Good news for Olympic Champion Joergen Graabak. After a thigh injury had slowed him down for much of the spring and summer, he is back in training and at about 85-90 percent of the normal training load right before the autumn preparations start and the next training camp in Trondheim begins. Graabak says that his body’s response to the training has been positive so far and everything works well in most of the sessions.

„I am carefully optimistic when it comes to my level of performance in the winter but my main goal is the World Championships in Lahti in 2017. I only have quite a short time until the season opening in Ruka at the end of November, just 2.5 months. At the same time, it’s necessary to adapt the training load for a time before that. It’s a big challenge but I am ready for it“, Graabak says.

Head coach Bjoern Kaare Ingebrigtsen adds that much rest and alternative training has been necessary. „We will take the next season as it comes. The goal is to get Joergen’s body back to responding normally without going too fast. Good results will be a bonus on top. At the same time, we do know that when Joergen trains and his body responds normally, he’s always a big danger to all competitors.“

The responsible team doctor, Petter Olberg, and physiotherapist Stein Vidar Thun shed some additional light in the situation: „Joergen had a very good season before the World Championships in Falun in spite of being in a completely new situation after his Olympic victory in the winter before. It looked like he was „timing“ his shape perfectly with taking his first World Cup victory in the last race before the championships. But at some point, the load got too heavy and his body stopped responding optimally. No clear evidence of a disease was found but we cannot exclude that something has been in his body, even if the blood tests were normal.“

Source: fis-ski.com