Eduard “Eddie” Hallberg / GEPA photos
An unique with Eduard Hallberg after his rise into the World Cup slalom elite.
Initially of the 2025/26 World Cup season, Eduard Hallberg was considered as one among slalom’s promising younger skills.
Six months later, the 22-year-old Finn had climbed to eighth within the last World Cup slalom standings, established himself among the many sport’s elite and moved nearer to changing into Finland’s first males’s World Cup race winner since Kalle Palander in 2007.
Few skiers made a much bigger influence on the boys’s slalom season.
The skier from Sipoo, south of Helsinki opened the winter with the primary World Cup podium of his profession on dwelling snow in Finland, changing into the primary Finnish man ever to face on a World Cup podium in Levi. Earlier than Hallberg, solely the 2004 girls’s Levi winner Tanja Poutiainen had achieved the feat.
The outcomes saved coming.
Hallberg led the primary run of the celebrated Madonna di Campiglio night time slalom in January earlier than ending second behind 2022 Olympic champion Clément Noël. He later closed the season with one other podium on the World Cup Finals in Hafjell, Norway.
Three podiums, six finishes of eighth or higher, one other nationwide title, a second World Cup Rising Star award and an Olympic Staff Mixed top-10 end alongside compatriot Elian Lehto reworked Hallberg from promising prospect right into a reliable contender on the World Cup circuit.
Now, after a career-defining season, Hallberg is taking a quick pause from snowboarding earlier than returning to snow within the Southern Hemisphere in August to start preparation for one more winter carrying even better expectations.
What fueled the rise?
When requested what went properly this season, Hallberg stated, “I feel there was enchancment in each space and numerous bodily work in the course of the summer season, numerous psychological work in the course of the summer season, simply getting ready myself for the season, for good outcomes, staying cool, calm and picked up. I can keep calm and go together with my very own plan.”
Calm off the hill, aggressive on it
Hallberg is among the calmest athletes on the World Cup tour. Contained in the race course, nevertheless, he’s among the many most aggressive.
Discussing that steadiness, Hallberg stated, “I at all times attempt to be as energetic as attainable however hold relaxed and keep calm in my head to take care of a transparent imaginative and prescient. I’m at all times looking for a steadiness between sufficient area and stability. I feel that is the important thing for slalom when it’s so tight.”
That aggressive fashion comes with threat.
“If you happen to overdo it, there’s a excessive threat of errors and snowboarding out, and should you’re one gear off, you then’re seconds behind instantly. It’s all very small margins,” Hallberg stated.
A formative transfer to Norway
Throughout his teenage years, Hallberg attended college in Oppdal, Norway, coaching inside the similar system that helped develop Norwegian World Cup slalom star Timon Haugan.
Wanting again on his resolution to maneuver to Norway at 14, Hallberg believes it modified the path of his profession.
“It was a very essential step and an essential alternative for me to maneuver there. I realized a lot. The tradition, the folks, the workforce and the team-building spirit — they have been working neatly. The coaches are so passionate and the cooperation with the college, the ski workforce and the whole lot labored properly,” he stated.
Earlier than leaving Finland to pursue snowboarding extra critically, Hallberg remembers his father questioning whether or not the dream might actually turn out to be a profession.
“I stated, ‘I’m going to make a profession by snowboarding,’ and he would say, ‘Take it straightforward, Eddie, simply go to highschool and do your homework.’”
Chasing the highest of the game
Hallberg now believes he belongs among the many world’s prime slalom skiers, however he additionally understands how tough the ultimate step may be.
“I really feel way more assured in my very own stage, so I don’t must overdo something,” Hallberg stated. “However after all, if you wish to take the following step and win races, you should ski actually quick.”
Hallberg has been considered as a serious expertise for a number of years. He gained big slalom silver on the 2023 World Junior Championships in St. Anton, and his technical capability has lengthy been acknowledged inside the European circuit.
Now, after his career-defining season, the Finn is more and more considered as one of many strongest younger slalom skiers within the sport.
New management for the Fearless Finns
The Finnish males’s workforce enters the following Olympic cycle below returning head coach Janez Slivnik, who beforehand led the Finnish males’s program from 2006-14.
