Skiing Superstar Johannes Høsflot Klæbo made a lucrative deal with the Finns – now a dull Norwegian ocher is feared in Helsinki

Ski Association In the spring of 2020, Helsinki Ski Weeks launched a new series of events connected to the renovated Olympic Stadium, which, however, was only launched this winter after being vaccinated by a pandemic.

As early as June 2020, Ilta-Sanomat announced that the main star of the main event, the international sprint competition, had been the Norwegian superstar Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.

After signing the contract, he has won e.g. three World Cup gold at last year’s World Cup.

Of the ongoing Beijing Olympics, Klæbo has raked in one medal for each color and is still aiming for gold in both the pair sprint on Wednesday and 50 kilometers (v) on Saturday.

Now KlÆbo however, has completely surprisingly disappeared from the event website altogether.

As the biggest stars of the invitation competition pages know tell e.g. Iivo and Kerttu Niskasen, Krista Pärmäkoski and Federico Pellegrinon.

Commercial Director of the Ski Association Jari-Pekka Jouppi says that the agreement signed in 2020 is still in force and that the decision to remove the Norwegian name from the ads is his.

The Ski Association fears that Kläbo will not honor the agreement it has signed, as the practical challenges are very great after the Olympics.

He will be able to travel from China no earlier than Sunday and will then rest for a couple of days at home in Trondheim.

To Helsinki he should arrive no later than Wednesday, and after Thursday’s stadium print, there will be a Lahti World Cup on the weekend.

“He’s obviously a completely insane skier, but he can’t do supernatural things either,” says Jouppi.

He emphasizes that Klæbo would naturally be an important guest at the event, but its main attraction is the Finnish medalists who have thrown themselves on the Olympic tracks.

To the stadium print each athlete negotiates and makes his own contract; national teams are not represented in the competition.

Although Klæbo is already a wealthy man, leaving Helsinki on the program would mean a significant loss for him in cross-country skiing.

The value of his contract is 10,000 euros. When the winner of the competition is paid 8,000 euros, the Norwegian could lose up to 18,000 euros.

Although the Ski Association could still advertise the event at Klæbo with a clear conscience under the signed agreement, Jouppi decided otherwise.

“If it happens that he won’t come, I don’t want us to sell the event to people in his name and disappoint.”

Jouppi recalls a different case less than eight years ago, when HJK played at the Olympic Stadium against Barcelona shortly after the World Cup in Brazil.

Megastar Leo Messi was the number one advertising face of the match, although his arrival in Helsinki was known to be extremely unlikely as the Games progressed.

Argentina eventually played the maximum number of matches in Brazil, seven, and eventually lost the final.

Messi got a holiday from his club after the World Cup, and several other star players left Helsinki. At the time, HJK received a lot of criticism for marketing that was perceived as false.

“I sat there in the auditorium as one of those who went to the wire,” Jouppi admits.

At the Olympic Stadium a medal celebration for the top winners returning from the Olympics will also be held on Thursday, February 24th. Jouppi is still waiting to join, at least Joni Mäki on Wednesday ‘s double print and Ilkka Herola combined.

“There’s such a half-hour gap between Sprint’s time trial and the international TV broadcast to celebrate these athletes. According to our information, a similar event would never have been organized for skiers in Finland after the competitions. ”

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