On Monday came the surprising message from Red Bull: 23-year-old Braathen will make an official announcement about his skiing future on Thursday. Several media learned afterwards that the Norwegian will make a comeback in the alpine circus – for Brazil.
– This is of course a big defeat for the ski association. Lucas would have been one of the big profiles of the ski association if he had been on the inside there, says Petter Northug.
NTB meets the former ski king in the sun in Holmenkollen on Wednesday. Trønder knows well what it means to be in conflict with the ski association. He himself chose to leave the national team as an active player.
– Unfortunately, there is no room for Lucas in the ski association, and you also have athletes who go to the World Cup in cross-country skiing for whom there is no room as of now. One hopes that there will now be a change, and that a national team model will be found where there is room for the best, even if they may be a little different, says Northug.
Defeat
Ole Einar Bjørndalen has also caught up with the latest developments in the case surrounding Braathen. He says the following to NTB based on reports that there will be a comeback in Brazilian colours.
– Of course this is a defeat for the ski association. It is wretched handling that you are unable to keep such wonderful athletes as Lucas Braathen. It is not just him who has struggled, but that it is possible to lose such a top athlete at such a young age.
Braathen shocked the sports community when he announced last October, just before the World Cup opening in Sölden, that he was quitting with immediate effect, aged just 23.
The reason was that, according to his own statement, he had lost the joy of skiing. The background was a long-standing and difficult conflict with the ski association over the national team agreement.
– It was very boring, and I could sense Lucas’s feelings when he made the choice he did. I’m not that concerned with nation, I don’t care that much. The most important thing for me now is that he has regained the motivation required to be at the top. I want to see him on the track. He is a splash of color and someone we need, says Petter Northug.
Low expectations
Bjørndalen had no expectations that Braathen would return to the ranks of the Norwegian association.
– I would have been very surprised if he did. For him as a person, I think this is the best solution, since there was so much conflict with the union and it had been going on for so long, he tells NTB.
In the aftermath of the conflicts with Braathen and other athletes, the ski association has set up a working group to look at the future national team model and the contractual framework that is there today.
When asked by NTB about what expectations he has for this work, Northug replies:
– Expectations are terribly low. I have been in the system there for many years. Much is very good about the national team, but when it comes to adapting and facilitating people who are a little different and stand out, the ski association is just as bad as when I was on the national team and chose to leave it, he says.
The Norwegian Skiing Association has chosen not to comment on the Braathen case before Thursday’s announced press conference at Red Bull in Salzburg.
– We do not wish to comment at this time, but refer to Thursday’s press conference, wrote communications manager Espen Graff in a message to NTB on Tuesday.
(©NTB)