Ski Racing Media spoke with Slivnik earlier than his first camp again with the workforce in Levi in April.
“I used to be very impressed with Eddie’s season and it’s an enormous motivation to work with an athlete with this capability, understanding that his time is de facto coming,” Slivnik stated.
Throughout Slivnik’s earlier stint with Finland, Kalle Palander secured the nation’s most up-to-date males’s World Cup victory.
For the previous two years, Slivnik served as head coach of the Austrian males’s Europa Cup velocity workforce earlier than returning to Finland’s rebuilt technical program.
“Three podiums already let you know he’s someplace near the very prime of the game,” Slivnik stated. “Outcomes are outcomes; they’ve to return by themselves. We will’t actually suppose that Eddie has to win now. He desires to win, however the victories have to return from good snowboarding, onerous work and taking the chance.”
Slivnik added that his first eight-day camp with Hallberg in Levi in April went “to plan.”
A rising Finnish technology
All through the World Cup season and spring camp, Hallberg skilled alongside fellow Finn Jesper Pohjolainen, who scored his first World Cup factors in Alta Badia in December.
Pohjolainen’s rise from the Europa Cup stage into the World Cup has added additional momentum to Finland’s subsequent technology.
On the ladies’s aspect, Erika Pykäläinen scored World Cup big slalom factors and Rosa Pohjolainen — Jesper’s sister — additionally earned World Cup slalom factors in the course of the previous season.
How shut is the primary World Cup win?
When requested about the opportunity of a maiden World Cup victory, Hallberg didn’t sound removed from believing it might occur quickly.
“I really feel prefer it’s fairly shut,” Hallberg stated. “It’s the very last thing. I simply must put two runs collectively with none errors and discover the precise steadiness between sufficient throttle and management. I haven’t actually discovered that 100% but, however I really feel prefer it’s coming.”
He got here closest in Madonna di Campiglio in January when he led the primary run for the primary time in his World Cup profession earlier than finally ending second behind Noël.
Finnish historical past inside attain
With a career-defining season behind him, Hallberg now has an opportunity to chase extra Finnish historical past.
Subsequent winter, the skier from Levi will try to turn out to be the primary Finn to win a World Cup race since Poutiainen in January 2011 and the primary Finnish man to win since Palander in December 2007.
Hallberg was solely 4 years outdated on the time.
“I at the least heard tales of once I was cheering for Poutiainen,” Hallberg stated. “I used to be very younger, so I don’t have a transparent reminiscence of watching them. After that it was Marcus Sandell and Samu Torsti and people guys that I additionally bought impressed by, however then it didn’t must be solely Finnish racers that we might take inspiration from.”
Constructing consistency
Following his second full World Cup season, Hallberg believes consistency turned the largest space of enchancment.
“It’s good to see the development in my consistency,” he stated. “Final 12 months I actually struggled with visualization and seeing myself end the race, however this season I really feel way more assured and a lot better mentally. I can actually belief myself in races and the steadiness and consistency is possibly the primary factor that I needed to enhance this previous season.”
Decided to reach two disciplines
Hallberg’s ambitions prolong past slalom.
Though he has not but scored World Cup big slalom factors, he certified for his first second run within the self-discipline at Schladming in January.
“The objective is to get the GS up there and to have two robust disciplines. That’s one thing I’ve at all times needed,” Hallberg stated.
“I’ve by no means actually needed to be solely a slalom specialist or a GS specialist. I wish to race each slalom and GS on a excessive stage. I’m attempting to not rush something, however step-by-step get the GS up there.”
Hallberg’s first three World Cup begins really got here in big slalom.
He gained World Junior Championship big slalom silver in 2023, captured a Europa Cup big slalom victory in Zinal, Switzerland, this previous December and later added one other Europa Cup podium.
Hallberg additionally completed inside the highest 10 within the Europa Cup big slalom standings, reinforcing the idea that he can finally compete on the highest stage in each technical disciplines.
Remaining ideas
Finland clearly has a skier able to main the nation’s subsequent technology in technical snowboarding.
Expectations round Hallberg at the moment are considerably increased after his career-defining season, however the 22-year-old seems snug with that actuality.
The following problem is now not proving he belongs on the World Cup tour.
Now, it’s proving he can win on it.
