After dominating male cross-country skiing in the early 2010s, Norwegian star Petter Northug ended his elite career in December. One month ago, the multiple Olympic and World Championship gold medalist was a guest of SVT's "Skavlan" and paid tribute to Calle Halfvarsson for the antagonists' struggle over the years.

"My biggest arch rival in Sweden of all time because he has been tough enough to respond back," said Northug in the program.

The Swede, who is in Idre this week and is preparing for the season, has seen the interview.

"Nice to hear"

- It was fun to hear that he sees it that way. I've met him a bit more now, besides skiing too. We are quite similar and have come together pretty well when we have met, says Calle Halfvarsson and continues:

-It was good that you got what was between us, that it got a little disappointing in any competition and you started running it before the competition. It creates a little more interest. You can miss it a little, that he will not go anymore.

In championship context, Northug has consistently mocked Halfvarsson, for whom it is often streamed. Even during this year's World Cup in Seefeld, when Halfvarsson made a fateful jerk in the men's relay where Sweden finished fifth, the Norwegian continued to see the Swede.

- You know, you should be punished. Jail for 13 years. Then you might learn. It is so bad to do it again and again, said Northug, his role as a TV expert, in Norwegian TV2.

TV recording

But 30-year-old Halfvarsson has learned to deal with 33-year-old Northug's words. In April, the duo also got to know each other better after spending a week and a half on the Greek island of Rhodes for recording the TV competition "Landskampen", which has not yet been broadcast in Swedish television.

-Both are very interested in sports in general, are competition people. Enjoy the joke, and are both for this with irony. That you can have some fun in a tougher way. It feels like we're pretty much the same way, on many levels, says Calle Halfvarsson.

TT: You are more polite now?

- We do not hang with each other so, he lives in Norway and I live in Sweden. But yes, it is. We are not enemies, nor have we been. We have been competitors and you really wanted to beat each other once we had the skis on us. Then it was rushed up, much like we would have been enemies. Well, it hasn't been. It's just that we haven't met that way at the side of the ski track before.