Traveshamockery!

The UAA ski coaches were nice enough to let me race in the team's time trial at Kincaid Park on Saturday morning, but as soon as I crossed the finish line I realized I had nothing to do for the rest of the weekend, so I jumped on a flight to Lillehammer, Norway to watch the Norwegian championships relay on Sunday.  I knew Synnøve's old team (NTNU) would be racing, and I thought I might be able to scout out some new talent at the event.  I'm back in Anchorage now and I have to say that what I saw in that race in Norway shocked and flabbergasted me.

Here's Synnøve in her NTNU-issue team jacket during a UAA team practice last fall. (I keep these kinds of pictures handy for blog situations such as this.)

And here's Synnøve's old NTNU teammate, Anette Kleppestø, not wearing the NTNU "condom suit" at the Norwegian national championships. 

Everyone knows the NTNU women's team is full of mischief; a gang of delinquents and bad seeds. But this time, they took it a little too far. I guess Synnøve's old teammates thought it would be funny if they left the "condom suits" at home (NRK's verbiage, not mine) and wore skirts, heavy sweaters and scarves instead in the relay.  Naturally, this created one of the greatest scandals in modern times for Norway, and the Norwegian chief of sport for Nordic skiing was called upon to answer to the press about the scandal. Åge Skinstad said what any right-thinking individual would say about this slap in the face of the national sport.  He basically called it a travesty, a sham and a mockery... a traveshamockery!

It's a good thing Synnøve's here with us at UAA, and not in Norway where she'd likely be getting her name dragged through the mud even as I write this.  You can read about all the details below, and you can even log in to the NRK website and give your own opinion about the whole situation:

Click here for all the sordid details and your chance to give Åge Skinstad a piece of your mind!