When Elin Härkönen, 30, at 18 she had her sights set on the WC in Voltige, which is an equestrian sport where you perform gymnastic exercises on galloping horses. But it all didn’t end as planned.
Elin Härkönen. Image source: Tim Aro/TT
During a training session, Elin would ride in a new horse. Just before the session is to end, the horse is startled by something and runs off at a full sprint while throwing its head and rear part of its body.
Elin was thrown off and lands on her head. Now and then she doesn’t feel her legs. Later at the hospital, she was told that she had broken her neck.
– It was a miracle that I broke the very vertebra that I broke. Then they said it was an advantage that I was so strong and fit, she has told on her Instagram in posts where she shows pictures from her time in the hospital.
Elin Härkönen. Image source: breakitandyouwillmakeit/Instagram
Elin struggled for several years with rehab exercises and other training. Against all odds, she has physically bounced back, despite pain and stiff surgeries.
And then the day came when she decided to apply for one of the most physically demanding shows on air – Secrets of the Elite Force.
In 2020, Elin went and recorded the program which was then broadcast on TV4 in 2021. However, she was forced to leave the recording after a competition when she felt an injury in her neck.
Elin Härkönen met Paolo Roberto at the Fitness Festival
2019 got the boxer, presenter and actor Paolo Roberto view of Elin Härkönen at the Fitness Festival. The profiles started talking to each other and decided to start training together. They then began a romance.
But the relationship did not last long. In 2020, Paolo Roberto was arrested for buying sex after a raid on Östermalm. In an interview on TV4, he commented on the whole thing. An interview that would later be met with a large portion of criticism.
After his sex purchase, Paolo Roberto was interviewed by Jenny Strömstedt. Image source: TV4
He said that “he always manages to destroy for himself when he is at his best, in the past often violently”.
– This time I managed to find what I think is the dirtiest thing there is, to numb this hole in me, he said and continued:
– It is the absolute dirtiest, absolute most disgusting thing you can actually do to another human being. It’s this self-harming behavior that I’ve always had in my life. Which is based on abuse I was subjected to when I was a child.
Many viewers felt that Paolo felt sorry for himself instead of focusing and empathizing with the woman he bought sex from.
READ MORE: Paolo Roberto bought out from “Paolos” – for SEK 126
He then lost all his television jobs and hosting roles.
That’s how Elin Härkönen found out that Paolo Roberto bought sex
In P4 Extra, Elin Härkönen told how it actually happened during the evening when she found out that her then-boyfriend Paolo Roberto was caught for buying sex.
– He told me this. He was going to pick me up after work as he used to do it when I finished late. But then he didn’t show up when I had finished, she said then.
– It feels like a long time ago and I have worked very hard to move on. We can’t control what happens to us in life, but we can control how we deal with it and I’ve really tried to put it behind me. It was a shock to me at the time, so it’s nice that it’s starting to become… Yes, but that people are a little less excited to hear about it, she concluded.
But it wouldn’t be too long before Elin was hit by cupid’s arrows again. This time it was another boxer who got her down – namely Anthony Yigit who was one of the three to make it all the way in Elite Force Secret 2021.
Anthony Yigit on the far right. Image source: TV4
The profiles met via the program and got engaged in 2023. But later that year, Elin announced that the relationship had ended.
“After trying to find a mutual solution, we came to the difficult and painful decision that as it stands now, we are best off as just friends”.
This is how Elin Härkönen lives today
During the late summer, Elin will be highly topical in a TV4 production that she was and recorded about a year ago. Like “Secrets of the Elite Force”, this is also a competition program. Her participation is still secret.
She will also be seen in the TV4 production Kompani Svan, which will be broadcast in the autumn. In other words, she is currently in two programmes.
On her Instagram, she is followed today by over 100,000 people and every week she posts inspiring and stimulating training videos with both exercises and life advice.
A profile that has become a very good friend of Elin’s is Laila Bagge, whom she is seen hanging out with every now and then.
“Friends, exercise, food, family, road trip, late summer evenings, festivals and an intense work period,” she writes.
She is currently living single.
In other words, an intense television autumn awaits Elin Härkönen. That we look forward to.