Nordic SkiingCross Country Skiing - Sweden
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In a long interview to the site aftonbladet.se, Johan Olsson has made official what was in & rsquo; air for some time: his career in top-level competitions & egrave; finished.
Monday 4 May 2015 8 minutes reading time
Here is an excerpt of the statements of the world champion of 15 Km: & ldquo; I spent more & ugrave; time skiing for the national team and at school. These 15 years have had an incredible impact on me, shaped l & rsquo; man I am today: try to imagine all those days and all those hours spent on training. But & egrave; worth it, I would do it all again. If my children were to ask me to do the same path, I would not have reason to dissuade & rdquo;
Olsson & egrave; also focused on the past: & ldquo; I will miss all the people that helped develop myself as a long-distance runner and as a man, especially Marcus (Hellner, ed) and Anders (S & ouml; dergren, ed); we spent so & Igrave; so much time together that we feel an incredible mutual respect. Porter & ograve; with me forever the memories of the first year: the cold Niklas Jonsson, was 11 years older & ugrave; to me, but he was very auitato. During my first race of the World Cup I had a pair of sunglasses I wore commonly, he & egrave; approached me and it has given a new pair. & Egrave; It was a simple gesture that for & ograve; She made me realize how much more & ugrave; experts should help young & rdquo ;.
The turning point in his career & egrave; reached the threshold of 25 years: & ldquo; I did not know which side to take, it seemed late to explode at high levels. Then during a meeting with my mental coach Stig Wiklund I realized I did not feel good in terms of performance. Goals are something abstract, we must work to achieve them, so I changed the type of training, experiencing something new. I was much more & ugrave; this in what I was doing and I removed it & ldquo; l & rsquo; performance anxiety & rdquo ;. Suddenly I was able to relax in a different way, even outside competitions & rdquo ;.
His career, however, threatened to stop soon: & ldquo; When I was 27 I thought I had more & ugrave; nothing to say in this sport, so much so that I considered the & rsquo; hypothesis switching to biathlon. I had also talked to Wolfgang Pichler (coach of Sweden, ed), but in the end if n & rsquo; & egrave; did nothing & rdquo ;.
Over the past five years Olsson got his best results: & ldquo; In 2011 I suffered an injury that forced me to completely change preparation. I focused on strength training hard on the treadmill; I did not think would work, however in the first race of the World Cup won by 32 seconds ahead of Petter Northug & rdquo ;.
There are two episodes that the 35 year-old Swedish remembers most: & ldquo; As performance, the 50 Km in Val di Fiemme & egrave; one of which I am pi & ugrave; proud, also because & eacute; no one has ever done a & rsquo; enterprise like that and will & agrave; difficult to repeat in the future. I remember that once crossed the line even the Norwegians came and embraced me heartily. Instead, the relay of Falun & egrave; l & rsquo; only regret I have: if I could trasformerei l & rsquo; silver in gold, because & eacute; the location and proximity of the audience they deserved our success & rdquo ;.
In future Olsson could play a role within the Swedish team: & ldquo; My personal life will fill & agrave; other things: first of all will have & ograve; the afternoon off, cos & Igrave; potr & ograve; spend more & ugrave; time with my children. It sounds silly but until today I was busy between 6 and 10 hours a day. Maybe will participate & ograve; some long distance race, while in the long term I would like to be a coach or something that will let me pass on to others what I have learned in these 15 years, I do not see us behind a desk. Decision & egrave; Ultimately however, I thought long and do not do anything half-heartedly. When ripartir & agrave; the World Cup will not have & ograve; no crisis of identity & agrave; & rdquo ;.
Johan Olsson leaves cos & Igrave; 35 years and after 15 passed on the slopes of the World Cup. It already has seven victories and 14 podium finishes in individual competitions of the first level, 13 medals (4 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze) in Olympic Games and World Championships, of which 7 (2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze) individual. As he recalled, the race that has already & agrave; inserted in the legend of skiing & egrave; surely the 50 km classic technique of Fiemme in 2013, when part & Igrave; after about ten kilometers coming solo to the finish line at the end of an escape cycling unprecedented. & nbsp;
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