None of you who care about Norwegian sport can pretend not to be part of the discussion.

About what is the biggest, the best and the most deserving.

So far sport has set aside a separate official day for openly speculating – and not least for answers. Today happens to be today, Saturday January 7th.

When the Sports Gala returns to the Hamar Olympic Amphitheater, Norwegian sport will also get together physically to celebrate for the first time in three years.

And when it finally did, it was to end what could easily be called “Norwegian sport’s all-time year”.

Difficult choice

That is, 2022 brought us a record number of 16 Olympic gold medals, 4 Paralympic gold medals – all for Jesper Saltvik Pedersen, the world’s top 3 athletes in golf and tennis, and world champion in sports such as weightlifting, speed cycling, sliding and trial . Just to name a few. There are a few more.

It also makes the annual challenge bigger than ever for the jury led by top sporting director Tore Øvrebø.

How much will Hildeborg Juvet Hugdal have to lift in the bench press to compete for Marte Olsbu Røiseland’s three Olympic gold medals?

How big of a margin of victory did Tobias Foss have when he won Norway’s first WC gold in tempo cycling to beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen in contention for Male Athlete of the Year?

How fast will Hallgeir Engebråten have to cover 5,000 miles in the Olympics to beat our first ever test world champion, Sondre Haga in contention to win Breakthrough of the Year?

Here’s how Saturday nights can quickly disappear. In case we don’t receive an answer from the stage in Hamar.

12 right

Until the evening, we can use our specialties to make small guesses in a total of 12 categories. Like that completely on a completely innocent level.

Playing innocent is known only to Magnus Carlsen, the only two-time world champion who was nominated as Name of the Year, who engage with. At least now John Carew has found, well, other things to do.

If we follow the chronology of last year’s gala, the debate will be raging from the early hours of the morning.

The first is through candidacy “Team of the Year”, where our very popular women’s handball has previously carved out a trophy. But where are our world leaders in sand volleyball, Mol and Sørum, who in 2022 became world champions for the first time, can now win for the third time in a row.

Still, neither of them got the trophy this time around.

For our team speed skater, who in Beijing defended Olympic gold since 2018, actually deserves this recognition.

The heaviest ever

But a really big topic of discussion tonight is the next category, namely “Male performer of the year”.

I dare say, without a hint of nervousness, that this is the strongest candidate in the category at the Sports Gala ever.

Casper Ruud against Jakob Ingebrigtsen against Johannes Thingnes Bø against Jørgen Graabak against Johannes Høsflot Klæbo against Tobias Foss against Marius Lindvik against Mats Zuccarello against Kristian Blummenfelt against Aleksander Aamodt Kilde against Birk Ruud.

And then I’m saving our biggest international stars for last:

Erling Braut Haaland.

He who breaks all the records to be broken in the world’s best soccer league, but will not win “Male performer of the year” at the Norwegian Sports Gala.

Maybe Haaland can stick around “Year Name” or win “Athlete Prize”. But he is unlikely to win this one. Mostly because he doesn’t have a concrete title to feature in 2022.

Instead, the new wave will be summer sports stars, represented by Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Casper Ruud, who will most likely battle Johannes Thingnes Bø for victory.

Regardless, historic gold for Tobias Foss or Birk Ruud.

And here we come to the fundamental challenge throughout the Sports Gala: jury composition.

Especially among equal men

There is no doubt that the Sports Gala has a very competent jury in sports. Surnames such as Bjørgen, Aamodt and Haugland represent the best of Norwegian sporting experience and expertise over the last decades.

But the composition of the jury is too uniform and too traditional. It will also affect their decision.

The fact that the person in charge of the Olympic Summit is the head of the jury is a problem in itself. Because regardless of the objectivity he strives for, Tore Øvrebø will surely prefer one of his own wins, if the reverse is reasonably even. And he has a jury who can easily agree with him.

The real capital of the sports gala lies in the degree of prestige. Which has managed to build impressively.

Defending this further is best accomplished through a jury that reflects a little more the image of modern Norwegian sport, in terms of the sporting spectrum, but also age, background and competence.

Today, the road to the prize must be much longer for athletes who practice their sport fully or largely regardless of what happened at the Olympiatoppen in Sognsvann in Oslo.

Stars in the shadows

Excellence in sports, as we have discussed, is subjective.

Objective figures in terms of interest and worldwide distribution would otherwise show Erling Braut Haaland winning all the awards he is eligible for, with increasingly strong competition from Martin Ødegaard.

Casper Ruud and Viktor Hovland will fight for the final podium spot.

This is not the case in Norway.

Ruud and Hovland are in reality stars operating partly under the Norwegian’s shadow.

Partly because their sport is not broadcast on the biggest TV channels, partly because most of their most important tournaments take place in parts of the world where time differences make them unavailable, and perhaps most of all because the wide interest of Norwegians is just to low.

Unlike when we talk about sports on snow and ice.

But our beloved winter sport is an endangered species.

And Idretts-Norge is in the process of adapting to that. This should also be reflected during the nation’s own sporting gala.

This could therefore be the night when Norwegian sport, deserved or not, takes the last symbolic step towards becoming a winter sports nation.

On such a night, Casper Ruud also won, slightly ahead of Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the award for Male Athlete of the Year.

Ruud is a person who, above all, is an immortal second. In a year when everyone wins.

But who should win because, more than anyone else, he has pushed a barrier like no one else has come close to in Norwegian sport.

For the women, the actual final field is much smaller. This was in practice between Marte Olsbu Røiseland and Therese Johaug.

With Johaug likely to win.

Although Røiseland’s overall results were stronger.

But Johaug’s position in Norwegian sport is special in many ways.

And the fact that he also used 2022 to end his career gives the award an all too seductive touch of sentimentality, as a kind of honorary award for long and good service.

Finally

However, the real honor comes in the end.

Usually given by the sports president, it may also be the last chance to see Berit Kjøll do this.

The second prize giver is ideally a nobleman, but politicians of some rank are also approved, especially if it is the Prime Minister.

If it is Jonas Gahr Støre who is going to present the award this time, at least we know that he is unlikely to come by train.

I’m also pretty sure I know who’s going to win the honorary award this time around. There are circumstances that allow everyone to guess what I think the candidate will be on Saturday.

Which in this case means much-deserved recognition.

I didn’t say anything more. Fear of being wrong – here too. Something a scruffy government employee should avoid on the eve of the games itself.