While Norway’s national team was busy celebrating their 3-2 victory over Senegal on Monday with synchronized rowing gestures, one fan in the crowd had other plans: complete, demonstrative stillness. Emil Anners Lappen became an instant minor celebrity when TV cameras caught him sitting motionless amid a sea of supporters mimicking Viking longboat oarsmen, and he’s got zero regrets about his one-man protest.
The rowing celebration has exploded in popularity among Norwegian fans at the World Cup, becoming so ingrained in the culture that captain Martin Odegaard led the entire team and coaching staff in a synchronized effort after the final whistle. But Lappen isn’t buying in. I think that rowing was a stupid idea from the start. I have never been happy about it, he told newspaper Verdens Gang, adding that he sits demonstratively still when people start rowing as a matter of principle.
His grievances run deeper than just finding the gesture uncool. Lappen argues the rowing is too derivative of Iceland’s thunderclap tradition from previous tournaments, and he takes historical issue with the whole concept. Viking longboats were powered more often than not by sails, not oars, he pointed out. It’s the kind of stickler argument that only a true contrarian can make while surrounded by thousands of screaming fans doing the exact opposite.
Here’s where Lappen’s commitment really shines: he’s already thinking ahead. Once you have started, you have to see it through to the end, he explained, meaning he’s locked himself in for the long haul. If he started rowing now after all this visibility, he’d lose all credibility. Norway’s next match is against France in Boston on Friday, so the world will be watching to see if Emil Anners Lappen stays true to his anti-rowing principles or breaks under the pressure of a nation united in Viking choreography.
