– Right to leave for others – NRK Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule

– Now I have made the final decision to end my skiing career. It’s been a tough choice, but with two young children and so many projects to say, it’s only right to leave it to other hungry athletes who can still do the work required to fight for WC medals on home soil in 2025, Holland writes on his social media. .

He has a number of great accomplishments to look back on. Among others, four Olympic gold and silver medals in the relay from 2022 and a bronze in the 30 km of the Games in 2018. At the Planica water course in February, he won gold in the relay and bronze in the 15 km freestyle, but maybe he He is best remembered for winning the WC gold in the five mile at Seefeld in 2019.

– I didn’t expect it to come

After a second place in Holmenkollen in March, said runner Lane VG He decided to continue. So today’s announcement came as a surprise to many.

– I didn’t see that coming! Many thanks for the many beautiful moments in the meeting and skiing, writes HC, former teammate Niklas Dyrhaug in the comments section under Holund’s message.

– Really surprised, Martin Johnsrod Sundby told NRK Sunday morning, just minutes after he heard the news.

– I had a few beers with him on Easter Eve. Then we talked about the future and the WC in Trondheim in 2025. I understood that he was training well, he was going to the World Cup in Randone. A lot must have happened since then, Sundby says.

He knows all about combining the best sporting efforts with life as a father to young children, and understands that Hollande has to be in the thinking box.

– was the standard

– He has a life status that means you do that assessment after every season. But he’s been great when he’s good, so I just thought he’d take an extra season, says Sundby, who points out that the national team is losing an enormous resource.

– It was the measure of ability on this team.

National team coach Eric Mir-Nasoum knew the veteran had been on the thinking box in recent weeks.

– It’s a process he managed himself. He knows what it takes and what work he needs to do to fight at the top. It’s hard enough if you’re really excited. If you feel a hint of doubt, it’s almost impossible, points out Nosum, who mentions the five-mile run in Seefeld as his most poignant moment as Holland’s coach.

– It’s sad, of course, that he quit, but it’s wrong to call him sad. It’s a normal part of the top sport. But we will miss him, says Nosum, who pays tribute to Holland’s career.

– Perhaps what impressed me most, the reason he has the privilege of being able to come out on top with so many medals from the WC and the Olympics, is his tremendous ability to bring out what he’s good at when it comes down to it. He has almost more World Cup gold medals than he has won World Cups, says national team coach Eric Mer-Nosum.

Good from the neck up

The fact is that Holland has the same number in the WC and in the World Cup. he He is credited with two individual World Cup victories, both for the best stage start in the pursuit at the mini-tour in Rocca.

In other words, Holland has never crossed the finish line first in a chasing start or combined start at a World Cup, nor has he won a playoff start. But in the context of the WC, he took individual gold both in the 50 km (Seefeld 2019) and 15 km (Oberstdorf 2021).

– It is a more positional characteristic from the neck up than the neck down. Being able to get it all out when it matters is not so simple. A lot of people get high shoulders and really have to kill ski runs when there are tournaments, so you run out of energy faster. Hans Christer was able to do good preparations and walked with low shoulders in important races, according to Nasum..

Sundby is on the same page:

– He has an emailThe genetic ability to build self-confidence. When he believes that what he is doing is producing good results, he becomes confident. When others lose their heads, he calms down even more. It’s a bit unique, says Sundby.

It came as a surprise to many when Nossum picked Holland as the starter for the Norwegian relay team during the WC in Planica in February. Holland kept his cool with a monster stage, more than 25 seconds ahead of the United States in second place.

– starstroke

Hans-Christer Holland was in the national team for eight years, and made his first World Cup appearance at the age of 14.

– It seems like an eternity ago. At the same time, I remember every little detail from the very beginning of my career. How nervous I was before the start. How proud I was of being chosen for the World Cup, and how amazed I was to see the ski stars in the hotel dining room. It was a roller coaster ride, but 12 years later I won WC gold over the same distance, and achieved more than I ever dared dream of as a kid, says the 34-year-old in the post on Instagram.

Below the post are a number of comments from former colleagues, among others.

“Congratulations on a great career,” writes Peter Northug.

– We will miss you. Swede Johan Olsson writes in your aggressive style and down-to-earth personality.

– was a prankster

Eric Meir Nsoum remembers well his first meeting with Hollande.

– He was When he started on Lyn in 2012. He was a bit of a mess at the time. Nossum says my training mate Hans-Christian Stadheim spoke to him and persuaded him to go back to the halfway point.

Holland has previously said he was close to giving up when he trained in the tub in his early years as a student after a stellar career.

– He had toIt’s clearly the talent for endurance that’s been in him all those years. Being physically active over time is his knack, the ability to persevere, Nossum says.

In other words, it was no coincidence that Holland took a podium spot in what would turn out to be the final race of his career, the five-mile race at Colin. Corona spoiled the Lahti World Cup Final, North Mediterranean Part Two and the Randoni World Cup.

– anyNabil and fighter

NRK’s ​​cross-country expert, Torgeir Bjørn, unlike Dyrhaug and Sundby, was not surprised by the decision.

– There was uncertainty as to whether or not he should continue his career. We already thought after the WC that it would extend to the WC in Trondheim in 2025, but we knew there was some uncertainty, he says.

– How would you describe Holland?

– He is a gentleman and works hard on the ski slopes. He is not a troublemaker and there is not much noise around Holland. He just decided to go speed skating.

– He has his strengths primarily in his physique and endurance, and he’s a runner who would have won a lot if he had competed a little bit in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, with the tracks and workouts of the time. Bjorn answered: There is a streak of junior gold in 2008, when he won ahead of Alex Harvey, and relay gold in Planica.

Who will enter?

It also highlights a five-mile watercourse four years ago.

– The highlight, of course, was his two World Cup gold medals, especially the way he won his 5,000 times in Seefeld, when he broke away from the field early and rivals with Alexander Bolshunov could not catch up with him. It was an amazing five-mile gold, says Torgeir Bjorn.

He’ll be a National Team selection for next season on Monday, and the NRK expert thinks that could mean something extra for one person in particular.

– If Emil Iversen, Diederik Tonseth or Cinder Bjornstad-Skarr don’t get a place, Holland’s retirement could open up opportunities for Ever Tildheim Andersen (22), Bjorn predicts.