I wonder what Alsgaard had to say

From fasterskier.com article on mediocre to poor Swedish team results
this year - http://www.fasterskier.com/racing2770.html:

"Braten also want the national team skiers to be more responsible for
their own training. He was also surprised when Johan Olsson and Anna
Dahlberg skipped the Kuusamo World Cup races because their dog was sick.

- I have never experienced or heard about anything like this in cross
country skiing or any other sport before. I’m not planning on
commenting this more, said Braten."

Gene Goldenfeld kirjoitti:

From fasterskier.com article on mediocre to poor Swedish team results
this year - http://www.fasterskier.com/racing2770.html :

"Braten also want the national team skiers to be more responsible for
their own training. He was also surprised when Johan Olsson and Anna
Dahlberg skipped the Kuusamo World Cup races because their dog was sick.

Nice to see fasterskier get something slightly wrong also when it's not
about Finns:-)

FWIW the story is that Olsson's 12-year-old Labrador had to be put to
sleep because its condition had rapidly deteriorated due to a nerve
disease. He felt that he should be there when it was done and that he
couldn't have concentrated on racing anyway. Br=E5ten admitted that
since he's never had a cat or a dog he left the decision to the skiers.

Personally, I would never knock a man for being stupidly sentimental
about the death of a dog he has grown up with and I applaud the coach.
(Since I've never been a woman or anyone's girlfriend I cannot comment
on Dahlberg's choice.)


Anders

Having had to put down my 14 year old Belgian Sheepdog and running
companion of many years, I can sympathize with the Swedish skiers.
Recently in Ottawa we have had some good cold weather and conditions
good enough for some early skiing. At my wife's workplace the
non-skiers were complaining and some said they would go to hell if it
meant being warm all the time. My wife said she would go wherever her
dog was.

There's a blues song with the lyrics, "I came home and kicked the dog."
I never understood that lyric until I got a dog. Everyday when you come
home, our dog is so damn glad you're home. It's like "Man, I've been
waiting for you all day." Even after a 45 min run, she is happy to see
me (again), and she doesn't see me as the pack leader. She ends up
following the pack leader around the house, step-for-step.

When I run into people who don't like snow, I ask why they live in
Minnesota. If you don't like snow and cold, then why live here?

Jay