Northug weary of his own celebrity

Petter Northug, Norway’s sometimes surly skiing star, reportedly is getting tired of his celebrity status at home. The coach of the men’s cross-country ski team is worried Northug may cut his career short so he can just be a normal guy. Vidar Løfshus told newspaper Adresseavisen in Trondheim that he sees how Northug is plagued [...]

Ski champ dabbles in soccer

Petter Northug, Norway’s cross-country skiing star, spent some time on a football field this week, but has no intention of shifting sports. Athletics officials wish, though, that he’d shift out some of his hobbies. Northug played in an exhibition match in Trondheim against veteran players for local club Rosenborg. As Northug himself told reporters when [...]

World Cup winner heads home

Norway’s Petter Northug celebrated confirmation of his status as the world’s best cross-country skier on Sunday by accepting some public accolades, but then shifting to dry clothes, getting in a car and driving six hours home to Trøndelag. That’s apparently where the most important party awaited. Northug won, as expected, the men’s overall cross-country skiing [...]

Northug ‘best skier in the world’

Norway’s “bad boy” at the Winter Olympics ended two weeks of competition in a blaze of glory on Sunday. Petter Northug won the gold medal in arguably the toughest race of all, and suddenly emerged as what one commentator called “the best skier in the world.” Northug, age 24, ran neck and neck against Axel [...]

Northug redeems himself with gold

Petter Northug, Norway’s “bad boy” at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, finally won an Olympic gold medal, acknowledged instead of snubbing his fellow athletes, and even talked to reporters afterwards. Heavily favoured to win several of the cross-country skiing events, Northug instead performed poorly (even placing a lowly 41st in the Men’s 15-kilometer freestyle), but [...]

Northug, ski jumpers disappoint

There were no new gold medals for Norway on Saturday, nor any medals at all for that matter. Norwegian fans pinned their hopes on Petter Northug, expecting him to win the Men’s 30-kilometer Pursuit at the Winter Olympics. Instead he came in 11th, after losing an estimated three seconds for breaking a ski pole. That [...]

Northug in worst Olympic debut ever

Petter Northug, an otherwise confident young man from Trøndelag, shocked Norwegian fans on Monday with one of the worst Olympic debut performances in his country’s history, placing 41st in a race (the men’s 15-kilometer freestyle) that he had been expected to win. He offered no immediate explanation, walking right past stunned Norwegian journalists without making [...]