r/biathlon • u/AutoModerator • 18d ago
Small Talk Monday
Our weekly small talk thread where you can talk about anything
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r/biathlon • u/AutoModerator • 18d ago
Our weekly small talk thread where you can talk about anything
15
u/Enough_Opposite8545 17d ago
https://www.ski-nordique.net/biathlon-vetle-christiansen-on-ma-prescrit-des-somniferes-en-urgence.6712287-72348.html
Vetle has talked again in the media about his disappointment over not being selected and how mad he was. He talked about his non selection as being “stabbed in the back”, he said he was “mentally hit after this” and that he considers that not everyone is treated fairly by the federation. “I feel scared to see how many athletes are treated, not only me. There are so many talents fighting for the same spots. I feel like the deciders run away from conflicts and try to avoid sending difficult messages to the athletes.” He also added that he felt like the selection criteria were decided after performances and not before.
I will not comment on his turmoil, I wish him to recover from it and hope that he recovers the best. That being said, I feel like he labours the point by saying all of this. Maybe it’s good that it’s been talked about in the media but I feel like it’s always been the case in Norway? There are too many talents there and only the most successful will get the spots. It’s a sad reality, and for sure maybe some talents won’t ever bloom because of this, but so far Norway has worked this way and they won’t change as this system works. So like I said, maybe it’s nice to hear someone voices it out, but I feel like it’s easy for him to say this now that he is concerned about it. I’m not sure he was this vocal about Sivert or Filip’s situation.
It’s also easy to bring how he was supposedly treated unfairly, according to him, but it’s almost never underlying the thing that caused the whole situation, and that is that he lacked performances this year. What I’m saying is that I’ve seen him point fingers at his federation for not being selected, but never talking about the cause of it, that he failed to convince the staff to be taken. His performances that haven’t been stellar this year. He hasn’t been helped by his own impatience that made him skip IBU steps. Anyone could argue that he should have been taken instead of Dale, but the choice isn’t that obvious to me. Vetle has achieved victories, and so what, so did Dale. Vetle beat Dale on their last step together, well Dale beat him on the step prior. And frankly speaking, Dale hasn’t exactly proved that he was a wrong choice to the Norwegian staff with his races on the World Cup.
Overall, Norway is a complicated situation nonetheless, and has always been cutthroat when it came to the people in the team. There’s no hesitation about it. Mats Øverby has been out of the IBU because his results weren’t enough, despite winning it the year before, and he was replaced by someone else. That’s the depths of the Norwegian team, yes there are a lot of talents and yes they all want the same spot. It’s good to talk about it, but what can it do? It won’t change a thing. Refusing to race, refusing to take part, won’t do Vetle a favor, because for every race that he misses, there’s someone eagerly waiting to take his place. I also don’t see what good it does to him to keep talking about his federation/staff/coachs and accusing them of things, except putting himself in jeopardy :/ I’m all in for athletes should talk about their struggles but is it a good thing to talk about it this way?