Norwegians Play Dirty at World Ski Championships – Swedish Star Calls Tracks Life-Threatening

The World Ski Championships in Trondheim, scheduled from February 26 to March 9, 2025, are set to begin on Wednesday with traditional classical style eliminations followed by a sprint on Thursday. However, chaos has taken over on the tracks in Trondheim.

The tracks are so icy that several national teams have decided to either postpone or cancel their training for the day.

– That is life-threatening, Swedish star Edvin Anger told Expressen.

The tracks are icy because the Norwegians refused to groom them again on Tuesday morning. Finnish waxing boss Heikki Tonteri said the solution came as a surprise.

– It is indeed a surprise that they are not being groomed actively. It’s a real shame, Tonteri told Yle Urheilu.

According to Tonteri, the icy tracks should be groomed only once by a track machine to be in top condition.

– For some reason they are not being groomed now, Tonteri said.

All the national teams are astonished – except perhaps one?

– In a way it’s a surprising affair that one team isn’t astonished, Tonteri chuckled.

What does this, for you and the service crews, tell you about the state of affairs already during the championships?

– It just doesn’t feel very pleasant. We have been here for five days now and the test conditions have been challenging. We have only been able to test properly on two days. The tracks have been so icy that there has really been no sense in testing.

Since the tracks are not being groomed, the service teams from other countries get very little information about the actual championship tracks. Tonteri remains confident that Finland will have the winning setup on the Trondheim tracks.

– There is nothing we can do about this. We have to adapt and do our best with what we are capable of. We can’t lose sleep over this, Tonteri said.

Many national teams have either cancelled or postponed their training sessions in Trondheim. Image: Ilkka Loikkanen / Yle

According to Yle Urheilu expert Ville Nousiainen, the championship tracks were so icy that when skiing in running shoes, one could actually start sliding downhill.

– This might even have been a bit of Norwegian sabotage, a kind of game and maintenance contest, Nousiainen told Yle Urheilu.

Nousiainen added that favoring one’s own track conditions isn’t new on the part of the host. He recalled that in the Falun World Championships in Sweden and the Lahti World Championships in Finland, similar tactics were used in the past.

– A country must take the competitive advantage available. It isn’t forbidden, Nousiainen summarized.

He pointed out that the organizers defended this tactic in previous days by stating that there was no snow at the venue.

– When you look around, there is actually quite a bit of snow here; that isn’t the issue. They simply want to gain the competitive advantage. They groomed the tracks at night at a certain time so that no one could test them in the morning.

Heikki Tonteri explains the track situation.

With limited testing time for other countries, Norway benefits. According to Nousiainen, on the day of competition the tracks are different, and only the Norwegians know what they’ll be like.

– There might be a particular lane where they conduct test runs on a championship-type track with their own team. There were hardly any Norwegians seen here. Slowly, a few Norwegians have arrived – perhaps they are also reluctant because it isn’t as rough.

The Norwegians began to appear in the afternoon, when the tracks started to soften and become skiable.

– Many had a notion that this was a small way of gaining a competitive edge. It is allowed and part of the game. One must simply be prepared for it.

The solution means a mad rush for the Finnish service crews, as the sprints start on Thursday.

– It’s like a lottery as to who finds the right wax, skis, and tuning for these conditions.

All news and topics about the World Ski Championships can be found here.