The third nominee for the Pro Team Director of the Year award is Gustaf Korsgren, Team Ramudden. This is the second time he is nominated in this category.
Together with his wife Lina Korsgren, Gustaf has created a well balanced Pro Team with experienced Lina Korsgren showing the way for young talents. The team’s young athletes Ida Dahl, Jenny Larsson, Max Novak and Johannes Eklöf were more or less unknown athletes when the season started but they broke through and became famous names in Visma Ski Classics. Lina continued to be the biggest name in the team with her Vasaloppet and Kaiser Maximilian Lauf victories achieving one of her best seasons so far. All these great performances helped the team in reaching the 4th position in the Pro Team competition in Season X.
Gustaf has been able to devise a well-functioning squad where everyone feels safe and confident, and he devotes himself 100% to the team taking care of their skis and all the organizational duties around them. Showing the courage to invest in young skiers, and developing a Pro Team with focus on both gender. He says that his philosophy is simple as he wants to give his very best so that his athletes can perform at their highest possible level. He has many fond memories of the races in this season, but the greatest one comes from Tjejvasan, outside of the Pro Tour, where Lina, Jenny and Ida worked together in a perfect manner and finished in top 5.
“I feel grateful to be nominated again. It means that I’m probably doing a great job with my team. For me, it’s important that every athlete can focus on the good things after every race, no matter what happens. It’s acceptable to fail. For us, it’s as natural as succeeding. That’s an important thing for our unexperienced, young athletes so that they can relieve unnecessary tension. This year we where underdogs, that was easy in some ways. Next year, we must face the expectations that come along with success. We could still be doing well but not with the same results. If that happens, we must be prepared to keep working on the positive side of things, and keep up the good team spirit,” says Gustaf Korsgren, one of the six Pro Team Director of the Year nominees´ in Season X.
