“Think about building a zip line from here”

Swedish cross-country skiing has a strong position, at least among women. The result at the Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina was ten medals. In ski jumping, Frida Westman was fourth on the large hill and people familiar with the sport that DN spoke about said: “In Falun she won gold.” The problem is that she is the only Swede in the world elite.

In Nordic combined, Sweden has none.

The current situation means that next year’s World Ski Championships in Falun may be the last that Sweden organizes for a long time.

– FIS (International Ski Federation) will have stricter requirements. If a nation like Sweden in the 30s and 40s wants to apply for the world championships, it must also have interest and activity in both ski jumping and Nordic combined, says Lasse Ottesen, competition director for the latter sport in Fis.

The Swedish Ski Association is aware of the situation. When DN met Secretary General Pernilla Bonde in connection with the Ski Jumping World Cup competitions in Falun in November, she discussed both strategic decisions to strengthen the sport of jumping and the vision to make Falun a must-visit destination for foreign tourists.

We take the funicular up to the diving towers. Sandro Pertile is competition manager for ski jumping in Fis and talks about the importance of making Falun known.

– The tourists come from Europe with their caravans. The place must be developed in such a way that it naturally becomes one of the eight obvious stops on vacation.

Pernilla Bonde talks about five target images. One of them is intended to be a training location for all Nordic ski sports, but like Pertile, it also wants to improve the year-round experience.

– In Planica and Oberstdorf we managed to turn the ski jumping arena into a source of income. You pay 10 euros for the climb. In Planica you can get married right at the top. It would be something, wouldn’t it, a day like this? Pertile says.

The sun is shining from a bright blue sky as the funicular passes the windbreak nets. Once at the top, at the foot of the diving tower, we continue to the specially built lift, which has a hole in the roof for skis.

“It’s almost a little scary,” says Pernilla Bonde as we look at Falun, across the barrier where the riders are preparing to rush out. You feel it in your stomach.

“The feeling” that she and Sandro Pertile talk about. That you have to convey feelings to people.

“Imagine having a zip line from here,” says the competition director.

We take the elevator back down and stand under the ramp.

– Listen to the sound, says Sandro Pertile.

It whizzes and whizzes quite loudly until it becomes completely quiet. The jumper flew off the ramp.

When the first Ski Jumping Host Cup season began in 1979–1980, Falun was added to the program as a station and continued to host regularly in the 80s and 90s. But after the competition in 2002, it took until 2014 for the World Cup to return to the Lugnet ski arena. After the 2015 World Cup, it took another ten years until the next major event – the November World Cup, also the pre-World Cup.

– When I was little, I lived in Falun. Very close. Heard the sound of the races on the weekends. Ski jumping was big back then. That’s where we want to go.

Pernilla Bonde sits on a couch in the Swedish Ski Association’s office in Lugnet and remembers. She talks about the strategic decision that the board made a few years ago: the money should be invested in Frida Westman and three other ski jumpers so that they could receive the best possible training in Trondheim.

– The reason it’s important is because ski jumping has such international importance. If we want to organize the World Cup and the Long Distance World Cup in Sweden in the future, we need ski jumping.

The aim is to achieve results at the World Cup and bring in stars who can inspire young people. Bonde talks about how the narrative around ski jumping is changing from something perceived as yesterday’s sport, “something mossy,” to “Wow, how cool,” as is the case in many other parts of the world.

– The debate was that ski jumping is a cost driver and eats up taxpayer money. We need to let go of that thought and start thinking, “What options can this give us instead?”

Sandro Pertile found his way into the press room at the foot of the ski jumping slopes. It goes back to what we talked about above.

– A ski jumping arena is a mysterious place where people can be inspired. In the long term, I believe that Fis will try to develop all of our arenas to be a perfect combination of sport and business.

– Look at Oberstdorf, they have over 100,000 visitors a year. An impressive number. Becoming a tourist destination must be Falun’s goal. But the clock is ticking…

Pernilla Bonde is fully aware that now, with the World Ski Championships next year, the window for the development of Falun is open.

When it comes to returning to the elite level, they have looked beyond national borders. But she says more is needed to develop the sport in Sweden. She thinks the threshold for sport needs to be lowered.

– You could look beyond the boundaries of different industries. In society we talk a lot about having a broad movement pattern at a young age, as opposed to early specialization. They are quite similar to some of our sports. In the youth sector it should be possible to combine more.

There are active clubs in six locations: Fagersta, Falun, Gothenburg, Sollefteå, Örnsköldsvik and Sollentuna. There must be more ski areas, but not with World Cup and toilet facilities like in Falun, but with children’s and youth slopes of different sizes.

Where do you see Swedish ski jumping in ten years?

– If we take Lugnet, where we sit now, as an example, it would be very funny if we had a fully functioning arena with a great life that has become a source of income. And that sport is alive, both among young people and in competition, and that it is an arena where you come because you think it’s cool, because you see an attractive force.