The speed with which the Norwegian Ski Federation, together with the law firm Kleven & Kristensen, filed an appeal against the FIS decision, meticulously preparing the argumentation, demonstrated that the Norwegian national team has excellent lawyers, quite capable of returning the three-time Olympic champion the award, which he was deprived of.
However, Johannes Klebo, who insisted on the termination of the legal proceedings, won a victory, the value of which is much higher than the marathon won in Oberstdorf.
There Klebo demonstrated the scale of his sports talent.
Now it's time to talk about the scale of the individual.
Commenting on the act of the six-time world champion, the coach of the Russian national team Markus Kramer noted that the decision was most likely dictated by the fact that Norway understood that it would not be possible to win the appeal.
However, this point of view was not shared by all the colleagues of the famous German specialist.
The very fact that the discussion of the incident, in which the legendary stars of cross-country skiing and no less legendary coaches participated for several days, but did not come to a common denominator, speaks precisely of the fact that at the end of the final race an unfortunate man, who was deadly in his absurdity happening.
Just a coincidence.
This was once again confirmed by one of the most experienced ski specialists Yuri Kaminsky, noting in an interview that the behavior at the finish line of both Klebo and Bolshunov became incomprehensible and illogical for him.
“For some reason, both rushed to the same place ... If you ask me a question - why did Johannes climb there - I cannot answer it.
In that situation, it seemed to me that Klebo had much more chances of success, because he is an athlete, in terms of his technical parameters, more sprint than Sasha: he puts out his arms faster, and his entire technique of simultaneous movement is adapted for a fast sprint - we are with you we saw repeatedly that in the finishing spurt he always wins over Sasha.
Why he crawled into this crack, I do not understand.
It was easier for him to go to the left, get on a parallel track and, with a high degree of probability, bring the race to a victorious end.
But here it turned out that he was squeezed, he tried to squeeze through and was forced to break the rules, "- quotes the words of the Skisport specialist.
Take your time to argue.
In fact, there is no point in continuing to provide counter-arguments and quotes from professionals in order to understand: any attempt to unravel the tangle makes the story even more confusing.
It was on this that the legal rate was made when filing an appeal: to reduce the essence of what happened to a banal racing incident, noting that such episodes are common in contact races.
Indeed, in the same marathon race, if you remember its very beginning, there was a blockage in which Simen Hegstad Kruger suffered (falling and losing time), who eventually became a bronze medalist.
Did someone demanded someone's blood, a review of the results, or at least proceedings?
Not.
Unpleasant, but nothing more.
Work moment.
Now one can only guess how the Russian-Norwegian confrontation in the offices could have ended if it had not been harshly suppressed by Klebo himself.
Having renounced national and personal preferences that latently force fans to support exclusively “their own” and see the enemy in those who do not share this position, it will not be difficult to understand: in this damned marathon, Johannes suffered no less than Alexander.
In the same way, and perhaps even stronger, he was eager to win this completely uncharacteristic race for himself, and, by the way, after all the protests and proceedings with the demonstration of a lot of photo and video materials, one could pay attention to the fact that from the collision with Bolshunov, the Norwegian dodged at the finish line as best he could: even at some point he was close to stepping over the barrier pyramids.
And Klebo certainly didn't need a victory at such a price.
Why do I think so?
Probably because two years ago I had the opportunity to meet the main person in the life of Klebo the athlete - his grandfather Kore Hesflot.
Our meeting took place in Seefeld at the impromptu sponsorship party of the 2019 World Cup.
The organizers, of course, were waiting for Johannes, but he politely refused, referring to the fact that he should prepare for the relay.
The atmosphere was the most "intimate", with a minimum number of guests, so I went up to the elderly Norwegian and struck up a conversation with him.
The impression remained incredible: in the appearance of his grandfather, the thickness and solidity of a person who grew up in nature and from an early age accustomed to hard country labor, absolute simplicity of behavior and, at the same time, a colossal sense of self-worth were surprisingly intertwined.
Kore spoke almost no English or German, which is why I constantly resorted to the help of his son Haakon, and I had to see how proud the eyes of my grandfather-coach lit up when it came to my grandson.
At that moment, for some reason, I recalled a scene from one of Jack London's novellas entitled “The Primal Beast”, where the old and retired boxer Pat Glendon writes about his son to the best impresario in the country.
“... I raised and trained him.
Everything I ever knew I hammered into his head.
And you may not believe me, but he added to this from himself.
He is a natural born boxer.
In terms of a sense of time and distance, he is a miracle.
His sense of time is developed up to a second, and a sense of distance - up to an inch, he himself does not think about it - this is an instinct ... "
Isn't there an association?
The natural talent and phenomenal thirst for victory of young Klebo were noted by everyone who at least once saw the Norwegian on the track.
And those who at least once had a chance to talk to him invariably noted the colossal respect for the rivals and the absolute absence of any arrogance whatsoever.
In that conversation two years ago, I was rather amused by the story of Haakon Klebo - a rather famous violinist in Norway - that he himself would never have come to the World Championships, if not for the forced necessity.
A couple of months before the World Championships in Seefeld, on the very eve of Christmas, Johannes did not have time to brake at one of the intersections of his native Trondheim and stuck into someone else's car.
As a result, the rights were taken away from the three-time Olympic champion.
So it turned out that he remained horseless for some time, and the violinist dad was forced to take a vacation and get behind the wheel: he considered it wrong to correct the consequences of what had happened by hiring a personal driver for his son.
And who will say now: was it not an additional motivation for Johannes, who won three gold medals at that championship, the feeling of awkwardness in front of his family for that incident at the Trondheim crossroads?
If Klebo had not been disqualified in Oberstdorf, the marathon medal would have become for him the fourth gold won in one championship.
Although the number of awards here does not matter for the three-time Olympic champion - having published his post on Instagram, he quite definitely expressed that getting a gold medal a few days after the best race in his career is not at all what he is striving for.
Probably, there is nothing surprising in this.
Athletes of this level are big in everything.
They need equal rivals, not weaker ones, and even more so - stumbled at the finish line.
The very essence of such people requires a beautiful struggle, and we are all really very lucky that fate brought together such skiers as Klebo and Bolshunov at one turn in history.
Equal in their talent and intolerant of defeat.
They are so intolerant that in the struggle with each other, they sometimes do not see and do not hear what is happening around.
Do you want confirmation of these words?
Here is a quote from Johannes Klebo:
“I will treat Bolshunov as before.
We will be racing with him for many years to come.
He is a good skier that I hope I can beat.
So let's hope that this situation will not happen again ... "
And how can you not respect Johannes for these words?