Tag: drunk driving

Northug Sentence Jeopardizes Falun Goals; Norway Wonders Whether a Felon Should Represent Country

Petter Northug congratulating the French relay team at the Olympics in February. Northug returned to Norway without a single medal – and that was only the beginning of his troubles.

After a car crash in May which left a friend injured, Norwegian ski star Petter Northug has been sentenced to 50 days in jail, among other punishments.

The nine-time World Champion from Strindheim was driving his Audi – a car provided by the company as sponsorship – with elevated blood alcohol levels. Cruising at 83 kilometers per hour in an area where the speed limit was 40, he crashed and totaled the car. Immediately after the crash, Northug fled the scene, leaving his friend in the car.

Today he was convicted of five breaches of traffic law. Drunk driving is an extremely serious offense in Norway.

More importantly, perhaps, he was also convicted of lying to the police. In the first several interviews with law enforcement, Northug claimed that his friend had been driving. Later in the day, he admitted that he had in fact been the driver.

Northug claims that he was still intoxicated the first two times he spoke to police, and suggested that they could have waited until he was sober to interview him, in which case he may never have lied.

Besides the jail time, Northug faces a fine of 185,000 Norwegian kroner, or almost $29,000 U.S.

“I’ve been prepared for this day and known in advance that it was going to be a tough day,” Northug told Norwegian broadcaster NRK, according to a translation. “I’m prepared for any punishment I get.”

It is possible that the sentence may be reduced because he already spent two days in a cell immediately after the accident. Regardless, it is a smaller punishment than was originally proposed by the police, who suggested 60 days in jail, and a heftier fine. Northug’s license was also suspended “permanently”, but he can likely apply to have it reinstated in five years time.

“Not a bad day for Northug, this is – it could have been far worse,” Aftenposten commentator Inge Hansson wrote in an editorial.

However, the decision is still likely to have repercussions for Northug’s ski season. The star underperformed at the Sochi Olympics in February, with a best individual performance of 10^th place in the sprint, and contributing to two fourth-place finishes in the relay and team sprint.

As such, he was focusing on the upcoming World Championships in Falun, Sweden, in late February.

“I think about Falun every day,” he told NRK earlier this summer.

The sentence presents two clear obstacles towards this goal. First of all, spending more than six weeks in jail is not ideal endurance training, and given Northug’s occasional struggles with fitness in the past few seasons, this could make it difficult for him to be selected to the very talented Norwegian team.

There may be a possibility for him to serve all or part of his sentence at home, but Northug told the media that he is at the moment not investigating this lead. He is ashamed of his behavior and wants to serve the correct punishment, he claims.

It is also currently unclear whether he must serve the sentence immediately or whether he may defer it until the spring.

Northug told NRK that he does not know how the sentence will affect his chances for World Championships, and that if he misses them, he misses them.

However, many observers have pointed out that Swiss star Dario Cologna – one of Northug’s main competitors – missed almost the entirety of last season with an injury, before competing in one World Cup weekend and then winning gold in Sochi. If Cologna can medal with less than ideal training, it is argued, than Northug should have no problems reaching Falun.

The second conflict comes in whether Norway wishes to be represented by a convicted felon in international competition. In order to compete at World Championships and also any World Cup races, Northug must have a contract with the Norwegian Ski Federation. At the moment, he does not have one.

But the federation said that although Northug’s behavior did not represent the ideals of skiing, it did not violate any of their codes of conduct explicitly since it did not occur in relation to either training or competition. They have offered Northug the chance to sign a contract, and the hang-ups appear to be more related to other aspects of his relationship with the team.

“It is a comprehensive agreement and there are still some unclear points,” Erik Røste, president of the federation, told NRK. “We are in a process in the administration… I note that Peter is in good shape and has done a good training work. There is no question that I hope to see him back in the ski tracks.”

The International Ski Federation says that it has no jurisdiction to ban him from competition.

“Those who have a license will start,” FIS cross-country committee head Vegard Ulvang told Norwegian newspaper VG. “But my task is to set up competitions and schedules, do not consider how kind or unkind people are. So far Northug has an initial license and it is up to the NSF to give him a new start license.”

Northug’s main sponsors, the Coop grocery chain, Red Bull, and Real Estate 1 of Mid-Norway, have stated that the ruling does not change their relationship with the ski star.

