Around the World
"I can be a kind of a joker!"
That Norway’s Håvard Klemetsen is an athlete to be reckoned with at his advanced age of 36 was clear after an overall rank six after the season 2014/15, the best position of the strong Norwegian team. But also during this summer, Klemetsen does not show any signs of slowing down: coming in first at the summer nationals, his aspirations for the upcoming winter are clear: shine with ski jumping strength, surprise with cross-country performance. TUESDAY TALK caught up with the veteran and also talked about rule changes and the development of the sport.
Judging from your performance at the Norwegian summer nationals, things are going well for you! How have you been in the last couple of months?
Håvard Klemetsen: The last months have been busy but exciting at the same time. My family and I have moved into a new apartment in Tromsø and in addition, I have been travelling to my home areas in Finnmark and to the national team training camps in Trondheim and Lillehammer.
We are feeling very well in Tromsø, even though it is a little bit harder to have the appropriate quality in my training sessions as I don’t have the same facilities as I had in Trondheim where we lived before. Luckily, I can work together with many qualified professionals in a great environment and receive a lot of support in my home up north. My training is going well and I am motivated and inspired to take on a new season. I have the world’s best „office“ in Tromsø! (laughs).
On Sunday, the Norwegian team travelled to Oberhof, Germany for the only training camp outside of Norway this year. What will be on schedule and what are your expectations?
Klemetsen: I think we are all looking forward to meet outside of Norway and have a good camp with a good focus and a lot of fun. Because of the difficult financial situation, we had all our camps home in Norway so far and therefore, we are really looking forward to see some other surroundings now.
This is our first camp in which the whole team lives together in one hotel because the team members who live in Trondheim and Lillehammer slept at home during the other camps. It will be fun to be together as a team for a longer period and I believe everybody is looking forward to create a good team spirit and positivity towards the season start.
Oberhof is a nice place to have a camp with many great training facilities. I am sure one focus will be to have a good end of the plastic season and additionally, we will have our first cross-country trainings on snow in the ski tunnel. It’s all about getting used to the winter surfaces again, both on the jumping hill with an ice track and also in the cross-country part with the longer skis.
At the Autumn Meetings in Zürich, the respective governing bodies of the sport gave green light to an extended test phase for the changed metre value of 1.8 points per metre on the large hill which we will now have for the full winter season. As a strong jumper, this must be music to your ears. Do you feel the jumping part of Nordic Combined is now at least getting some much needed attention back?
Klemetsen: As most of you know, I have my strength on the jumping hill and so of course I do appreciate it that the jumping part will count a little bit more than it has in the past few years. I hope and believe that this will add a little unpredictability to the results of the cross-country races. I hope that the athletes will be less similar to each other and that we don’t see too many competitions which follow the exact same pattern.
I believe that we as a sports discipline need to develop the concept of „Nordic Combined“ even more because we depend on creating suspense and variation to catch the media interest and Joe Normal who isn’t interested in our sport above average. We are working in the entertainment industry and are dependent on the media finding our competitions to be exciting and wishing to be a part of a future development of our sport. It must be easy to understand, the entertainment value must be big and we cannot be too predictable.
Ironically, it is both the youngest and the oldest members of the Norwegian team who are the most gifted ski jumpers with you and Jarl Riiber. What does it mean to you as a veteran to get another really strong jumper into a team that is known for its cross-country strength?
Klemetsen: I am very happy to have Jarl with us on the team. He is young, a big talent, impatient and without doubt an athlete for the future. For me personally, this means that I have gotten another „jumping type“ to compare to which helps to get a better quality and more awareness of where exactly my level is at a certain point in time. It is really great to be able to impact the start of what is hopefully going to be a big sporting career at the end of my own. This gives me motivation to do a good job each day.
We are still a strong cross-country team but now we have an even wider platform of quality in the team - a good starting point to take new steps, as a team and as an individual athlete.
Looking at your performance on cross-country skis in the last couple of years, you have also been getting stronger and stronger. What can we expect of you this winter and what are your main goals?
Klemetsen: I have worked hard to be able to hang on to the development. The cross-country part had more of an impact in the past few years than when I was younger and it was very impotant for my prospects to take a step forward on the cross-country side.
Hopefully I will continue to have some weekends when I can be among the very best in the ski jumping part which will, despite everything, always be my strength and also fight for the victory on the cross-country track if I have a good day. I have no expectations to be among the best in the overall standings but on good days, I can still be a kind of joker and be among the very best.
I am especially looking forward to the two weekends with three competitions: the TRIPLE in Seefeld and the season finals in Val di Fiemme. In addition to that, it is always amazing to compete at home in Oslo, Lillehammer and Trondheim. A lot of acquaintances come by to see us and cheer us on. I still trust that even in my „advanced age“ I can develop some more - without that as a starting point, I would have found something else for me to do!
As you haven’t taken part in the SGP this year, Ruka will be the first comparison with the top athletes of other countries for you. Do you feel it’s also an advantage to be the dark horse, that the other nations won’t know what to expect of you?
Klemetsen: I think this does not have any special implications. The most important thing is to have a focus on your own work and the facts that you can influence yourself which is your training routine and your own preparations. It’s possible that some need to see where they stand compared to the competition. I was mostly busy with investing and working patiently and unhurriedly with my own challenges. Hopefully, the reward will come for my smart and precise focus throughout the summertime when the most important competitions are on schedule in the winter. (laughs)
Naturally, I would have liked to compete a little more internationally also in the summer but when we are facing tough economical challenged in the Norwegian Ski Federation, I prefer to have an optimal plan for the wintertime than a „half-decent“ plan throughout the whole year. In spite of everything, it’s still a winter sport that we practice. I am looking forward to the winter and hope that new dreams came become reality. Good look to everybody!
