Anders Byström, 42, has a solid skiing experience behind him. Before taking over the biathlon team after Wolfgang Pichler for the past season, he spent five years in Norway, where he was, among other things, the head coach of the junior and development national teams.
From what you know and know about him, how do you think he is a leader?
- A little depending on how you define the role and what will be the important part for him to be involved and develop now, but if we look at what has been a huge shortcoming for a long time; development especially on the men's side, says SVT expert Anders Blomquist and continues:
- It is very good there that he comes with experience from Norway that is totally dominant on the men's side. There I really hope that he can bring with him many good thoughts and ideas on how we should work with Swedish men's skiing.
What do you think will be most important to him in the new job?
- The most important thing now is to get partly the long-term development in a really powerful way. But also to get together the constellation with coaches on the men's and women's side and get started a discussion about what the whaling team should look like next year. All those points are acute.
After a turbulent season where several key players have left the Swedish national team, Blomquist believes it is important for the coming season that a new national team manager is now appointed.
- It is good. It has been a chaos for a long time and you have been very uncertain about many parts, including whether or not this role should exist. There has been, and still is, a great deal of disarray within the ski association. But it is good that at least now close to the active get to a clear organization.
He comes from the biathlon, should he try to bring Stina Nilsson back now?
- I don't think that's feasible. Stina has made her decision and she wants to try it, I don't think it matters who asks.