Planica. The head of the national ski team, Anders Bystrom, is critical of restroom arrangements for this winter, as skiers are forced to live in another country with long transportation across a mountain pass.
In Planica there is no understanding of opinions.
– There are fans and visitors to the restroom who live in the area and in Kranjska Gora. They’re the ones who pay the Swedish leader’s salary, says Tommy Trpovk, director of communications at WC Host.
Early Friday morning, Sportbladet meets Tomi Trbovc at Planica’s state-of-the-art skatepark. It’s a fragile day in September and when we meet two of the Sweden skaters appear on the rink.
The Swedish national team is at the camp site in the WC region. This winter the team returns to the championship and then the stars will not live as they do now near the skating stadium.
The Swedish team has rented accommodation in the family-owned Gästehaus Rausch in Austria and has to drive 35-40 minutes to reach the track in winter road conditions for competition.
Criticism is hard to understand
The Sportbladet traveled between Sweden’s WC Hotel and Planica during Friday. Along the narrow winding road above the Wurzen Pass, cows were walking and grazing along 18 percent slopes.
National Team Manager Anders Bystrom Is crucial to arranging a restroom, the day trip through the mountain pass and he told Expressen that “in terms of safety, it’s not optimal”. Bystrom told Sportbladet that the information he had received was that hotels in the tourist resort of Kranjska Gora, ten minutes from the Planica valley, were occupied by Fis patrons and staff, which he found “strange”.
Tomi Trbovc, who is in charge of communications for the Slovenian Ski Federation and for WC, is having a hard time understanding the criticism.
– The Swedes were offered a hotel, and they refused and solved it themselves. Now he says it’s their problem, not the organization’s.
The WC organizer has chosen to offer states accommodation either in Villach in Austria or in Italy’s Tarvisio, where the Norwegian team will live. The Swedish national team chose not to participate in the central residence in Villach.
– You can walk to Austria and Italy from here. There will be snowmobiles from Austria and Slovenia who will keep the road open 24 hours a day and we don’t see any problems.
“Good at parties”
Nor does he think that Swedish commanders and knights would have felt comfortable living in Kranjska Gora. There, the party would dominate toilet nights.
– Swedes say all hotels are booked by Fis. I’ve booked Fis half a hotel, that’s it.
Are there sponsors in the remaining hotels?
– It’s fans. visitors. If we let everyone live in Kranjska Gora, people wouldn’t sleep during the evenings there were medal ceremonies. It is a village and a festival. This is why we organize WC. The director of communications, who points out that we’re good at partying, says:
– They pay the Swedish leader’s salary…
Anders Bystrom takes the pass in step:
– An interesting way to look at it. It’s great that they get good accommodation and we’re happy with what we got. Not a problem. But he says never before when you were at the tournaments that you weren’t allowed to live near the resort.
