Johanne Killi announces retirement from Norwegian national team

Besides school and studies, what’s next for you?

One thing I’m doing is I’m going to become a head coach for a girls’ program in Norway. It’s a development project for girls and I’m really happy to be a part of it. I’ll be giving advice from my own career and trying to get more girls into the sport and help them early in their careers.

The program starts with a big camp and a couple of coaches who pick out 13 girls, aged like 13-18. From there they have different camps through the year, some trampoline camps, skiing camps. I don’t know a lot about it yet, but I’m going to be in the planning process and showing up to the camps to be a role model, when I have time.

The Austrian team for example doesn’t have any new girls coming up right now, and I don’t want that to happen in Norway. I don’t feel like this sport is supposed to be more for boys than girls. It’s the same and I want to make sure it stays like that.

If you could go back in time and speak to 15-year-old Johanne when you was just starting your international competition career, what advice would you give yourself?

If I could go back in time and speak to the young JK? Ooh…maybe it would be, don’t give a sh*t what people think about you and just trust yourself.

And also, the way you treat yourself is really important. Be kind to yourself, and don’t be afraid to work with a mental coach. And ski as much as you can, but find the right people to ski with who push you in the right way.

And ski with the boys. It seems like the girls don’t ski with the boys as much now, but that was never a problem when I grew up. The boys thought it was cool when I was skiing with them, but now I feel like it’s more split. When I’m coaching I’m going to tell the girls they should ski with the boys and it will help them get really good.