Two bodies inside the same federation looked at the same complaint and reached opposite conclusions. One of them called the conduct of a Norwegian national-team sprinter’s long-time coach “clearly offensive.” The other closed the case without consequences.

The sprinter is Kristine Stavås Skistad, the silver medallist in the women’s sprint at the 2025 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim. On Thursday she sat down with Norwegian broadcaster TV 2 to explain for the first time why she filed her complaint against Lage Sofienlund, the coach she worked with for years at Konnerud IL.

“It was about control, power, finances, physical closeness, sexual harassment and a blurring of roles that meant I eventually did not know what I was really allowed to say no to,” she told TV 2.

The Trondheim hotel-room incident

The most concrete allegation Skistad has put on the record happened at the Trondheim World Championships, where she won her silver. According to the account she gave TV 2, Sofienlund drove her to his hotel room before a race, carried out mental-preparation work while stroking her as she lay on the bed, and then offered her a massage after she had already said no.

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The broader pattern she describes includes long hugs, unwanted touching and buttock-slapping stretching back years.

‘Clearly offensive,’ then dismissed

Skistad took her complaint to Konnerud IL and, on 16 June, to the Norwegian Ski Federation. The federation’s ethics committee reviewed the case and concluded that “the ethics committee finds the degree of physical closeness between coach and athlete clearly offensive,” noting that multiple witnesses had described the contact as inappropriate and unusual.

The federation’s Law and Prosecution Committee then took the same material and closed the case in September without disciplinary consequences. Konnerud IL issued Sofienlund a written warning but kept him in his role at the club. Skistad has since transferred to neighbouring club Mjøndalen IF.

Why she is speaking now

Skistad said she had intended to let the process run its course quietly, but changed her mind over a request from Sofienlund’s side.

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“It came to a head when Lage wanted me to sign a confidentiality agreement before a public statement and a possible apology from him would be on the table,” she told TV 2.

She was 14 when she began training under Sofienlund at Konnerud IL, and the arrangement grew over time to cover not only coaching but financial and personal matters as well, something the ethics committee’s review flagged as a problematic blending of roles.

Sofienlund: ‘The case is closed for me’

Sofienlund has rejected the characterisation of his conduct and told TV 2 he regards the matter as settled.

“This case has been thoroughly handled in two instances at the ski federation, the ethics committee and the Law and Prosecution Committee, and by my employer Konnerud IL,” he said. “The case is therefore closed for my part, and I have put it behind me.”

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The Norwegian Ski Federation has not announced any review of the gap between its two committees’ findings, and Sofienlund remains in his coaching role at Konnerud IL.

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