The Norwegian private team is adding six new athletes and aiming sky-high for the 2025/2026 Olympic season: “The Olympics are a realistic goal for at least two of the skiers on the team.”

Team Swix is bringing in talents from the Norwegian national development team and a junior prodigy for the 2025/2026 season, expanding its athlete roster by nearly 50 percent and setting out to challenge the Norwegian national team for Olympic spots.

See the full selection further down in the article.

“The Olympics are a realistic goal for at least two of the skiers on the team,” says coach and general manager of Team Swix, Torstein Dagestad.

“Both Mattis Stenshagen and Henrik Dønnestad have shown that they can compete at the top level in the world when they are at their best. We will do everything we can to get them to the Olympics,” he tells Langrenn.com.

“The selection criteria are incredibly strict, and it will be even harder to qualify for the Olympics than for the World Championships. But both were very close to a World Championship spot this winter, and if they can take a small step forward, they’ll be part of the conversation,” says Dagestad, and continues:

“Mattis also has a guaranteed World Cup start spot for the entire first period. That’s a big advantage this year, as much of the Olympic selection will be decided before Christmas, and now he can race all those events.”

Bringing in six new talents

In addition to the two Olympic hopefuls, both Jonas Vika and Sondre Ramse continue with the team. The team has also brought in two new male talents and established a completely new women’s squad with four athletes.

Two of them are coming from the now-defunct Norwegian national development team: Lars Agnar Hjelmeseth and Sigrid Leseth Føyen. Additionally, three more promising female skiers are joining from various private teams, and junior standout Simen Gløgård Stensrud is now part of the squad full-time.

With that, Team Swix will have a total of 10 athletes for the upcoming season.

“It’s an ambitious group with a lot of potential, and several of them are truly hungry for redemption. All of them can make it to the World Cup,” says Dagestad.

He has big ambitions for the rest of the squad as well, with the World Cup and U23 World Championships being the main goals for many of the athletes.

“Simen Gløgård Stensrud is only in his first year as a senior but has already delivered several top-level performances, especially in Muonio this winter, where he was the best Norwegian and just seconds away from beating Federico Pellegrino,” says Dagestad.

Tough selection

Dagestad says that the selection process was demanding, even though the team expanded from six to ten athletes. As for the two from the development team, they are athletes he has been in contact with since January, when it became known that the Norwegian Ski Association would shut down the team.

Gløgård Stensrud had occasional training stints with the team throughout last season while he was still a junior.

“We emphasized a combination of factors: personality, potential, specialized skills, and general capabilities,” Dagestad tells Langrenn.com.

Two athletes out

Two skiers who were part of Team Swix last winter are no longer on the team.

One is Mikael Gunnulfsen, who helped found the team in 2023. He has transitioned to long-distance skiing and now races for the Aukland brothers’ Team Ragde Charge.

The other is David Thorvik, who joined the team ahead of last season. He has chosen to return to the regional team, Team Elon Oslofjord, this season.

The following athletes will race for Team Swix in the 2025/2026 season:

Men

• Mattis Stenshagen
• Sondre Ramse
• Jonas Vika
• Henrik Dønnestad
• Lars Agnar Hjelmeseth
• Simen Gløgård Stensrud

Women

• Amalie Ous
• Sigrid Leseth Føyen
• Julie Hammer
• Mari Svingheim

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