The Norwegian Heidi Weng is one of the most successful cross-country skiers in her country. However, the five-time world champion has been struggling with the amount of attention she has been receiving for years. If she had known how much she is in the limelight as a ski star, she would probably have taken a different path.
She is not a “loner”, affirmed Norway’s cross-country skier Heidi Weng in an interview with “dag bladet“. The 31-year-old would still like to avoid all the attention. “I’ve been there for a while, so I should have gotten used to it. But I can’t.”
Weng would prefer to remain “anonymous”, “I’m just like that. I don’t like to be visible”.
She has already won the gold medal five times at world championships, the last time in 2021 in Oberstdorf with the Norwegian relay. In the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons she had her greatest successes in the World Cup when she won the overall World Cup. Last season she was sixth.
Weng freely added that she never really foresaw the consequences of being a world-class athlete. “If I had known that you would be controlled so much, I might have left it,” she said, looking at her sports career. “I didn’t know that as a cross-country skier you have to stand and talk so much. I just thought I just had to ski fast.”
Heidi Weng lacks “self-confidence”
The Norwegian looks back on difficult months. A corona disease last winter and a concussion in the spring had set back Weng twice. She is already pessimistic about the start of the new World Cup season: “Maybe I can surprise, but I don’t get my hopes up when I’m on the starting line in a month.”
The cross-country skier does not currently have “this self-confidence”, as she added.
The sprint starts on November 25 in Ruka, Finland, before the second stop is made in Heidi Weng’s home country of Norway: first the cross-country skiers travel to Lillehammer, then to Beitostölen.