Or "jävla barnunge" in Swedish - a fucking brat.
I had built up a tiny bit of respect for the guy over the course of the current season, but it was pulverized by his pathetic display of poor sportsmanship and raw arrogance at the end of the men's relay. After lying in wait through most of the last leg, Northug launched a characteristic attack inside the last 500 meters. It was clear to everyone that he'd won, but instead of respecting the race, the venue, and his fellow racers, he then skied slowly down the finishing straight, shushing the crowd, and actually *stopped* before the finish line, taunting Hellner, before finally stepping over the line at the last second to take the win. It was shameful.
I can only hope that Petter has a DeSean Jackson one of these days:
Friday, March 4, 2011
Northug: Jævle Barnunge
Posted by Christopher Tassava at 11:16 AM
Labels: scraps name-calling
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12 comments:
I'd criticise more the athletes who had so transparently given up on the gold as soon as the final leg started.
Perhaps this sort of thing will get them to actually try to beat him
Yes, unsportsmanlike and I don't like it. And Northug obviously wants to be hated, seems the Austrians and Germans didn't care for it either.
That's his game, we can but hope that it will blow up in his face - nemesis divina follows hubris, right?
William H: yeah, lots of poor tactical decisions were made. Don't know what Italy and Finland were doing squandering a 10+s lead by not going from the start.
Sweden aimed sadly for silver it seems by dragging Germany and Norway up, here was a chance of forcing Northug to take a pull.
It was on home snow and the pressure was on Northug to win, don't know if it would had made any difference in the end but it was like they weren't even trying.
I don't know what saddens me most:
a) no tactics (it works in womens races some of the time and it's "fair" at least)
b) bad tactics (like france in the relay in the Olymics, let someone else pull and still get beaten in the sprint for medals)
c) only tactics (Gjerdalen, Northug anyone?)
/a pretty saddened swede
@Anonymous. Wow! For a second there I somehow wrote that and pressed 'publish' without ever doing so, lol! Amazing, you pretty much said everything I wanted to write. Northug is a jerk, I think it is safe to say. I don't know what happened to Angerer in the last couple of years, but he doesn't run relays as he used to before, and that was to pull and work really well with whoever was in his group, whether they were leading and trying to get away or chasing. Finland as well, and Heikkinen actually looked good in the first couple of k's, but he seemed defeated when he saw four men with him. In retrospect, they were all resigned to the fact that it come down to a sprint again, but they did nothing to prevent that! Hellner said it himself, the pace was slow the first few k's, and that plays right into Northug's hands. You gotta be able to gamble a bit and go for it. Hellner did it wonderfully well in the sprint. Don't know why he didn't try it again in the relay. Piller Cottrer has the weakest sprint, and he was just happy to follow, and literally gave up when they entered the last km, after the "Hellner Bakken." Dissappointing relay ending, for many reasons. Hopefully the 50km brings some fireworks.
Haters gonna hate...
Northug is the xc king, and he's a funny guy. Shushing the crowd was probably a spur of the moment Harvey-reference, but at least Petter had the balls to do it 100 m before the finish line, instead of after. And he obviously did it for fun in stead of MOCKING THE HOME CROWD!
See how that works? Of course Harveys antics was ok, he was full of adrenaline and ecstatic about a great performance. Just like Northug.
Ehh....there is no comparison between Harvey and Northug if you ask me. A 1-finger gesture vs. stopping at the finish line, waiting, then stepping over?
Northug would deserve every punch he took if Hellner, Angerer, Teichmann, Legkov, and Cologna decided to take him around the back of the wax cabins and teach him some manners.
Your're right. It's not the same thing. Northug's gesture was directed at a professional competitor, Harvey went for the home crowd who has supported both him and every other athlete throughout the championships. Clearly Harvey behaved a lot worse. Oh, I forgot. The international shush-sign used in sports forever directed at the crowd all of a sudden meant kissing the first gold... Awesome.
Actually, I didn't really mean to compare Harvey and Northug and plays the devils advocate more than a little. Just pointing out that everything can be taken the worst possible way.
So Northug deserves a literal beating for that? You must be a genius.
@BRB. Dude, STFU. We know you love Northug and Norwegian skiing, but please stop trolling around and stop trying to find articles and blogs that criticize Northug and his latest show of unnecessary gestures. If you want to show that sort of arrogance and disrespect, go to a streetball game or at a counterstrike arcade or something. Northug has had a history with this sort of behaviour. Another good example is him being late for the prize giving ceremony at La Clusaz. He wanted to be the star of that show, making everyone wait and taking the limelight away from the winner, just because he beat Northug in the final sprint (and don't start with, oh Northug skied in the deeper snow, that's bs, he shouldn't have gone that route then). BTW, I think you actually didn't like Harvey's antics, and you are trying to play it down, much like the Norwegians are trying to play it down. It was great to see Harvey, and really it would have been great to see anyone do it, to put the arrogant Norwegian men's team back down to earth. LOL, NRK even had special photos and videos where they went into great detail outlying where Norway lost the sprint relay. It's simple, Harvey outsprinted hin, going away. Hattestad was lucky he hung on to the silver. Had there been 10 more meters, he would have lost that battle as well.
I had no problem with Harvey's antics whatsoever, and were happy for the Canadians. The ridiculous amount of Northug-hate is pathetic to me though. Specially if you're a 100% fine with what Alex did, but hate Northug's finish.
Ok, so Northug's still a twat. Tell us something new!
I think Northug tried to do the Bjorn Daehlie 180 but only made it 90 degrees. Then he tried to act cool and pretend he planned it all the way.
kuan, he said in interviews that he wanted to do the Dahlie-spin but didn't have the time.
I actually do have some issue with Harveys behavior, but that is good this sport need swagger show and controversial behavior.
It is much better then if evry racer behaves in the same pc way. It gives fans racers they can support and racers they can love to hate.
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