“The United States of Red Bull” – NRK Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule

For many, Marcel Hirscher is the alpinist of all time. At least he is the one who has won the World Cup the most times overall. Therefore, the disappointment was great when he retired in 2019 at the insignificant age of 30. As old as Michael Jordan when he quit, and five years older than tennis stars like Justine Henin and Björn Borg were when they quit.

But it was still too early.

Felt a whole world of winter sports.

Including our own star Henrik Kristoffersen, who stated that he would like to “beat him one last time”.

More than a decade at the very highest level had left its mark on the Austrian’s body.

Marcel Hirscher instead started his own ski brand. It was called Van Deer then. And was criticized early on to fish expertise from the established factories. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde went so far as to call it “immoral”.

The spectacular comeback

But it was not Hirscher’s project alone. Far from it. Because behind it all was a not unknown soft drink producer from the same country that Hirscher represented at the time, i.e. Austria.

The ski name today also tells a much clearer story. “VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports” is the official name of the ski manufacturer.

Now the factory’s poster name takes the collaboration in a new direction.

The spectacular comeback, a year and a half before the Olympics in Northern Italy, makes the entire alpine world drool.

And it came with yet another surprise, namely that it will be for a new country, namely the Netherlands.

As with Lucas Braathen, it is the mother’s home country that is chosen.

A nation without skiing traditions, but with very open arms. With few competitors for the attractive World Cup places. And very few commercial restrictions on the freedom of the performers.

In practice, this is, as with Lucas Braathen, a change of nationality to Red Bull.

Helmet, dear helmet

Well, Hirscher already had much more room for maneuver in Austria than Braathen had in Norway.

As in Switzerland and France, the Austrian stars have reserved the attractive helmet for profiling their own collaborators.

In Hirscher’s case Red Bull.

The cooperation with the compatriots was so extensive and good, also when it came to sports, that it frustrated Henrik Kristoffersen to go to court against the Norwegian Skiing Association in order to get the same opportunities within the sponsor system that his main opponent had.

For these, the opportunity had a price – which was the soft drink manufacturer’s bull logo shining on the front of the alpine helmet.

Kristoffersen lost the court case – and had to settle for having to profile the sponsor through increasingly oversized drink bottles in the interview zone after the race.

Which is nowhere near as commercially attractive. The helmet will always be visible on screens and images. Always.

An alpinist never takes off his helmet. And it’s not for vanity reasons.

Freedom under contractual responsibility

But Henrik Kristoffersen stayed in Norway. Whether it would have been different if he, like Braathen and Hirscher, had a mother of a different nationality, for example Danish, is purely hypothetical.

Now the Norwegian star can also get his long-awaited victory over Hirscher, five years later.

Kristoffersen came to an agreement with the Norwegian Ski Association and ended up becoming world champion in slalom in 2023 for Norway.

The agreement is very similar to the one the cross-country management has now entered into with its biggest stars Kristine Stavås Skistad and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.

With a large degree of freedom within the framework of the national team. And some commercial restrictions.

If Hirscher takes his 8th World Cup gold in Saalbach this winter, it might be in an orange national team jersey.

And anyway with a silvery helmet with a bull logo.

The journey towards factory teams

The latter is of course the most important here.

The International Ski Federation, FIS, does not allow factory teams in alpine skiing.

The cross-country circus in cross-country skiing, Ski Classics, is built around such, following the pattern of cycling.

Many have believed that it creates a fairer framework for the athletes – not least those from less well-resourced skin nations.

But for FIS, the nations and national federations are essential as satellites and partners.

What we now see, however, is a deliberate and significant strengthening of Red Bull’s position and presence.

As it is, when they create their own and undoubtedly fascinating skiing universe when they build a record slope for ski flying in Iceland – and send another one of their own athletes, Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi, down to a hitherto incredible 291 meters. And challenges the FIS universe from several angles.

Including the dogma that performers should only represent something as antiquarian as nations.

Hirscher’s re-entry could therefore end up as the start of the factory teams’ final foray into alpine sports.

With the help of benevolent ski mini-putters, they can form a sort “United States of Red Bull”.

With one bull for every torn national team agreement in the flag.

The beautiful game

As already described, their presence is not new. And the soft drinks manufacturer already has a number of top mountaineers among its stars. But what is happening now is a new age.

Under the guise of motherly love. Which is also an effective sale, for the company which is already one of the world’s smartest marketers.

The former Norwegian star alpinist Lucas Braathen has talked about transferring the Brazilian dance to the slopes in the coming season.

A skiing world’s version of “jogo bonito”, the beautiful game, a term Brazilian football legend Pelé launched for the nation’s beloved football.

The expression has since acquired a further meaning, as an expression of the original, beautiful and poetic nature of sport.

The original sport.

Not the one broken by barriers like, yes, clubs and national teams.

Jogo bonito.

Or nice game.

As it is of course called in Marcel Hirscher’s beloved Netherlands.