By Noah Eckstein
On Friday morning, climate activist group Folk Mot Fossilmakta and a group of World Championship skiers announced that they had reached an agreement, averting a planned disruption of today’s men’s 50-kilometer skate race. The athletes’ statement can be found here and the activists’ here. A list of the 29 athlete signatories (so far) can be found at the bottom of this article.
[Read more: Progress by Protest: Climate Activists and Athletes Reach Agreement Ahead of Saturday’s 50km]
After Friday’s women’s relay, a number of racers were asked about the agreement and the negotiations behind it. Here is what they had to say.
Frida Karlsson, of Sweden, about her decision to sign on:
“For me, it was obvious that I would sign. Yes, because I really respect the work they are doing for the environment. And for us, you can see now outside, it’s been raining so much this past week and it’s still the beginning of March. And that’s not usual. We like white and snowy winters and that’s why I signed.”
Ebba Andersson, of Sweden — also speaking for relay teammates Emma Ribom and Jonna Sundling — on why they hadn’t yet signed:
“I think in the same way that Frida has explained here. But for now, we have had this relay to focus on and then we will hopefully get some time to do that.”
Katherine Stewart-Jones, of Canada, on the effect climate change is having on the sport:
“I think the climate crisis is so real. We notice it racing on the World Cup. The venues that I’m used to going to, you can tell there’s just less snow. Even back home in Canada, we’ve been struggling a lot with snow. If we want our sport to continue and have the ability to race internationally and for cross-country skiing to exist, something has to be done, and I think it’s tough when we’re being represented by companies that are not contributing to helping with the climate crisis.”
Julia Kern, of the U.S., on the importance of these negotiations:
“I’ve been working closely with the climate activists throughout these championships and I’m really proud that we are on the same side, together working towards systemic change in the future and working towards a proposal to FIS. I think as we see in these conditions today, climate change is happening, and I’m really proud of the people who worked on this together. We’re hoping to make some change, and there will be more to come.”
Jessie Diggins, of the U.S., on why fighting the climate crisis is important to her:
“As you maybe know, I’m on the board of Protect Our Winters and also part of their Athlete Alliance, so for many years now I’ve been involved in trying to figure out how we can use our voices to affect larger scale change that will really swing the needle on climate policy as well as climate change. It’s about more than just protecting our sport — it’s pretty obvious when you look out there at the conditions — that’s what makes it visual, but it’s something that is affecting everyone in the world year-round and I think we’re in a unique position with a strong platform and strong voices to be able to speak to why this is so important.
“So I’m really proud of everyone for working towards solutions in the future. Of course I recognize the hypocrisy of athletes who have to travel, but I think we have the technology and solutions to be able to have a future in which you can still travel to races, to graduations, to weddings, to celebrations, travel for work — all of you had to travel here for work — we want to be able to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt the planet. I think it’s important to keep working toward a future where that is possible.”
Diggins, on the negotiations:
“That’s something that hopefully we don’t need to be doing in the midst of championship events in future times. However, the fact that we have moved mountains — and Julia especially, as an athlete representative — the fact that people were moving mountains to make this happen shows how much people care and how important it is. I think that just speaks to the seriousness of where our climate is at and how much the athletes who have signed this feel that it’s important to protect our planet — not just our sport, but our planet — for generations to come.”
Kern, on why the list of signatories isn’t longer and does not include any Norwegians:
“We’ve been under an extremely tight timeline. I’m proud that we’ve been able to do this during the championship and do it before the 50km — and again, this solution isn’t for just in this moment but systemic change in the long term — so I think there’s time to communicate with athletes and see if more people want to get on board. This letter was sent out late last night to get athletes to sign, so we didn’t give them much opportunity to research about it or understand the situation. I think that’s one of my goals — we always do an athlete meeting in the spring at the end of the season — so to help just explain it more and have athletes be educated on the topic so they can make informed, educated decisions.
