HSC Post 02/2020

I stopped swimming for a couple of months but with help from my coaches Jan Wingfors and Kerstin KP
Pettersson, as well as the encouragement of Bengt Baron, I made my return, started swimming again and made
changes to my training.
I had the best summer season in my life that year: I ended up in swimming a 1.01.60 short-course 100m
breaststroke, the fastest time in the world that year (mind you, without ‘fly kicks off the walls and without
dipping the head below the surface). But the Moscow 1980 was a scar yet healing and the next Olympics were far
away. I stopped swimming at the age of 25, that making me the oldest in my club team and on the national team.
"There were no short-course Worlds or Europeans, no World Cups, no ISL, no way to have
any economic support of the kind that exists today."
A Lifetime Of Coaching & A New Olympic Dream
When I started coaching, my co-coach Ing-Marie Nilsson and I were blessed with coaching one of the best talents
Sweden ever had, Ann Linder. Two years later, she was my first Olympic swimmer. Four years later, I was asked by
the German Olympic team and the Swedish Olympic team to organize their Olympic camps for the Seoul Olympic
Games, which I did, at different locations in Japan.
But what about that knot in the stomach and the sudden sweats? Well, to finish off this long story with a short
summary:
The lump in the stomach disappeared on July 22nd 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia during the Olympic Games as my
German swimmer Antje Buschschulte won a bronze medal. I hugged her in the warmup pool after the race, crying
a bit with relief – and the knot, the lump in my throat: gone.
It all made sense to me.
I didn’t win that Olympic medal because I was destined to
coach swimmers to win medals. I was representing and
coaching Sweden but had swimmers from Germany and Ireland
on my team too.
The Olympic dream. Fulfilled.
For the Olympic Games in Tokyo I sent in a request for being a
Volunteer at the Games hence having my 4th role in the
Olympic dream. Having lived 5 years in Tokyo knowing the city,
it’s people and still remembering some Japanese I was really
looking forward to this. I feel sad for the athletes and the
coaches but can only give them encouragement and the advice:
do not give up on your Olympic dreams. It can still come
through. Maybe not in the way you expected or hoped for but it
can come true.
"If you do not give up on your dream!"
Quelle: www.swimmingworldmagazine.com
Fotos: Glen Christiansen
02 - 2020 17