Ine Helvik

My two Norwegian Championship 2015 trophies and the trophy for winning the regional tournament RT 1 (out of eight, three played so far)

One of the young players in my club asked me how many trophies I have got. You see, I have a few laying around in the poolhall, always thinking about setting them up properly. And I am, I just need to find the time to do so. Anyway, I looked up Tore Skagesteins overview of all the medals from Norwegian Championships and I saw I was listed with 50 total. When I add the ones not in there yet, I come to 13 Gold, 27 silver and 14 bronze… Which is kind of crazy. 54 medals in the Norwegian Championships alone. I was sure that Vegar Kristiansen and Line Kjørsvik would have way more than me, but no. I also have several European Team medals and a large amount of locally won tournaments… So I have no concluded that I am the most persevering player in Norway (or the most stubborn, or the most stupid depending on how you choose to look at it. I choose the most persevering:))

I have played tournaments for 20 years and I love the game even more now than I did when I was younger. And I take it deadly serious. For me this is a sport and I do my best to behave the part. I think it is sad that not all players think of billiards like this, it weakens us as sport and effects all of us loving it. We will never progress into the Olympics or be taken as serious as chess or golf if we, the players, do not behave like proper athletes. We are destroying the chances we have with players behaving badly, playing under the influence of alcohol, not preparing like an athlete for your next game, not having good enough organizations world wide and not following the rules and guidelines that we have, internationally or locally. With this I mean organizing or participating in unsanctioned events, not understanding the importance of having well functioning federations or even local clubs and also the lack of registering the players as members and show the world how many of us there really are. I am sure Billiards is one of the largest sports worldwide, we just can’t prove it.

So, I will continue to play and participate in events. I am now back in top 10 on the Eurotour ranking I am going to stay there:) My goal this year is to be the highest ranked woman in Norway and the highest ranked Norwegian on the Eurotour ranking. And I will put all my trophies up and tell the story:)

Be proud of our sport, I am!

And sign the petition for Billiards in the Olympics, even though we probably wont make it. Just to show the world that YOU care:)

Thanks for reading!

Ine:)