Coaching legend Steinar Mundal believes there is one thing that can make the Norwegian sprint star Kristine Stavås Skistad return to the national team next season.

Is Kristine Stavås Skistad considering a return to the Norwegian national team? It is one of the big questions ahead of next season with the World Championships in Trondheim, Norway.  

The coaching legend Steinar Mundal has over 35 years of experience at the national and elite levels, including over ten years with the Norwegian national cross-country team until 2016. 

As Mundal sees it, the Norwegian national team currently has little to offer Skistad that she does not already have in the plan with her home club, Konnerud, and potentially a significant risk in leaving a program that has given enormous development and success in the last two years.

“It will probably take a lot for Kristine to join the (Norwegian) national team next season. In the national team, she doesn’t get anyone who matches her at all. And Kristine is a person who enjoys being at home, in her settings,” says Mundal to Langrenn.com, adding: 

“The only thing would be if Lage (Sofienlund) becomes national team coach. But Lage has small children and is very happy in Konnerud.” 

Mundal also points out that she did not have a particularly good experience in the national team when she was part of it. In 2021, Skistad broke with the national team and has focused on her own through the club since then. 

Last year, she made a real comeback when she won all the World Cup sprint races in the latter half of the season. This year, she has continued that development through her own efforts outside the national team. 

Mundal is convinced that this will also be the case next winter. 

Kristine Stavås Skistad will probably stay in Konnerud until after the World Championships in Trondheim. Mundal concludes it is silly to change anything in her setup when everything works, and she thrives in that setting. 

Also Read – Kristine Stavås Skistad: “It’s an insane feeling”

Thrives, develops and contributes to the club

Mundal is also part of the coaching team for the elite squad in Skistad’s club Konnerud, where the sprint star participates regularly. 

“Kristine enjoys the club. There is no doubt about that. She lives 300 meters from the stadium and is almost always at the regular common training sessions we have two or three times a week throughout the season, and at out-of-season gatherings,” says Mundal. 

In addition to the regular training sessions with the club, Skistad also runs her own sessions and sessions with her personal trainer Lage Sofienlund. 

Skistad: “I’m going to follow what I know is right”

For Langrenn.com, Skistad pretty much confirms what Mundal outlines. 

“The club means a lot. It means everything. It’s the one that helped me get back to where I am now, and it’s the one that will always be there, no matter what. So, it means everything,” says Skistad to Langrenn.com. 

After her international breakthrough in the 2018/2019 season, Skistad entered the Norwegian national team. She was there for two seasons until May 2021. Skistad has spent several seasons rebuilding afterward. She has done this in what she knows as a safe environment in her club, Konnerud. 

Skistad is confident about the key to success: the people and the system she has around her. 

“Lage and I are a team. We have something that is impossible to explain. What we have is too good to put into words. But it’s about what we do every day. We have our own thing,” Skistad told Langrenn.com after her victory in the Norwegian Championships sprint last year.