Bjørvika (Nitavisen): – Biathlon has been my life almost as long as I can remember, and it's strange to imagine life without it, Terrell Eickhoff wrote on Instagram when she announced in mid-March that she was quitting.
At the same time, she added that it was “weird and a little bit sad, but also very nice” to put the stock market on the shelf after having a tough final year as a top-level athlete.
In her final season, there were no competitions, as her body suffered after a difficult season in advance and the Corona virus, and she had to rest. But the 33-year-old can still look back on several highlights of his career.
There was a total of two Olympic golds and ten World Championships golds for Eickhoff, before she gave up after last season.
Read also: My reaction to Terrell Eickhoff's role in TV 2
New life
It doesn't hide the fact that you go through a big change when you become a top athlete.
– Life has become a little “zero” again. In a way, you have to know what gives me something in life now, and what I can imagine doing next, Eckhoff tells Netafsen during a press conference in Oslo.
She says she suddenly became an adult in a way.
-You have to make some adult choices, which people made when they were twenty years old, but I made ten years later. In a way, she says, this will be a career change.
“And then there are those who can't hang up either, like him over there,” she says and points to Peter Northug a little further in the room, before she starts laughing.
– There will be no going back for you, then?
“No, I don’t think it will be like that,” she answered quickly, still laughing. As you know, Northug is back as a skier, this time as a cross-country skier.
Read also: Northug received a surprise visit from Stina Nilsson: “I thought I had suppressed her.”
He became a student
However, Eickhoff has been able to fill her daily life since her resignation. She has become Northug's aforementioned colleague at TV 2, where she will be the biathlon expert on the channel's broadcasts this winter.
This mission began in earnest at the beginning of December during the first broadcast of the Biathlon World Cup on TV 2 this season.
The role of expert is not the only thing new in Eickhoff's daily life. In the fall, I started studying again.
– I study management. I am doing bachelor's degree. Now I work in HR, which is interesting. “I'm learning how to have the best team possible,” she says.
And she thinks that could come in handy when she goes on tour this winter with Northug and Ole Einar Bjørndalen for TV 2, among others.
Eickhoff previously studied at NTNU in Trondheim, but eventually became fully focused on his biathlon career.
Read also: Kristin Stafas Skistad on experts' claim: – People think too much about money
He was surprised
It's also time to look back a little and celebrate the 33-year-old's amazing biathlon career. In May, Eickhoff surprised those closest to him.
– It was my friend and Maria Nakstad who threw me a wonderful surprise party where they gathered all their friends and sponsors. I would say they had a small wedding for me. “I really appreciate it,” she says.
-You were actually surprised?
– I was! “It was a real celebration of her career,” she says.
– Was it emotional to celebrate your career and everything you have achieved as a biathlete?
– There were many beautiful speeches and many kind words. And after that it wasn't a very emotional party, it was an amazing party, Eickhoff said, and he burst into laughter as usual.
“Infuriatingly humble internet trailblazer. Twitter buff. Beer nerd. Bacon scholar. Coffee practitioner.”
