Weekly Digest 29.09 – 05.10

Weekly Digest 29.09 – 05.10

Newsfeed, Trivia
Marit Bjorgen  announces that she and her husband Fred Lundberg are expecting their second child, due next March! Marit hung her skis in April of this year shortly after becoming quite simply, the most decorated female Olympic athlete ever-ever. Her and Fred's son Marius is now 2.5 https://www.instagram.com/p/Boeo_N2gK2a/?taken-by=daily_skier ==================================================================================================== Thus spoke the boss of Rossignol in interview: We think Rossignol is the number one skiing brand worldwide concerning alpine and nordic skis  Madshus, Atomic, Salomon and, especially, Fischer might disagree. Bruno Cerclez also opined that “In about 10 years the Chinese market may be about twenty percent of the world market in winter sport equipment.” Nobody would be willing to argue against that – bigger markets generally mean cheaper products, win-win for everyone. ==================================================================================================== Is there nothing holy?! Niklas Dyrhaug…
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Norwegian Stars: What Do They Earn. And Why Do We Care

Norwegian Stars: What Do They Earn. And Why Do We Care

Money & Finance, Newsfeed
Let's start with the second part of that headline: why do we care. The honorable sport of cross country skiing does not live in a vacuum - it has to compete for attention of big TV channels and, most importantly, sponsors' money to exist. Aforementioned sponsors and broadcasters are simple people at their core: all they care about is a right kind of audience. The bigger - the merrier. Which brings us to amount of fans There are many great sports that simply have lost to the new entrants on the market - failing to adopt, not being seen as cool - and failing to produce their own stars that millions ( literally) want to follow and emulate. But stars by nature have to be in spotlight. Those fans, they…
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Part 2 Of Why Blink Skifestival Provides Glimpse Into Future Of Skiing.  And Reasons Why It Might Not Happen

Part 2 Of Why Blink Skifestival Provides Glimpse Into Future Of Skiing. And Reasons Why It Might Not Happen

Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport
In the story published yesterday we have gone through the reasons why Blink Skifestival is an excellent event, worth visiting for fans and emulation for every event organizer. By the way, all important TV numbers are just in - and they are simply stunning - 52% of Norwegians chose to watch the Blink races on TV - up 5% from already great last year! So, everything is great at and for Blink? Well, every rainbow has its rain, as they say. Here's what we think works against it -Despite being held in the middle of the summer, Blink is skiing event at heart - and all of it star participants are "winter skiers". Rollerskiing is much more dangerous than snow skiing and many an athlete admitted privately to us how…
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Why Blink Skifestival Provides Glimpse Into Future Of Skiing.  And Reasons Why It Might Not Happen

Why Blink Skifestival Provides Glimpse Into Future Of Skiing. And Reasons Why It Might Not Happen

Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport
A short intro for those yet uninitiated: there are international skiing competitions i.e. World Championships ( hello, Seefeld'2019!) and World Cup stages. Those are held - you guessed it - in the winter, when the Northern hemisphere gets some snow ( more of which later). Which means that the skiing as sport is suffering from a major competitive disadvantage in ever toughening field of battle for media attention and sponsorship - it's seasonal. [caption id="attachment_8222" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Same ski stars, same poles & boots - the only difference are rolellerski. IDT Solutions models are developed with Ingvild Oestberg who is actually seen in this photo - and are identical for all the participants [/caption] You might adore Klaebo, Nillson, Ustiugov, Diggins or Pellegrino - but you naturally start forgetting about…
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19 Year Old Beats Olympic Champions At 60K. New Era Looms In Skiing?

19 Year Old Beats Olympic Champions At 60K. New Era Looms In Skiing?

Leaders, Newsfeed
"...The Times They Are a-Changin'...". We doubt Bob Dylan had meant cross country skiing when he sung it more half a century ago – but it reflects precisely what is happening in the sport right now. When Johannes Klaebo, Alexander Bolshunov and Denis Spitsov were running riot on the World Cup and the Olympic tracks last season , nobody failed to notice how shockingly young they were by the standards of endurance sport – twenty one , each of them with Bolshunov, the youngest of three, turning 21 only in December [caption id="attachment_7146" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Bolshunov in November 2017. Only 20 - already winning[/caption] So while Bolshunov's victory at 60k at Blink Skifestival does not come as huge surprise -the man, after all, is the Olympics' silver medalist at 50k…
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