The US cross-country skier Rosie Brennan has clearly expressed her anger at the media coverage of the Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica. Her criticism was preceded by an unplanned mishap.
Rosie Brennan had nothing to do with the award of the medal in the Skiathlon World Championships last Saturday as 19th in the classification. Nevertheless, numerous media representatives wanted a voice from her after the race. Not because her result was anything special, but because she had a spectacular fall during the race.
She could understand that her fall was a topic of conversation, the 34-year-old wrote in an Instagram post a day later. However, she was deeply disappointed by the extent of this story.
“I’ve won World Cup races and stood on podiums. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been asked to speak to the media afterwards. Yesterday I was stopped by every single media outlet. Everyone wanted me to do something bad say something negative about the route or the organizers or something else instead of talking about the fact that I didn’t give up”, she was annoyed at the media representatives who, in her eyes, “destroy the sport with this reporting”.
“If we only focus on things that are going badly and try to find every negative point in a race, we lose the magic and that will kill our sport,” the 34-year-old criticized the reporting. Sport should serve to inspire people, bring them together and lift each other up, Brennan said.
Cross-country icon leaps to Brennan’s side
In an interview with the Norwegian broadcaster “NRK”, she then explained that she was “shocked” when every media representative wanted to speak to her. “I’ve never been stopped, which has happened, so I was very surprised when suddenly everyone was concerned about me when it came to focusing on something negative. That’s pretty sad,” said the US American.
Brennan received support from former cross-country skiing queen Therese Johaug, who told NRK: “I can understand her. She’s a good runner and has won World Cup races. If you, as an athlete, notice that you get more attention when a ski breaks and people say negative things, it can be a bit annoying.”