Not only because she is one of the world’s top athletes, among the elite cross country skiers. And not just because she is the most dedicated and focused person I have met. But because she harbors a human quality I admire even more.
Kristin Størmer Steira has been a consistent top performer for years. She is a 24/7 athlete working out twice a day – sun rain or hail – she gets out and exercises more per day than I do in a year. Although that may change with her persistent nudging and insistence that I join her in the soon-to-be snow covered tracks behind my house. Her fervent desire to achieve her greatest was clear from the first time I met her.
While focus and dedication is the bread and butter of top athletes, single-mindedness, egoism and even dismissiveness may follow suit. Not so with Kristin. Her empathy is rather surprising given her determination for gold. She is warm-hearted and cares about much more than skiing and sports. Her balanced views recently came through with a post on her new blog (thanks Brendan) where she counters upon the view of another skier’s mental coach. He claimed that athletes who wanted to reach the top should drop education. Kristin managed to get her in marketing, positioning her well in the future when her skiing career is over. In the meantime, you can follow her on her blog and her new Facebook official fan page (thanks Niklas).
Kristin shows an amazing balance of focus and dedication and empathy and spirit of play. And she gets stuff really quickly. A smart one she is.
Geir Isene - uncut 
The photo alone speaks a thousand words. 🙂
In a previous post I’ve told everybody about her, and I strongly assert that my opinion is 100% neutral, cause I’m both non-skier and foreigner, I’m not Norwergian.
Kristin Stormer Steira is the opposite of the plastic type of athlete like David Beckham (extremely overestimated!) or stupid like Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. She is that kind of woman who doesn’t need to socialize to be famous. Her atittude alone is more than enough to take a closer look about her. She’s pretty without being gorgeous, she’s impressive without being a lioness, she’s a great champion without having million dollar advertising contracts. Maybe she’s not the best skier of all time. But she definitely has her own place in the book of honour of this tough and fair discipline, named langrenn (cross country skiing)
RESPECT KRISTIN STORMER STEIRA! FROM ALL MY HEART!
Well said once again.You added additional data to Kristin’s profile. With really nice “turns of phrase”, as the expression goes. 🙂
Marildi, are you teacher or something related with? I write exactly how I think, it simply flows…I’m not a natural English speaker, of course, but I always tried to have a good command in this language. Otherwise…my mother will hang me 🙂
I’m just fascinated with the written word, and with language in general. And even more in general, with communication. But especially with words. This interest increased as a result of being involved in blog discussions right here on Geir’s.
You may not be a natural English speaker but the fact that your words “simply flow” tells me you’re a natural writer. With an artistic bent, I might add. And your command of English is coming along nicely, I would say. All it takes is practice, IMHO.
I’ll tell you something you may or may not have noticed. When I first started following Geir’s blog a couple of years ago, he made a fair number of mistakes in English. Now his command of it is quite impressive. I watched it improve the more he wrote. And the artistic aspect just gets better too.
It’s probably added incentive to keep you on your toes that your mother will hang you if you don’t. (You’re funny too. :))
Nice post Geir!
I remember the day when I first met Kristin. I met her as a “person” and not the ski-superstar Kristin. I had to admit that I had never seen her skiing, real-life or TV. Then as I got to know her better, I have realized that Kristin the person is the real superstar. One of the qualities I like most in Kristin is her ability to listen. She really listens. Sounds so simple.
That’s also because of her discipline, Brendan. She is not surrounded by a big crowd in a stadium, where you simply cannot hear yourself when you cry to your nearest teammate. Langrenn skiers are running deep in the nature, crossing silent forests or open valleys, having no other enemy except the “Swatch” timer. Especially during the trainings, a cross-country skier is usually alone with the forest, deepened in his (or her) own thoughts. Maybe (I said maybe!) Kristin is a good listener because her behaviour was modelled a little bit by the environment in which she perform. I believe her ear was trained to listen first of all the silence.
I hope she reads your comment good comment Dragos and responds. Her view would be interesting to read.
Illuminating! Why should it be so memorable when a person listens? . . But it sure is.
And check out this one: http://www.kristinsteira.no/wordpress/?p=247
Is she with Vibeke here?
Yes.