Per Elofsson
 

Any recent news on Per Elofsson? Is he actually trying to make a
comeback or is he milking his sponsors as some Swedes say? Now that
Alsgaard and Inge Braaten are coaching the Swedes, maybe Elofsson will
be back on top...

Jay Tegeder
"Stick around this sport long enough and you'll beat everyone at least
once!" JT

From the 9/28 interview with Inge Braaten on fasterskier.com:

Q: Besides making the skiers tougher, what’s the biggest challenge with
the Swedish team?

- First of all to make sure that the skiers are healthy and are in the
best possible shape to perform well this winter. I will also try to help
Per Elofsson come back to old heights. I won’t give up on him if we
don’t succeed in that this season, but make sure that he is motivated to
try again next season. Another challenge is to make sure that Emelie
Ohrstig continues to be World Class, despite her illness.



wrote:

Any recent news on Per Elofsson? Is he actually trying to make a
comeback or is he milking his sponsors as some Swedes say? Now that
Alsgaard and Inge Braaten are coaching the Swedes, maybe Elofsson will
be back on top...

Jay Tegeder
"Stick around this sport long enough and you'll beat everyone at least
once!" JT

wrote:

Any recent news on Per Elofsson?

Yes.


Is he actually trying to make a comeback or is he milking his sponsors =
as some Swedes say?

You have to understand that there are two royal things in Sweden: the
royal family and the royal Swedish jealousy (1). The annual turnover of
Per=B4s company, Perotore AB, was SEK 314.000 the year he last
participated in a World Cup race. If we are to believe Per, there are
no bonuses in any of his contracts for merely showing up, he must place
high in several races to collect any. I=B4m also pretty sure that he
isn=B4t receiving any hefty income for merely hanging onto a place in
the national team.

(1) back in the old days, a skier whom we shall not name here actually
went out and measured Per=B4s room to see whether it was bigger than
other skiers=B4.

IMHO it is on one hand awfully difficult for him to admit it=B4s all
over now baby blue and on the other hand as a highly competitive and
self-willed person he also genuinely wants to prove wrong the opinion
that noone can come back from such a long sabbatical.



Now that Alsgaard and Inge Braaten are coaching the Swedes, maybe
Elofsson will be back on top...

If not on top, at least up there racing, we can hope. And, like Per has
said, if not in Turin, then in Vancouver.


The news a

In February Per became a daddy, the boy weighed a good four kilograms
and received the names Elias.

In May Per was training about ten hours a week, still only half of what
he used to and at a lower intensity to boot. He was still hoping that
if he could increase the load during the summer and his body would
respond well he could by October be all set for competing, even if he
knew that he wouldn=B4t have any realistic chances of an Olympic gold.

In July Per was on a training camp with the nat=B4l team, but got sick
afterwards.

In August Per was with the team in Ramsau, but didn=B4t participate in
the classic high intensity tests (a 7-km rollerski uphill and a
moosehoof up a steep hill; his old times remained unbeaten this year,
too).

In September Per was supposed to be with the team in Italy, but abstain
(like Matthias Fredriksson who still hasn=B4t fully recovered from the
TWAR-infection he had early this year) from the highest altitude part
in Stelvio, but neither skier felt strong enough to arrive in Livigno
as planned, both will train at home instead. (According to Inge
Br=E5ten, Mathias will be 100% by the Oly=B4s and he doesn=B4t rule out
the possibility that Per will be able to participate in one event in
Turin.)


(Per did a longish interview with "Expressen" in early September; I
might get around to translating it, if none of the XC sites don=B4t.)



Anders