October 9, 2014
Consequences of Northug’s Mess Up Can Be a Lesson (Editorial)

An exhausted Petter Northug after finishing fourth in the 15 k classic mass start at 2013 World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)

Editor’s Note: The following is an editorial based on the recent news regarding Petter Northug’s pending DUI. Facts are juxtaposed with opinion, which belong to the author and do not reflect FasterSkier as a whole.

Petter Northug screwed up. And now he feels bad, or so he says.

While the news that the 28-year-old Olympic champion and Norwegian bad-a** athlete celebrity drove drunk and crashed his Audi A7 on Sunday morning didn’t come as a complete surprise, it was still a disappointment — to Norwegians, fans around the world and Northug himself.

Petter Northug sealing a relay victory for Norway at the 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

After leaving his friend and running to his house just a few hundred meters away from the roundabout crash, which totaled his leased car, Northug answered the door when police knocked just minutes later.

He could’ve hid inside, sobered up, and been charged with leaving the scene of an accident (and ditching his friend). It wouldn’t have been moral, but it might have been smarter.

What Northug did — taking his car out for a joy ride early Sunday morning (around 5 a.m.) while heavily intoxicated — was a bad idea. Ultimately coming clean when police confronted and questioned him, then having his manager blitz together a press release about his mistakes later that day, was the right decision.

At least he’s on the right track … now.

A lot of people don’t like Northug. The guy makes way too much money for being somewhat of a dingleberry. He swears, he doesn’t play nice, and he’s arrogant. But that’s his M.O. in the sometimes dry sport of cross-country skiing. Every exciting drama needs its villain.

Northug never asked to be a role model. His raw talent threw him into the spotlight. A two-time gold medalist at the 2010 Olympics (in the team sprint and 50 k classic), he went on to win the Holmenkollen 50 k skate, making him the first skier to win the 50 k at Holmenkollen, World Championships and the Olympics since Sweden’s Gunde Svan did so in 1988. And Northug was a show stopper as a junior, racking up six golds at Junior World Championships.

Today, Northug is worth several million dollars: $5.8 million according to sportrichlist.com. Some $1.5 to $3.6 million of that (10-20 million kroner) comes from his main sponsor, Coop, an 800-store grocery chain. Coop is in the business of selling juice and bread with Northug’s name on them, according to the Wall Street Journal. Maybe the company should sell beer with his face on its labels, too.

While the execs at Coop have a difficult task ahead of them in deciding whether to stand by Northug or drop him with the help of a contractual exit clause, Northug’s got his own issues to deal with.

He could face jail time, although the prospects of that are unlikely. According to the International Center for Alcohol Policies, the legal limit for blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) in Norway is below 0.02 percent (compared to 0.08-percent in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, for instance). Getting pulled over with a BAC of 0.02 percent in Norway would warrant a fine and potentially a suspended license in the case of aggravated circumstances.

At 0.05 percent, you’ll get a suspended sentence, your license suspended and a fine; 0.10 percent, a fine, suspended or mandatory sentence, and a suspended license; and 0.15 percent, a mandatory sentence, suspended license and a fine.

Asbjørn Strandbakken, the dean of the University of Bergen’s Faculty of Law, told NRK that the circumstances of Northug’s crash will likely be considered aggravated and the maximum penalty would likely be a year in prison. Driving with a BAC above 0.10-percent usually warrants 21 days to three months in prison, he said.

While Northug’s BAC won’t be released for up to two weeks, pending a police investigation, he described his level of intoxication as high. He had been out with friends the night before partying in Trondheim and returned home early the next day.

“I was so drunk that I was not able to make the right choices,” he told VG, according to a translation. “That was the reason I didn’t leave the car keys alone.

“Around five o’clock people began to go home and some went to bed,” he explained. “It was kind of just me and the passenger in the car who were awake when we decided to go out in the car and drive it. We had no motive for why we were out.”

The rest was history. He went straight through a roundabout, exceeded the speed limit of 40 kilometers per hour (around 25 mph), and off the road into a barrier. He and his friend, the passenger, were OK (police later found the friend beside the car with minor injuries), but the car was totaled. No one else was harmed.

“When we started driving, it was not many hundred meters before we started going to fast and we ran into a roundabout and into the crash barrier,” Northug recalled. “It slammed. Probably both in shock, we asked each other, are you OK? … There was no damage that we saw and the next thing that happens is that I am acting in panic and want to get away.”

Once the police came to his house, Northug went with them to the emergency room for routine checks. Then, he went to the police station for questioning. The interrogation ended around 3 p.m. Sunday, about 10 hours after the accident.

