Tero Seppälä was shocked by the death of Sivert Guttorm Bakke

Norwegian biathlete Sivert Guttorm Bakken27, was found dead in his hotel room in Italy on Tuesday.

Finnish biathlon star Tero Seppälä knew the Norwegian skier from many years ago.

Seppälä had gone for a run on Tuesday evening. After returning from there, he looked at his phone, which had received a lot of messages.

“You can’t believe this to be true,” Seppälä said, his mind on the ground.

When Seppälä had read the same sad news from different sources, the reality of the matter hit home.

“Strength to his loved ones.”

Seppälä, 29, says that Bakke was a well-liked person in the close-knit biathlon team.

“He was always a happy and nice guy. I knew him years ago. We always said hello when we saw each other.”

A competitor the sudden passing seems unreal to Seppälä, because the last time the two competed was just a few days ago in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand in France. Seppälä was 18th and Bakken 20th in the 15 km joint start race.

Seppälä praises Bakken as a tough competitor. The Norwegian had broken years in between due to illness. He suffered a heart attack in 2022, then underwent heart surgery and had to take a break from training.

Bakken returned to the World Cup this season and finished fourth in Östersund.

“He did a hard job when he came back to the top after being sick and achieved good results in the early winter,” Seppälä praised.

From shared race memories, Seppälä remembers a race in Anterselva, Italy, almost four years ago. Seppälä was sixth, Bakken fifth. The rankings were the best of their careers up to that point for both.

“At that time, we were together in bloom. It reminds me of sports.”