Eduard Hallberg from Sipoo left home at the age of 16 and went to high school in Norway – he soon surprised himself with his language skills

Sipoolainen Eduard Hallberg, 21, went to alpine high school in Norway five years ago in search of better training conditions and a tougher level.

Hallberg’s study area Oppdal is known as the birthplace of many top mathematicians.

“I did miss home. Sometimes I even got home, and then it was really nice to be able to chill in my own bed”, Hallberg describes his first year of high school in Oppdal, Norway.

Oppdal is a municipality of about 7,000 inhabitants in Trøndelag county in Norway. It is one of Norway’s largest ski resorts, whose slopes are divided into four different fells. The conditions for alpine skiing are top class.

There is also Oppdal Alpi elite, a traditional alpine high school, which has served as a training and study place for promising alpine skiers since 1976.

Hallberg had turned 16 the day before, when he headed from Sipoo to Norway in his mother’s van. Moving from home to pursue alpine skiing abroad aroused mixed feelings in the teenage Hallberg.

“It was a big decision. I knew that this was clearly the best and, as it were, the only option, so it was easy to leave.”

When it was time to leave in August 2019, the young alpine skier still faced a tough spot.

“It was difficult to leave home from family and friends. It was a big deal,” Hallberg recalls.

Despite being homesick, Hallberg found his place in Oppdal. The alpine high school students who arrived from different parts of Norway and moved away from home were in the same boat as Hallberg, and they became like a new family to Hallberg in Oppdal.

Adaptation was helped by the fact that the coaches and high school teachers took care of the young people’s well-being.

“The teachers helped with basic things and you could ask them for help anywhere. Sometimes I went to a cafe with my Norwegian teacher just to hang out. I could never have imagined that it would be possible to have such a relationship with a teacher.”

The family in Sipoo was a video call away. Especially in the first year of high school, Hallberg says that he called his mother often – often just to ask what food should be made. The boredom was eased by the fact that the parents came to visit Oppdal from time to time.

“When Corona struck, Faija bought a mobile home so they could visit. They parked the mobile home in the yard and were then in quarantine,” says Hallberg with a smile.

When Hallberg thought about a suitable alpine high school in the last spring of elementary school, his goal was to complete his high school studies in his mother tongue, Swedish.

There was no study place available in Sweden, but Oppdal was chosen immediately. According to Hallberg, the high school studies in Norwegian went surprisingly well.

“I got a better grade in Norwegian than in my mother tongue in middle school,” Hallberg laughs.

Hallberg attended a test period in Oppdal in the spring of 2019 and immediately impressed the head coach Hallgeir Vognildiin.

“I’ll never forget the first time I saw Eddie count. The slope in giant slalom training was steep, it was the competition slope. I was in the last corner of the track and I saw him coming down. I immediately told the other coach that this guy will get a place at the school. I immediately noticed that he is a good calculator,” says Vognildiin.

Vognild has a keen eye for alpine skiing. The respected alpine coach has had a more than 30-year career at the alpine school and worked for seven years as the Norwegian national team coach.

He has piloted several Norwegian alpine skiers to the top from Oppdal, for example Aksel Lund Svindalin, Ragnhild Mowinckelin, by Timon Haugan and Alexander Steen Olsenin.

The conditions and training in Oppdal are at the Nordic top level. Cooperation with Trondheim’s Olympic training center helps coaches to utilize the latest research results in sports science.

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“I got a better grade in Norwegian than in my mother tongue in middle school.”

The fact that Hallberg could train on demanding slopes in the company of top skiers gave him additional motivation. The coaches encouraged young calculators to talk with more experienced calculators.

“As soon as I came to Oppdal, the coaches said to ask a lot of questions and learn from the older players. For example, take two moves out of training and go to the slope to see how the older skiers pull. Think about what they do well and where you can improve. Try to do what they do well,” says Hallberg.

ALPINE SKIERS the level in Oppdal was rock hard. The training bills were clocked, so it was easy for Hallberg to compare his own level with the best in the school.

Hallberg succeeded in training and noticed that he was approaching the top. Confidence improved.

Kun Oppdal’s training partner and Norwegian national team’s technical expert Alexander Steen Olsen got his first points in the World Cup, head coach Vognild had a few hard words for Hallberg.

“He said I’m no worse than Steen Olsen. That I can do the same if I just trust that hard training will pay off.”

Hallberg has done the work as ordered. Last season’s excellent performances in the European Cup brought him third place in the slalom cup and a personal place in the slalom world cup for this season.

The European Cup is the second highest competition tour after the World Cup.

Hallberg took two European Cup victories at the end of the season. The last time a Finnish skier won the European Cup slalom was 25 years ago, when Mika Marila rose to the highest podium in 1999.

In both winning races, Hallberg led after the first round. The bill stayed together thanks to the flow mode.

“I felt like I could do anything. That this will be a very good bill. I was able to pull completely full with great confidence. In a way, I was able to take a risk, but I still felt that everything was under control, even though I put one hundred percent into the bill,” Hallberg describes.

Hallberg also has a youth World Cup silver in the giant slalom from 2023. This season, in addition to the World Cup, the program includes the World Cup in Saalbach, Austria.

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“I’m relatively good when it comes to bad conditions. When you count around eight rounds (counts) in training, the last one is often even the fastest.”

IN LITTLE RUSSIA Hallberg, who learned to count on Kokonniemi hill in Porvoo, is a technical alpine skier. The technique learned in Finland in junior years, where Hallberg used large knee and hip angles, became new in Norway.

According to the coaches, the technique would not work in the World Cup.

“When Eddie came to Oppdal, his outside ski was too far from his body, and he leaned too much inward in the turn. The turns were long and the turns were slow. We focused on a good basic position and that the skis run close to the body,” Vognild opens.

A more straightforward calculation style works well for Hallberg now. On a worn track, you have to know how to carry skis in a groove. Hallberg got used to it when he counted in the FIS competitions at first with big starting numbers.

When Hallberg starts his first World Cup slalom competitions of the season, the starting number is around 40–45. Getting to the second round requires beating better ranked competitors on a worse track. It doesn’t break the promise.

“I’m relatively good when it comes to bad conditions. When there are about eight rounds (counting) in training, the last one is often even the fastest, even though the track is worn.”

FOUR years in a Norwegian alpine high school was a long time in the life of a young athlete, also in terms of spiritual growth.

When talking about Oppdal’s times, a smile rises on Hallberg’s lips.

“When I was visiting Sipoo for Christmas during high school, the Friends asked if it would be nice to go home to Oppdal again. I said it’s not my home. Sipoo is my home. I’m going back to school, not home.”

When school was over, my mind had already changed.

“Oppdal became a new home for me. It wasn’t until I moved out of Oppdal that I realized that no damn, this is more of a home for me.”