A few weeks ago, two biathletes were involved in a car accident. Now they report on the details.
This accident is still very in the bones! The Norwegian biathlete June Arnekleiv and her colleague Vetle Sjastad Christiansen told about a car accident in an interview with the NRK (public service broadcasting in Norway, note) in which they were involved a few weeks ago.
The team drove from a rental car from a show race in Stockholm to the IBU Cup to Otepää, Estonia. The fateful moment shortly before the goal.
“It was extremely slippery and we drove straight at an intersection before we crashed into a trench between the street and the sidewalk. The entire front area was smashed, and the car was no longer traveling,” recalled Christiansen.
Arnekleiv added: “I didn’t realize how bad it was for us to get some distance from it. It was a big shock.”
Biathlon star very taken after an accident
It had only one degree outside temperature on site, it was windy and very slippery. “The car was a total wreck and it was impossible to continue driving. The gear was destroyed, and things were loose under the car and under the hood. In retrospect, I think it’s crazy that it went so well,” continued the athlete.
Meanwhile, nobody was injured in the accident, and other road users were not involved.
“It was a long, flat route so that I had some time to prepare for the impact. There were five or six seconds in which my body was completely tense and prepared for an abrupt stop,” reported the biathlete, who took the accident very much.
Neighbor helped at the scene of the accident
“It was primarily a psychological stress for my head, and I know that I had little sleep for three days. In the first nights I had nightmares, even if I got away with a slightly stiff neck.”
Incidentally, just a few minutes after the impact, it was a neighbor who made himself useful at the scene of the accident and drove the athletes to their hotel. Meanwhile, neither of them came to a hospital, instead they entered the dialogue with the physiotherapist of their national team.
Christiansen, who had experienced the accident in half sleep, will not be used in the final biathlon World Cup on the Holmenkollen in Oslo, Arnekleiv has been before her first race since the beginning of January, when she was last started in Oberhof.