Recurring Dream

 

We’ve been following the career of our old friend Viktor Brännmark for years now.  If you’re a paid-in-full gold-level subscriber to the UAA Nordic Ski Team Blog, then of course you already know that, because you have special access to the Blog’s members-only area, with its exclusive content and special feature stories about Viktor’s progress with his ski career.

 But for everyone else, here’s a little recap: Since leaving the Seawolves in 2013, Viktor has been grinding it out on the Swedish elite-level racing scene, chasing his dream of representing his country in one of those white and yellow zoot suits. For several years now, Viktor’s status in Sweden could be described as “just about as fast as you can be without actually being on the Swedish National Team”. Year after year, Viktor keeps after it, training like a maniac and eagerly chasing the racing circuit. Every once in a while, the national team will sign him up for a World Cup race, and he usually finishes in the points if he’s on the starting line. But after a few years of generally level results, Viktor was looking for a breakthrough. So over the summer he decided to go in a different direction with a new training plan and a new coach. 

 Anyone who knows Viktor knows that he takes an honest, raw, blue-collar approach to his sports. He’s ready and eager at all times to race anyone, anytime. At the finish line, Viktor may be first, or last, or anywhere in between.  But you can bet that at the 1km mark of any race, he’s going to be in the lead, or pretty damn close to it. He loves to compete, and when you hang out with him, you get an irresistible urge to take up his challenge and race him – at whatever sport happens to be on the menu. He just has that effect on people. You probably know somebody like that. For example, I went out biking with Viktor a few years ago in the French Alps and I knew I was outmatched on the climbs, but I figured I might be able to take him on the descents. The obvious result was me crashing on an Alp at about 50mph and ruining a perfectly good pair of bike shorts. But I was ahead of Viktor when it happened, so I definitely think it was worth it. 

(As a side note, I spent a couple hours in the care of a doctor at a little local French hospital, and walked out of there with a shopping-cart full of bandages and ointments and creams, and the bill came to a grand total of around $32. The doctor apologized that I had to pay anything at all. But by my reckoning, I still owe the people of France a lot of money. I'll gladly pay those highway tolls and speeding tickets without complaint.)

Anyway, the word going around on the streets of Sweden this Christmastime is that Team Sweden has decided to do the right thing and sign Viktor up for the Tour de Ski. This is not some Podunk, run of the mill World Cup. This is the Tour de Ski - the real deal! 

Check out this press release.  Who on this team looks ready to race?  I think it's auspicious that the only guy in this picture actually doing anything is Viktor. Everyone else is just sitting around in their fancy jackets, but Viktor's in his spandex and making it happen! So you'd better sign up for whatever streaming service is going to bring the Tour de Ski to your living room, because this is a week of racing that you're definitely not going to want to miss. The entire staff of journalists, editors, and the Board of Directors at the UAA Ski Team Blog wish Viktor grand success at his first Tour de Ski!  We think he's ready to slay!