As you say, the level in women’s freeskiing is outrageous at this point and everyone just keeps finding ways to progress more and more. Is it fun to be part of that when you’re looking around at what the other girls are doing? For me as a fan, it’s so fun watching Megan land that triple at X. It must have been the scariest thing ever to do it, but to watch it happen, I got chills.
Oh, my god. Yeah. It was incredible.
For me, it’s of course so cool to to see the girls send it. But of course I can feel like the pressure a little too, because I’m a competitive skier, so I really want to do good. So I definitely feel like, ‘Ohh, now I have to go and learn that trick and that trick.’ But mostly it’s so good to see how much the sport has progressed the past three seasons. And finally we get cred from the boys now, too.
Yeah, big time.
Yeah, for sure. It’s way more creds now than like four years ago, so that’s nice.
I think a lot of people really like watching the women’s comps now because maybe it’s more relatable. There’s constant progression and never-been-dones, and now there are the first triples, and Tess doing steezy 16’s. It’s just like, at the World Champs at Bakuriani Troy Podmilsak and Lucas Muellauer did amazing 2160s but it’s also like…that’s a lot. It’s a lot. And I talked to Birk (Ruud) last week and he thinks it’ll get to 2520.
Oh, but Birk’s actually keen. That’s because he knows that he’s probably one of the only ones that can do it, and that then he can win (laughs).
Ha! Sticking with the topic of your teammates, maybe talk about the season for the Norwegian team in general, because there was so much success across the board for you guys. It really seemed like a fun thing to be a part of.
Yeah, so cool. Like for Sebastian (Schjerve), I think this season he finally starting to to get rewarded for the good skiing. Because he’s been skiing good for so many years, but never like ended up on the podium. So he started doing good and then he got more confident in comps and got, I don’t know three podiums or something. And yeah, Tormod (Frostad) is always skiing so good, but he’s always unlucky somewhere in the course. But I really enjoy watching him ski. And unfortunately Ulrik (Samnoy) tore his ACL so that was sad for the team, but he’s been working really hard and he’s stoked to be back soon. And Sandra also got her first World Cup podium in Chur. So that was really cool and that really helped her mentality in in the comps because she was in every finals this season, both slope and big air. So that was good for her too.
And then Birk, Birk won almost everything you can win (laughs). Win or podium.
And then Christian (Nummedal) is always skiing good, but he’s decided to stop competition after getting silver at the World Champs. That was really cool, but now he’s decided to quit competitive skiing, so that’s really sad for the team.
But like last year he was so sure that Silvaplana was going to be his last comp, and then we all talked to him like, ‘You can’t stop now, you’re skiing so good.’ And then he joined us for one more year. But now it’s he’s really decided to retire and it’s kind of weird for me because we were talking together about it and like I was so sure that this is my last come comp season, too. Already in January I thought that it was going to be my last. But yeah, I’m still here.
Yeah I mean, it’s crazy to say it because you’re only 25, but this is going to be your 10th season of international competition coming up.
Yep, started young.
So are you planning to go all the way through to like the Milano-Cortina Olympics or is it going to be season-by-season? What’re you thinking?
Yeah, everyone is like, ‘Since you’re joining for one more season, now you have to wait until the Olympics in Italy.’ But like next season is gonna be 2024, and it’ll be 2026 by the time we get to Milano, and I told everyone like, no, that’s too far ahead. I haven’t 100% decided, but I feel like that’s too far ahead. I’m just going to take one season at a time and see. But like, as I have been telling myself, the Olympics is not everything. I got fifth in PyeongChang and I was so disappointed. And then I got 6th and 7th in Beijing, and was like, ‘Ah, sh*t.’ But then I told myself that it’s not everything, and I’ve been doing good in all the other comps. So…yeah.
But now I’ve got the crystal globe. That was one of my biggest goals. Next I just need like a gold from X Games Aspen. That would be sick to get before I’m done, slopestyle gold from Aspen. So that’s probably what I’m aiming most for next season. Let’s see.
But yeah, about the Milano Olympics. I’ve been telling my team that if I’m not skiing there, I am going to be there with you and be doing something. I really want to be the commentator, the announcer on TV, together with another like ski dude from Norway. He’s really funny. So maybe that’s my plan. I really want to experience an Olympics in a European city.
I don’t really know who I am outside of skiing, so that’s what I need to find out. This is so I know where to I have to go with my life. I’ve been there reading a lot of books to try to learn more about myself. Eventually what I’m planning to do is like something completely new, because I’ve been in the sport for so many years. Maybe I should continue to work with sport, but not with this sport because I really want to get to know other people and do different stuff.
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