Q&A with Sebastian Foss Solevåg

Sebastian Foss Solevag is part of the Attavkingvikings squad.Tech events are his main focus, even if he loves skiing any way he can. Here is Sebastian Foss Solevag’s story.

2012 was your first World Cup start, and since then you had some ups and downs with 2 World Cup podiums and several top tens. What kind of athlete are you? How could you describe yourself?

I will describe myself as a serious and a happy athlete, but need to have fun with what I’m doing to perform as well as possible. If I have fun with what I’m doing then I will train harder and push more every day.

What do you think has to be improved to become more consistent?

My ground speed needs improvement, and also race training. My top speed is more than good enough, but I need to be more resilient.

Have you ever thought to add another discipline into your program?

I would love to compete in more races during the season, not only slalom, City event and sometimes Alpine Combined. I train a lot of GS during the pre-season and racing season, but because of my high ranking is hard to compete in the World Cup. The calendar is very tight during the winter, so I need to prioritize..Getting better GS FIS points will be a long term project. I don’t currently prioritize travelling around to get better FIS points in GS,but it is a long term project.

You are part of a small team which is  really close, including tech with speed athletes. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this?

I love to be a part of the Norwegian National Team aka Attavkingvikings. It is like a family for me because I spend more time with my teammates and coaches than my own family during the season. The benefit is that we train a lot with each other, especially in spring and summer, We know everybody well and we share training philosophy, and we push each other every day The drawback is that we don’t spend  that much time together during the season because of different programs, so we come back to being a small team during the winter.

Who are the most inspiring athletes for you?

When I was younger I was obsessed with Bode Miller. He was always  my hero when he was performing. We did not have that many good Norwegian skiers at that time because there were a lot of injuries with Aamodt and Kjus. That’s when I became really interested in skiing and I started to think I wanted to be a World Cup skier.. I am a huge Rafael Nadal fan. I have watched him since 2005 when he won his first grand slam. He is a  really strong athlete, and I like his style. He never gives up, and he always comes back stronger after an injury.  He’s definitely my role model.

Do you think that Aksel Lund Svindal’s retirement will impact your sport in your country? In which way?

Aksel is a huge star in Norway, and he will be really missed in our team and in our country. Luckily,he has left us with a good understanding of   how to behave and how to perform well so we can keep the interest high in Norway for years! He is a hero in Norway so he leaves us big shoes to fill, but we are already in a good pattern. With a lot of new young stars and veterans like Kjetil Jansrud in the forefront.

Norway Ski Team is pretty famous for their physical preparation; why do you think you are one of the best teams in this field? What are your secrets?

We don’t have a secret when it comes to our physical performance, but we train a lot together so we have a really good culture with that, and it has always been like that. We usually spend 6 weeks in Oslo from mid May till the end of June, training together.

From your social media pages, we can see you like playing golf. Skiing and Golf are completely different, but so many skiers are enjoying it-- why do you think it is so popular and practiced?

I don't play a lot of golf, but when I have the time I go for it. First of all, Playing golf is really social and  also good for my mind. It is physical in a different way,and I can use golf as an activity to relax and to go a little bit offline for few hours.

How do you like to spend your free time? Do you have enough time to spend with family and friends?

At the moment I don’t have that much free time because of all the training, but I use the time after training to hang out with friends and family. Often I invite them for dinner and then we can just sit on the couch and relax with TV or a movie/tv show. Every Monday during the Game of Throne series I invited some friends over, so we made dinner together and watched the latest episode of it. I don’t see my family that much, so visiting them is often what I do every holiday we have. But we have some family groups on snapchat etc, so we keep each other updated on what we are doing  Snapchat and whatsapp group are good ways to keep us updated throughout the winter either.

Being Norwegian in the Alpine Skiing tour is not always easy.How do you deal with it? Do you miss home?

Living in Norway is nice,especially in the spring, because we can ski in Norway , but during the season from November to February we don’t spend much time at home-- a lot of check in and out at hotels, driving and flying from venue to venue.That can be pretty exhausting and stressful sometimes,especially when almost all of our competitors are from the middle Europe and that they can travel home between the races, but we are used to it, so we can train well between the races and prepare well for the next race.