If Northug is fined for a BAC above 0.05 percent, it will cost him at least 1 1/2 months of his base salary — which could add up to a hefty amount. Jail time ranges from three weeks to three months with a maximum of a year. Suspensions can vary from less than a year to two years, according to Norway’s traffic laws. None of this takes into account lawyer fees.

And while Northug might not go to jail (although he was prepared to: “I’m ready to take punishment for this,” he told VG. “I’ll take my punishment, there is no doubt about that.”), he could be put under house arrest or confined to traveling to and from training sessions.

And that might not be a bad thing. Northug has reiterated that he’s sorry, that his judgment was completely flawed, and that he’s going sober from here on out to commit himself to training.

This is a guy who has claimed to be dry (alcohol-free) throughout the racing season. While it’s believable — even for a poker aficionado — maybe drinking a little throughout the winter and not so much at once at the end of the season wouldn’t be a bad idea.

I’m not promoting drinking, and if anything, it’s probably best to stay off the stuff altogether. But the idea of going buck wild for a month or two before training resumes might not be the best one. Not for Northug and not for anyone, especially those who don’t think about the consequences of getting behind the wheel after a night out.

May 6, 2014
Northug Admits to Driving Under the Influence, Fleeing Car Crash (Updated)

Petter Northug at the 2013/2014 Tour de Ski in Val di Fiemme, Italy. (Photo: Fischer / Nordic Focus.)

Petter Northug, 28, totaled his Audi early Sunday morning while under the influence of alcohol, driving it into a barrier just a few hundred meters from his house in Trondheim, Norway. He was with another man, who was born in 1991, and police were initially unsure who was driving, but both men were charged at the scene.

In an exclusive interview with VG, Northug explained how he ran from the scene to his house around 5:30 a.m. Before doing, he asked his friend, whom Northug described as the passenger, if he was OK, and both confirmed they were unharmed.

“There was no damage from what we could see, and the next thing that happens is that I am acting in panic and want to get away from the place and space,” Northug said, according to a translation.

Minutes after he arrived home, police showed up at his door.

According to a statement Northug’s manager, Are Soerum Langås, sent to Norwegian media on Sunday night, Northug deeply regrets driving under the influence, but was grateful his poor judgement didn’t cause more harm, according to the Times Columnist.

“I am very unhappy now and very disappointed with what I’ve done,” he said, according to a translated article on VG.no. “I have openly told police about what happened and I am prepared to take the punishment for my actions.”

Police spokesman Baard Jacobsen told TV2 that the car was likely exceeding the speed limit of 40 kilometers per hour (roughly 24 miles per hour) when it drove off the road on a curve. His friend, whom police declined to identify, was found beside the car with minor injuries.

Northug’s Audi A7 was leased to Team Northug. The police investigation, in which formal charges will be filed, could take up to two weeks and depends on the findings of Northug’s blood alcohol content, according to NRK.

Witnesses told VG they saw Northug at three clubs before midnight on Saturday and into Sunday morning. NRK was on site when the car was towed Monday afternoon from roadside assistance to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

The press release stated that Northug had complied with police questioning and gone to an “undisclosed location” to think about his predicament.

“I know that I am a role model for many young people and I fully acknowledge that I have not acted like a role model should,” he said, according to the Times. “I want to apologize to all of those and to all of those who are now disappointed with me.”

His major sponsor, Coop Norway released its own press release acknowledging the situation.

“We think this is a very sad and serious matter and is disappointed that Peter has committed a serious offense,” CEO Svein Fanebust wrote. “He has behaved in a manner not in accordance with the ideals he will promote as part of the cooperation agreement between Coop Norway and him.”

He added that Coop will give Northug some time to think before talking about the consequences. His contract does include an exit clause.

“Whether or not we will choose to use this ability is far too early to say,” Fanebust stated. “We need to discuss the matter thoroughly.”

Norwegian National Team director Vidar Løfshus, who met with his head coach Åge Skinstad on Sunday about Northug, told NRK the whole situation was very sad.

“First and foremost, Petter, but also for the whole Ski Norway,” he said, according to a translation. “We will be in touch with Peter and his manager Are Langås.”

Northug trains independently of the national team, but represents them at international competitions.

The Norwegian Ski Federation released a statement including the following on Sunday night:

“Norwegian Ski Federation has been informed about the accident in Trondheim and Petter Northug has admitted to having driven a car after consuming alcohol. The NSF is very sorry about what happened. This is a serious issue for Petter Northug and for the entire Norway ski community. The Ski Federation will continue to have dialogue with Northug and his team about this serious incident.”

May 5, 2014