Sports' own Isak Sellanraa

Olaf Tufte was a distinctive Norwegian primordial force. He gave uncompromisingness a face that Norway liked surprisingly well. As a performer, Olaf Tufte seemed the closest thing to having eternal life.

He was the first Norwegian to participate in seven Olympics. Olaf Tufte participated in the Olympic Games in four different decades. It is unique.

Olaf Tufte is lifted by his competitors after the Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008. Eight years after his first participation, and thirteen years before his last. As he was in several ways. He was the first Norwegian to win the most prestigious gold that can be won in rowing, namely the single sculls 1000 metres.

Man against man in rowing. As close as a Norwegian can ever get to becoming the world's fastest man. That's never going to happen on an athletics track.

It happened in the sea outside Athens in 2004. NRK's ​​commentator compared Olaf Tufte to the sea god Poseidon when he crossed the finish line. The physically very impressive rower from Tufte gård in Nykirke had written Norwegian sports history. It was only the beginning of an extremely important chapter.

For Tufte was a performer like no other. From a place like no other. The media would eventually make a pilgrimage to the farm near Horten in Vestfold.

There you saw a performer who lived so close to the land, the farm and nature that it became impossible not to think back to Knut Hamsun's Isak Sellanraa from the novel Markens Grøde, regardless of whether Tufte had updated the audience elements of the farm. GÅRDSGUTT: Tufte was not just a hard house in the sports arena. Alongside sports, he worked on his own farm.

Here with his wife Aina in the field. Hamsun on the closeness to nature is a tribute to the farmer, to the new harvest, to the Norwegian primal forces. Isak Sellanraa.

And the farmer and oarsman Olaf Tufte. The novel about Sellanraa earned Hamsun the Nobel Prize for Literature. The heir Olaf Tufte from Horten became Olympic champion in rowing.

From a farm with no sea view at all, which actually symbolizes a kind of will in itself. But there is one big difference between the two mythical Norwegian figures. Isak Sellanraa was a man of few words.

It was definitely not Olaf Tufte. TEARS: Olaf Tufte moved to tears after winning a bronze medal with Kjetil Borch in double sculls during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro 2016. It feels as if the former athlete Olaf Tufte has been part of the Norwegian public for many years. That's not true.

Because it was always the performer. Even when he had created a diverse career for himself outside of sports. Whether it was lectures, team building at home on the farm, motocross or reality.

Olaf Tufte finished in 9th place in the Olympics as late as 2021. That is really completely unheard of in such a large and demanding sport as rowing. When he finally gave up, you got the performance that many thought you had experienced many times already. But Olaf Tufte was not in the Master of Masters until 2023. I don't need to mention how it ended.

MESTER: Tufte was also active after his sports career. Here from when he won the Master of Masters in 2023. Host Aksel Lund Svindal on the left, and finalist Kristin Holte on the right.