The only Swede, but on the offensive
Birken.no met a Per Eloffson hungry for victory before he is going from Rena to Lillehammer tomorrow. He has a difficult job, and there are no support from his countrymen. He is the only Swede starting in the Elite Class. The Swedish runners has chosen to participate in the National Swedich Championship. He cannot expect any help from the Norwegians either, his Norwegian coach Magnar Dalen says. They will support Thomas Alsgaard.
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24 March 2002

Bente Skari excited in front of the start
The winner of this years Cross Country World Cup, Bente Skari is excited in front of the last WC-race in the Birkebeiner-tracks. She has started the Birkebeiner once before, in 1998, and is expecting a better result than the last time, when she came in 6 minutes after the winner Anita Moen. It’s good to have a long race in the WC, and it’s good for Norway that it’s a race we know from before.
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22 March 2002

Gabriela Peruzzi gives it all
After a good ending in this years WC and gold medal on the 30km during the Olympics in Salt Lake City Gabriel Paruzzi is ready to give maximum effort in this years Birkebeinerrace. She hopes to start of easy and increasing during the race.
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22 March 2002

Thorough Italians
We’ve had thorough preperations, says Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer. The tracks on both the Lillehammer and Rena sides has been tested by the Italian runners in front of the race. Cottrer sees himself an outsider but hopes to finish as one of the best 15.
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22 March 2002


Tired Stefania Belmondo
 - The fact that the whole class start together decides my tactic. A very cheerful Stefania tells birken.no when we meet here in the starting area after she had a light trainingtour in the tracks up to Skramstadsetra. Double Gold Medal Winner from Salt Lake City Olympics says she has respect for the long run across the mountain.
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22 March 2002

Botvinov prefers Oslo
Austrian Mikhail Botvinov is to og the Birkebeiner this year. I don’t think this is good, they former Russian says, that would rather finish the WC-season in Holmenkollen. I think a Norwegian will win, and it might be Erling Jevne who goes his last WC-race ever.
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22 March 2002


 Kristen Skjeldal looking forward to the Birkebeiner
Kristen Skjeldal is going his first Birkebeiner. He is looking forward to the WC Finsishrace, but think it’s going to be a hard competition, especially among the Norwegians. Skjeldal is recovering after the 50km in Holmenkollen, where he came in second after Thomas Alsgaard.
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22 March 2002

- Hopes the Birkebeiner can continue to be a part of the World Cup!
Sindre Bergan, Norwegian cross-country director hopes the Birkebeiner will stand out as a positive experience being the last race in the cross-country World Cup. “The Birk” is a real nice race with a great terrain and very good tracks. I hope they can become part of the World Cup in years to come.
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22 March 2002

"The King of the Birkebeiner" is not coming this year!
Fredrik Lütken is number one Birkebeiner veteran. Almost 86 years old it is 65 years since he first time went the race in 1937. Since then he has gone the race 58 times and taken the Birkebeiner mark 53 of those times. This is an impressing record, but this year he cannot participate dued to sickness.
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22 March 2002

Presscovery of the Birkebeiner
This year the Birkebeinerrace will be covered by press from several countries, since being the last race in this years World Cup. It’s not yet decided which or how many medias who will be accredited, but NRK-TV will be there to cover the arrangement.
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22 March 2002

Amusing stories from the Birkebeiner Office
The weeks and days before a Birkebeiner-race there are a lot of people that have questions for the people working at the BirkebeinerOffice on Rena. Some are more “intelligent” than others, and sometimes they stories can be real fun. One person met for start…. One week early?? In this article you can read some of the stories.
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18 March 2002

Is Gunnar Tronsmoen winning again?
For the 30th time Gunnar Tronsmoen from Alvdal is training for the Birkebeiner. Since his debute in 1973 he has won his class 27 of 29 possible times. One of the times he didn’t won he raced on wooden skies. Even though he has had pneumonia and penicillin this winter he hopes for yet a victory.
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18 March 2002

Hoping for revenge in ”Birken”!
After a bit of failure during the Olympics, Erling Jevne admits not to have been in top shape during the stay in Salt Lake City. – I was in very good shape in Davos before Christmas, but it changed when I came to the US. Now he is trying to end his career and to revenge his Olympics-effort with a victory in the Olympics.
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17 March 2002

-“The triple” is most fun!
Ragnhild Bolstad is head of Rena Training Centre and is an eager Birkebeiner. This year the third annual “Birkebiner Triple” is arranged. Ragnhild has participated all three times and has a lot of opinions and experience with training, preperations, food and the arrangments.
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16 March 2002

Birkebeinerradio back on full engine!
Birkebeinerradio is coming back this year with 25 hours covering of this years race. The broadcasts will contain Birkebeinermaterial: Interviews, weather-reports, music and a lot more. This according to Einar Øfstaas, head of the radio.
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16 March 2002

4 Times World Champion Silver Medalist to the Birkebeinerrenn
Every year a lot of senior citizens partisipate in “the Birk”. Mary Saxlund from Rena is one of the most vigorous. Recently home from the Veteran World Championschip in Canada, where she won 4 silver medals, she is going to go her 18^th Birkebiner.
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16 March 2002

Finn Magnar Hagen: - Its as important to drink as to prepare your skies
Skipreperationexpert Finn Magnar Hagen was in Salt Lake City Olympics and helped Norwegian Crosscountry racers win several gold medals. He underlines that its not just skipreperations that is important for the people participating in the Birkebeiner Race.
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14 March 2002

Looking back at Birkebeiner 2001
While the start of this Birkebeiners closing, we take a look back at highlights from last years events.
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March 12 2002

Recordpartisipating in Childrens Birkebeiner
The last couple of years there has been reduced number of participators in the ordinary Birkebeiner-race. The opposite in Childrens Birkebeiner. Sunday there was recordpartisipating for this arrangment in Birkebeiner Stadium in Lillehammer in wonderful winter weather.
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11 March 2002

Fewer participants in this years race – new things coming?
2000 was the topyear for Birkebeinerrace with 10,600 participants. Last year there was below 10,000. This year its calculated with 9,000-9,500 paying the start-fee. Saturday before easter is not a very good timing, but we have to look at things to do keep the participator number hight, says Birkebeiner-head Tor Skraastad.
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10 March 2002

New startorder delayed
The arrangers of Birkebeiner race has for some time been planning a new way to start the race. The plan was to let the runners in each class start according to estimated endtime. However, the new method is delayed.irkebeinerarrangøren har i en tid hatt tanker om ny startordning under årets renn. Planen var å la løperne i hver klasse starte etter stipulert måltid, etter tilsvarende prosedyre som under Birkebeinerrittet. Nå er imidlertid den nye ordningen utsatt.
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9 March 2002

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