Kåre Mol leads the laser pen towards the screen and shines on the word «playfulness».
Together with his son Anders, he gives a lecture for Sørlandet’s top sports environment at the Olympic Summit’s autumn conference. The theme is interaction and communication, something few have mastered better than father and son from Strandvik.
The family is behind one of Norwegian sports’ most spectacular journeys, from a small western countryside to Olympic gold in Tokyo. In a sport most Norwegians associate with the South.
The journey is now well known, but still fascinating for the spectators in the auditorium in Kristiansand.
But for father Kåre, the journey can end there.
Considering quitting
A few weeks ago he told NTB that he is considering giving himself up as a coach for the world’s best beach volleyball players. After the lecture at the University of Agder, the melody was the same.
After coaching his two eldest sons and their teammates for six years, and before having coached several Olympic athletes, he begins to be supplied.
– I have been doing this since the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. It has been many years away from the family. It is tiring to travel so much, says Kåre Mol to TV 2.
But he has done it anyway, because he has been driven by a goal of leading a Norwegian team to the world top in beach volleyball. Now his son Anders and partner Christian Sørum are world champions, European champions and Olympic champions.
– KNEE ON KNEE: Kåre Mol paid tribute to Christian Sørum and Anders Mol after they won Olympic gold in Tokyo. Photo: Heiko Junge
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– It has been a long journey, which we have now topped so sick. I’ve always been triggered by goals, and what the hell should the goal be now? asks Kåre Mol rhetorically.
The son’s opinion
The son Anders takes the floor in the auditorium. He tells responsive southerners about the time his father left him on a beach in the USA, because he was not focused enough on training.
The confirmation money went to investment
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And about the good memories from his first senior NM, which he was actually too young to participate in. The father had deliberately listed the wrong age for his son, so that he would get some innings against Norway’s best players.
But first and foremost, he had taken his son with him to learn what it was like to sit on the bench.
Kåre has trained and followed up Anders and big brother Hendrik, who now play on Norway’s second team, as long as they have played sports.
Anders thinks it is natural that he gives up now.
– He has been in this team for a long time, burned a lot of gunpowder and spent a lot of time away from his wife and the other children. It’s not just me and Hendrik, there are three others who need attention and a father, says Anders Mol.
– CLOSE TIES: Kåre Mol has been a coach for his son Anders since he was a child. Photo: JON OLAV NESVOLD
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– But do you want him to continue as a coach?
– No. I think he has a lot of other things he can do. He benefits from doing something else, being a little more at home and working on other projects. I think Dad has been a little burned out by us, burned out by the whole project. I understand that very well.
Dad Kåre gets up from the chair he is sitting in and looks at his son.
– Did you fire me now?
The son stutters.
– No, that was a good answer, the father assures.
More talents
Because if Kåre Mol resigns as coach for the world players now, it is not to do gardening outside the detached house in Strandvik.
The 59-year-old, who has been named the world’s best coach, has several children who can reach the top of the world. 19-year-old Markus is already in contention for a place on Norway’s second team, while Adrian (16) and Melina (15) are among the greatest talents in their year classes.
– NEXT GENERATION: Adrian Mol and Melina Mol are two of three talents in the Mol family who are on their way up and forward. Here during the NM in beach volleyball at Sognsvann in Oslo. Photo: Jørgen Ryggvik Karlsen / TV 2
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In addition, they have partners at a high level, who can all benefit from the knowledge of the coaching veteran from Strandvik.
– I do not want to join just to win medals. I want to contribute, to develop, Kåre Mol explains, and continues:
– Now the elders have heard my stories a thousand times, but there are still some who have not heard them a thousand times. So maybe they have more use for me. I have to think carefully about where I can contribute the most.
Hard to let go
The former top player, who has also trained players such as Vegard Høidalen and Nila Håkedal, does not believe that he has much more to add to his son and partner Christian Sørum. They are already the best in the world.
– THE EXPERIENCE: Kåre Mol has been a beach volleyball coach for many years. During the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, he was team leader for Nila Håkedal (left) and Ingrid Mogstad Tørlen. Photo: Heiko Junge
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– But I see that the younger generation needs some of the lessons I have taught to the older ones, says Kåre Mol.
However, he has not decided what will happen next year. Letting go of the project he has been working on for so long is not just easy.
– I also feel that I want to continue, because it is very difficult to let go of these fantastic athletes, says the success coach, but:
– Anders is an adult. He does not need me to be around him all the time. In addition, Anders has had a father much more around him than the other children, so I feel a bad conscience towards them, he adds.
Will still be joining
But even though Anders Mol no longer wants his father as a coach, he still wants him on the team, popularly called “Beachvolley Vikings”.
For both he and his father acknowledge that it will be impossible to withdraw completely.
– BIG MOMENT: The Olympic gold in Tokyo was big for both father and son Mol. Photo: Heiko Junge
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– He will always have a finger in the game. He is the one who has set the framework for everything we have been doing for the last five years. He is the one who has taken all the battles with the association so that we will have the framework we have today, says Anders Mol, and continues:
– Someone still has to do that job, and there Dad is excellent. He has a lot of experience and knows what it takes to succeed with an initiative like ours. Therefore, he becomes important to carry on. Not only for us, but also for younger players who want to bet the way we have done.
The project stays in the family
If Kåre Mol chooses to resign as coach, Jetmund Berntsen will have sole responsibility for the world’s best duo.
He is already part of the coaching staff. As the brother of Kåre’s wife, Merita, he is also part of the family.
– THE FAMILY: Christian Sørum (back to right) is considered to be an adopted son in the Mol family. Jetmund Berntsen (front to right), who can now be given the coaching responsibility alone, is the uncle of Anders Mol (back to left) and the brother-in-law of Kåre Mol (front to left). Photo: JON OLAV NESVOLD
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Leaving the responsibility to him feels safe.
– The train is already on the tracks, so it will continue without me. Jetmund is a fantastic coach, says Kåre Mol.
Will be historic
Because even though Kåre is starting to get enough, the ambitions of Anders Mol and Christian Sørum are still enormous.
– HUNGRY FOR MORE: Both Christian Sørum and Anders Mol will taste several gold medals. Photo: VEGARD WIVESTAD GRØTT
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They will first become world champions, then win another Olympic gold in Paris. This time in front of more spectators than his own support staff, the sports president and Abid Raja.
– Both Christian and I are very motivated to continue working and do this again in Paris, in front of packed stands. It’s a little different to win the Olympics in the corona era, because you do not get the sick experience in the same way as you would have had if you had won Olympic gold in front of 12,000 who scream and shout. And not least in front of family and friends, says Mol.
The enormous atmosphere was at home in Strandvik, where 800 people had gathered to watch the final on the big screen. There are 500 people living in the village as usual.
Takes to tears after the Olympic gold
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– The feeling is difficult to explain. I had achieved something so great, which I have worked for for many years and dreamed of since I was ten years old, but when I was in the middle of it, everything just felt so strange. The setting was completely different from what we had imagined. It was special, says Mol, and continues:
– But at the same time, we knew that there were so many who sat at home and watched. We got the experience that this was so much bigger than anything else.
Therefore, they will do it again.
– The Olympic gold has given more flavor. We desperately want to be the first team to win two Olympic gold medals in a row, says Mol.
Whether it will be with or without a father who trains remains to be seen.
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