Henrik Kristoffersen was beside himself in the finish area.

“We're sorry”: Kristoffersen's freak out at the finish area

Austria celebrated a triple success in the first men's race of the World Cup season. However, this was overshadowed by protests by climate activists. A ski star lost his temper.

18 November 2023

From: dl

The second round was interrupted for a good ten minutes due to a climate protest. In front of the top five, “Last Generation” activists gained access to the finish area and sprayed orange paint on the snow. Shortly afterwards they were escorted out of the area reserved for athletes. On TV images, an angry Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen could be seen in the finish area, apparently storming towards an activist.

Fans acknowledged the action with boos and snowballs were occasionally thrown. Immediately after the interruption, Kristoffersen's teammate Alexander Steen Olsen had to go onto the slopes; he fell back to 18th place. Loic Meillard, who started after him, was eliminated and Gstrein also had problems. In his opinion, the activists definitely have that Outcome of the race affected.

A mess at the finish

Kristoffersen was apparently so upset because one of his teammates was still up there. “We need to be better prepared here in the future and be in a closer position with the police and volunteers. It can't be that the Norwegians are the first and want to pull them out straight away. In the future, our best security guards will have to stand right at the exit gate,” said FIS race director Markus Waldner afterwards ORF-Interview.

A few minutes after the race, the ORF also let the most climate activists have their say on TV: “It's not against skiing or the athletes. We simply use the space, otherwise we won't be heard. We are heading towards a climate catastrophe.” A female member almost had tears in her eyes: “We're sorry, we don't like doing something like that. But if we continue as before, we will soon have completely different problems in the world than having disrupted such an event.”

“If we continue as before, we will soon have completely different problems in the world than having disrupted such an event.” A member of the most climate activists

However, a male member (both were around 30 years old) explained: “We made sure that we did this in the finish area and didn't hinder any runners. We would still like to be skiing in 30 years. The government must finally act.” The protest action met with a lot of criticism – be it from the athletes or the spectators. The Norwegian has now commented on the incidents.