Going back one year, the world’s most successful long-distance skier of all time, Britta Johansson Norgren, had announced her retirement before the season’s last race. On the men’s side, Emil Persson finished second overall. Still, in the season’s most prestigious race (Vasaloppet), according to Pro Team Director Anton Järnberg, “the team was not good enough” on the men’s side.

Now a year later, the team can be proud of the success: nine wins, overall victory in the men’s Champion bib (Emil Persson), and win in the women’s Youth competition (Karolina Hedenström).

“This will be hard to top. I am incredibly proud of the journey we made, both on the women’s side, where Britta stopped, and we chose to ‘start over’ with young athletes, and then Emil’s total dominance, the successes we have as a team, and also the icing on the cake that he “took” Vasaloppet. It’s awesome,” says Anton Järnberg.

What are the reasons for the success?

“One explanation is that we have a common thread in how we want to train. For many years we have continued with our camps, searched for and found competencies that make the squad “comprehensive.” For many years, we have worked on how we want to train and what is essential to be happy. We are constantly refining that plan. It gets harder and harder every year. We have a very good training culture. And it is hard and long that takes us forward. It’s about that simple,” says Järnberg with a smile.

During the final weekend of the Ski Classics in northern Norway, many teams had one or more skiers who chose to ski with kick wax on one or both days of the competitions. Lager 157 Ski Team’s skiers raced only using the double poling technique:

“It was a choice we made many years ago. You could say that we were not really good at Reistad (Reistadløpet, the penultimate event of Ski Classics Season XIV), and it was a consequence of winning Vasaloppet. And what we did at Vasaloppet proves we are doing the right thing. We have chosen that we only double pole at all camps and competitions. Just look at the cycling. Not many cyclists train other than cycling. You get good at what you practice, says Pro Team Director Anton Järnberg, who earlier this week told Langd.se that this winter’s great athlete Emil Persson had extended his contract for two more seasons.

Read More – Silly Season: Emil Persson Extends Contract For The Next Two Seasons

But it wasn’t just Persson who stood out. So did Karolina Hedenström, who won the Pink Youth bib, and seventeen-year-old Alvar Myhlback, who, among other things, finished eighth at Vasaloppet 2023:

“As for ‘Karro,’ we already saw during the summer that she took steps, but she took big developmental steps during the competition season. And although she is already very good, we are only at the beginning of her development curve. In addition, second place in Jizerská50 was a clear sign that she is on the right path. And Alvar’s journey is incredibly nice. To make that season as a 16-year-old is almost hard to measure. He is extremely solid. I won’t say that I was surprised when he finished eighth at Vasaloppet; it is in line with what he has performed in the past. But the fact that he does it in the biggest race shows that this career will be fascinating to follow,” says Järnberg.

On May 13, Lager 157 Ski Team will present its squad for the upcoming Ski Classics season:

“We are very satisfied with what we have done during the year, so primarily it is about finding solutions with the existing squad, so there will not be any major changes. If we bring someone in, it must be someone who elevates us as a team. On the women’s side, we have been a little small in numbers, where we have been “saved” by our youth team in the last two seasons. So, we would like to find someone who fits into our team building. But on the women’s side, it’s small in Ski Classics, and I don’t particularly appreciate that we start picking skiers off each other. We are mainly looking for someone who comes in from outside and can make both us and Ski Classics better. Then it doesn’t matter if you’re 15th or 50th in Sweden as a youngster,” says Anton Järnberg, who will continue as Pro Team Director. In addition, Marcus Laggar will stay on as Head of waxing.