PHOTO: Bildbyrån
She is one of Swedish skiing’s great heroes.
Now Charlotte Kalla reveals how much she skis today.
– The transition can probably be a shock, she says in an interview with Amelia.
She belonged to the world’s elite in cross-country skiing for 16 years and won an incredible three Olympic golds, three WC golds, 22 championship medals and 37 SM golds. Charlotte Kalla is truly one of our very best skiers ever and a true blue and yellow sports hero.
Called New Life
But in 2022, the successful sports career ended and Kalla took off his skis and boots to put them on the famous shelf. During the autumn, instead, a completely new everyday life awaited the 35-year-old “retiree” who started studying at Mittuniversitetet in Sundsvall and right now she is very current in the TV program “Let’s Dance”.
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The biggest thing that happened after her career is still that Charlotte became pregnant and will become a mother for the first time in her life in 2023. When she herself gets to think back to her time as a world-class skier in cross-country skiing, she selects her most cherished moments.
– The Olympic gold in the relay in Sochi 2014. It is a special memory, precisely because it was unexpected that it would last all the way. I am also proud that I won gold in 2010 and then eight years later, in 2018. It shows that I had a long and sustainable career. The first Olympic gold in 2010 was very exciting in that there were not many seconds at the end against Estonian Kristina Smigun-Vähi. It was also a race that I had been looking forward to for a long time and before that I had had very good results in the 10 kilometer skate. Somehow it felt like I had no expectations, while the result said I could probably place high. I was 22 years old and had time ahead of me, says Kalla in an interview with the magazine Amelia.
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Charlotte’s words
New life after her career has been a big adjustment for Charlotte Kalla, but so far she really enjoys her changed everyday life.
– Being able to be free on weekends is wonderful. I have really appreciated that over the past year. Since I stopped being an elite skier, I can be free when everyone else is and manage to be seen in a completely different way. In the past, I haven’t been able to exercise in the evenings, but now I can hang out that way with my partner or friends, she says in the interview.
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The training is the biggest difference these days and the 35-year-old now admits how much skiing she actually does these days.
– In addition to trying to reduce the amount of training, I have trained other forms. I haven’t roller skied that much, but started with yoga. When I saw that Magda Forsberg took swimming lessons in Sundsvall, I was also interested. I thought it might be good to learn how to crawl, although it was actually before my participation in “Master of Masters”. It’s good for the body if you don’t quit suddenly. The transition can probably be a shock for it. Today I don’t take more than one ski session a day. During her skiing career there were often twelve training sessions a week, but then it wasn’t just skiing, she tells the newspaper.
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