too early to introduce it, says Holund to Nettavisen. .

The world champion has little understanding for those who question the national team’s morale.

– There is no point in doing top sports if it is to be the case that those who cheat will be allowed to cheat. Then we might as well do something else. One of the prerequisites for top sports to be fun to watch is that everyone shows the same cards and that everyone is clean, says Holund.

– A bit of the reason why I may not follow the bike as much as I did before is that the suspicion is there all the time that not everyone is clean. If you are to get that suspicion in cross-country skiing on the smear piece, that one may have cheated and used fluoride under the skis because he has good skis, then it is not an element you want to bring in, according to the Norwegian cross-country profile.

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Until the ban is introduced, however, he hopes that people will take responsibility and use fluoride lubrication in a sensible and harmless way as possible.

– We know that fluoride is dangerous for our health. You then have to get better at routines of using a mask when you lubricate the skis and the whole package there. As long as you use it, it is safe, but those who do not can get sick.

– But I hope the test routines will be so good in the future that we can cut out the fluorine. That will be the best, says Holund.

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