The interest in the 36-year-old comebacker is enormous. So much so that the Norwegian national team chooses to hold a separate press conference with Therese Johaug, and another with the other selected female athletes for Sunday's World Championship skiathlon: Astrid Øyre Slind, Heidi Weng, and Kristin Austgulen Fosnæs.
We thought it was better. So that the other girls also get some questions, says Marit Bjørgen, who has temporarily taken on the role of national team coach since Sjur Ole Svarstad is sick.
Unusual feeling
Veteran Heidi Weng, 33, admits that it's a bit strange.
I don't think I've ever experienced that we're not all four sitting up here. But it's both for our sake and for Therese's, says Weng.
Much of the focus before the championship revolves around Therese Johaug's comeback. Sunday's skiathlon will be her first World Championship race in four years.
She herself gives no nervous impression despite all the fuss.
Of course, I'm tense. But I also feel a calm. It'll be what it'll be. As long as I do my best, you have to take the result that comes, says Johaug.
It's important to enjoy it too, to take in and experience a World Championship on home soil. The atmosphere we saw at Granåsen yesterday gave goosebumps.
Points to Karlsson
She ended her career in the spring of 2022 – after four Olympic and 14 World Championship gold medals, as well as 82 World Cup victories – among other things to start a family. But after her daughter was born in 2023, the urge to compete quickly returned. Not least since there was a home World Championship on the horizon, with a historic 50km – the first on the women's side.
It's still where she has set her sights.
I dream of a gold medal in the 50km. That's why I've made this comeback. And it's where I feel I have the greatest chance of taking a gold medal, says Therese Johaug.
But when the season started, I saw that my form is so good that I can also fight for a medal, and a gold medal, in the skiathlon.
She sees many competitors for the medals in the World Championship's distance events and mentions, for example, national team colleagues Heidi Weng and Astrid Øyre Slind, American Jessie Diggins, and Sweden's Ebba Andersson.
But the toughest nut to crack will probably be another blue-and-yellow skier, says Johaug.
I think Frida Karlsson is in incredibly good form. She has been at home and trained a lot, and the races she has competed in, she has been extremely strong in. She is a big favorite, says Johaug.
