āShe was the toughest girl on the ski jumping hill and her suit was always full with snow!ā, says Gangnes about Maren Lundby.
The two ski jumping stars grew up in Kolbu. One of their trainers was Tom Erling Gangnes - father of Kenneth. Two months ago Kolbukameratene (the ski club) was represented by three jumpers at the world cup event in Lillehammer: Lundby, Gangnes and Fredrik Bjerkeengen.
āMaren is a little shy, sheās not the loudest. But she works really hard.ā, says Gangnes.
Lundby holds the 8th place in the womenās ski jumping ranklist and has been twice on the podium this winter. The last time on Sunday in Oberstdorf.
āThat was an upturn! The day before I was 31st, failed to continue in the second round. I was at the bottom, but had to find the reason why. I did ādryā trainings with a skateboard in the hotelās hallway. In addition to that, I used miniskis outside on the snow to find the balance.ā, says Maren Lundby.
On Thursday she will fight again for a place on the podium at Holmenkollen. She likes that famous and monumental hill on the top of Norwayās capital. And she likes that she finally gets to jump on a real big hill.
āI wish that we had more competitions on large hills. But womenās ski jumping has had a fine development the recent years. Step by step the hills get bigger, and we get more competitions in WC.ā
She was in the mixed team that took the silver from the World Ski Jumping Championships in Falun last year, together with Line Jahr, Anders Bardal and Rune Velta. And thereās a new opportunity coming her way next year, at the World Championships in Lahti.
āMy dream is to win an individual gold, at the Olympics or at World Championships.ā
Maren started jumping at home, in Kolbu, already at the age of 3. At first with cross country skis, a year later with ski jumping skis. Her debut on the international stage was also quite early, at the age of 14, when women finally got a world cup-status.
She wants to thank a fellow ski jumping lady and teammate Anette Sagen for that. The womenās ski jumping champion, who retired after last season, is a model to Lundby. But so far itās been hard to live up to her legacy.
āThere are big shoes to fill in after Anette. The goal is to be as good jumper as she was, maybe even better. She was the face of womenās ski jumping. Thereās no one who could ever do something so big for that sport.ā, says Maren.
āāāāāāāāāāāā
This is my translation. The original article in Norwegian was posted yesterday and you can find it here. It includes a video of a Maren Lundbyās jump when she was only 4. :) I skipped a couple of sentences about Kennethās form this season, because we all know about it.
yousharknotpass
janainaart
areudirty
titsay
vaporwave
dailybridgerton