“My hope is that we have more athletes signing in the future, but I also don’t blame athletes for not signing it overnight when we’re in the middle of a championship. This is an extremely tight timeline, and again we’re looking for long-term change and that takes time. It’s very possible that people haven’t even seen it yet. You know, there’s a lot of things that I don’t even see in the middle of the championship.
“You don’t think Therese Johaug was checking her email at like 7 a.m. this morning?” Nat Herz chimed in.
“I’m sure not.”
Kern, on whether these negotiations should have even reached the athletes:
“I can’t speak to what other actors knew or didn’t know, but I know that we are working really hard on it, and I think we are doing the best we can. There is urgency and we are really passionate about this, and I just hope that we continue to work together in a productive and positive way and join together to make change.”
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, on whether he sees a role for himself in future climate discussions:
“I mean, I would love to be part of the conversation, for sure, but I haven’t seen anything, and I’m just glad that they didn’t disrupt this race. And I guess we’ll see how things can change, but that’s a theme we can dig deeper into during the spring. I don’t think I will think much about that right now, but for sure, it’s an important topic, so we’ll see.”
Gus Schumacher, on the talks themselves and the activists being trailside today:
“The talks were great, honestly. I’m really glad that it was a conversation and not just a protest where, you know, you come to the mixed zone and you all gotta be like, No, we can’t condone protests and disruption of the race. And seeing them out there on that hill today was really proud for me. I mean, they were cheering super hard for me, which was super cool. It made me proud for having gone through those talks and kind of come up with an agreement to move forward with this, to try to get fossil sponsors out of large events like this.”
U.S. Coach Chris Grover, on balancing the stress of these negotiations with encouraging athletes to speak their minds:
“I think for some athletes, there’s definitely a weight and a stress to spending that time to figure that out. But at the same time, that discussion is important to their values and the values of our organization. So we want to encourage them to chase their values and follow their values. So yeah, the timing is not ideal, but, you know, their mission is pretty unwavering and this is just an extension of that.”
Athlete representative Jimmy Clugnet on competing pressures:
“We saw that many Norwegians didn’t sign it. I think many of the guys who race for other nations, like Lars Young Vik, Frederik Fodstad, they signed it. I think many, many Norwegians, they want to speak up against climate change but don’t have the confidence. It’s difficult to put yourself out there and fight for important subjects like this. There can be consequences. So it’s a tough, tough thing to say. So we cannot blame everyone who didn’t sign, I think, and just recognize the courage of the ones who signed.”
Simen Hegstad Krüger, on his pleasure that today’s 50km was not disrupted:
“Well, I would say at least that it’s much easier to have a debate when they are not disrupting, and then we can talk. If they were going to try to mess up the race, I would say that’s not a debate. So when they do it like this, it’s way better. But yeah, at the same time, I don’t feel it’s the right way to approach this discussion with threatening to destroy it for so many people.
“So I’m a bit mixed with with how we should embrace this. But of course, the climate debate is an important debate, and how we are going to face it, it’s challenging. And I think you can’t expect to do everything at once, but you have to take it step by step, and I think it’s been done a lot of steps here. But of course, you can’t do everything. You can always do more, but I’m at least glad that there wasn’t anyone who was disrupting the race.”
Athlete signatories:
Björn Sandström, SWE
Gus Schumacher, USA
Julia Kern, USA
Jessie Diggins, USA
JC Schoonmaker, USA
Katherine Stewart Jones, CAN
Xavier McKeever, CAN
Beda Klee, SUI
Flora Dolci, FRA
Fredrik Fodstad, COL
Lars Young Vik, AUS
Bentley Walker-Broose, AUS
Seve de Campo, AUS
Fedele de Campo, AUS
Tuva Bygrave, AUS
Rosie Fordham, AUS
Phoebe Cridland, AUS
Ellen Lie, AUS
Märta Rosenberg, SWE
Frida Karlsson, SWE
Truls Gisselman, SWE
Frederico Pellegrino. ITA
Davide Graz, ITA
Martino Carollo, ITA
Caterina Ganz, ITA
Dietmar Noekler, ITA
Francesco Defabiani, ITA
Jules Lapierre, FRA
Oscar Svensson, SWE
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