“I messed it up”
Biathlon star reveals Zoff with teammates
May 19, 2025 – 10:18 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Because he was removed from the squad for a World Cup, Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen publicly attacked his association and indirectly a teammate. Now he shows himself insightful.
In the Norwegian biathlon team, there was considerable displeasure at the end of the past season. The trigger was Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, who had publicly complained in March about his non-nomination for the World Cup races on the Pokljuka (Slovenia)-and criticized a personnel decision by the Norwegian association as “ridiculous”.
Particularly explosive: Christiansen’s displeasure was indirectly against the teammate Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, who had convinced with strong performances in the IBU Cup over the winter. There is actually a close relationship between the two – they are friends and jointly conduct a company.
The criticism was therefore particularly stressful for Dale-Skjevdal. The 27-year-old spoke of a difficult moment at the Norwegian “Dagbladet”: it was “terrible”. He accepted other opinions, but he did not consider the type of public criticism to be appropriate.
Biathlete Christiansen has now also recognized this. The 33-year-old spoke openly about his misconduct: “It was all alone. It cooked over and I didn’t think. In the past, I was always able to master myself well when I felt unfairly treated, but now I messed it up,” he confessed.
Not only the colleague, the association also reacted to the incident. Christiansen explained that he had to take criticism internally – but was insightful and self -critical.
In order to no longer get in the risk of being removed from the World Cup squad, Christiansen has set a clear goal for the coming winter: “I just have to win a race early in the season.”