Judging from your performance at the Norwegian summer nationals, things are going well for you! How have you been in the last couple of months?
Håvard Klemetsen: The last months have been busy but exciting at the same time. My family and I have moved into a new apartment in Tromsø and in addition, I have been travelling to my home areas in Finnmark and to the national team training camps in Trondheim and Lillehammer.
We are feeling very well in Tromsø, even though it is a little bit harder to have the appropriate quality in my training sessions as I don’t have the same facilities as I had in Trondheim where we lived before. Luckily, I can work together with many qualified professionals in a great environment and receive a lot of support in my home up north. My training is going well and I am motivated and inspired to take on a new season. I have the world’s best „office“ in Tromsø! (laughs).
On Sunday, the Norwegian team travelled to Oberhof, Germany for the only training camp outside of Norway this year. What will be on schedule and what are your expectations?
Klemetsen: I think we are all looking forward to meet outside of Norway and have a good camp with a good focus and a lot of fun. Because of the difficult financial situation, we had all our camps home in Norway so far and therefore, we are really looking forward to see some other surroundings now.
This is our first camp in which the whole team lives together in one hotel because the team members who live in Trondheim and Lillehammer slept at home during the other camps. It will be fun to be together as a team for a longer period and I believe everybody is looking forward to create a good team spirit and positivity towards the season start.
Oberhof is a nice place to have a camp with many great training facilities. I am sure one focus will be to have a good end of the plastic season and additionally, we will have our first cross-country trainings on snow in the ski tunnel. It’s all about getting used to the winter surfaces again, both on the jumping hill with an ice track and also in the cross-country part with the longer skis.
At the Autumn Meetings in Zürich, the respective governing bodies of the sport gave green light to an extended test phase for the changed metre value of 1.8 points per metre on the large hill which we will now have for the full winter season. As a strong jumper, this must be music to your ears. Do you feel the jumping part of Nordic Combined is now at least getting some much needed attention back?
Klemetsen: As most of you know, I have my strength on the jumping hill and so of course I do appreciate it that the jumping part will count a little bit more than it has in the past few years. I hope and believe that this will add a little unpredictability to the results of the cross-country races. I hope that the athletes will be less similar to each other and that we don’t see too many competitions which follow the exact same pattern.
I believe that we as a sports discipline need to develop the concept of „Nordic Combined“ even more because we depend on creating suspense and variation to catch the media interest and Joe Normal who isn’t interested in our sport above average. We are working in the entertainment industry and are dependent on the media finding our competitions to be exciting and wishing to be a part of a future development of our sport. It must be easy to understand, the entertainment value must be big and we cannot be too predictable.
Ironically, it is both the youngest and the oldest members of the Norwegian team who are the most gifted ski jumpers with you and Jarl Riiber. What does it mean to you as a veteran to get another really strong jumper into a team that is known for its cross-country strength?
Klemetsen: I am very happy to have Jarl with us on the team. He is young, a big talent, impatient and without doubt an athlete for the future. For me personally, this means that I have gotten another „jumping type“ to compare to which helps to get a better quality and more awareness of where exactly my level is at a certain point in time. It is really great to be able to impact the start of what is hopefully going to be a big sporting career at the end of my own. This gives me motivation to do a good job each day.
We are still a strong cross-country team but now we have an even wider platform of quality in the team - a good starting point to take new steps, as a team and as an individual athlete.
Looking at your performance on cross-country skis in the last couple of years, you have also been getting stronger and stronger. What can we expect of you this winter and what are your main goals?
Klemetsen: I have worked hard to be able to hang on to the development. The cross-country part had more of an impact in the past few years than when I was younger and it was very impotant for my prospects to take a step forward on the cross-country side.
Hopefully I will continue to have some weekends when I can be among the very best in the ski jumping part which will, despite everything, always be my strength and also fight for the victory on the cross-country track if I have a good day. I have no expectations to be among the best in the overall standings but on good days, I can still be a kind of joker and be among the very best.
I am especially looking forward to the two weekends with three competitions: the TRIPLE in Seefeld and the season finals in Val di Fiemme. In addition to that, it is always amazing to compete at home in Oslo, Lillehammer and Trondheim. A lot of acquaintances come by to see us and cheer us on. I still trust that even in my „advanced age“ I can develop some more - without that as a starting point, I would have found something else for me to do!
As you haven’t taken part in the SGP this year, Ruka will be the first comparison with the top athletes of other countries for you. Do you feel it’s also an advantage to be the dark horse, that the other nations won’t know what to expect of you?
Klemetsen: I think this does not have any special implications. The most important thing is to have a focus on your own work and the facts that you can influence yourself which is your training routine and your own preparations. It’s possible that some need to see where they stand compared to the competition. I was mostly busy with investing and working patiently and unhurriedly with my own challenges. Hopefully, the reward will come for my smart and precise focus throughout the summertime when the most important competitions are on schedule in the winter. (laughs)
Naturally, I would have liked to compete a little more internationally also in the summer but when we are facing tough economical challenged in the Norwegian Ski Federation, I prefer to have an optimal plan for the wintertime than a „half-decent“ plan throughout the whole year. In spite of everything, it’s still a winter sport that we practice. I am looking forward to the winter and hope that new dreams came become reality. Good look to everybody!
