JVM medalist Tove Ericsson was offered a place in the national development team last year, but declined to focus wholeheartedly on long-distance running in Team Engcon.
A year later, she changes back according to plan, but the decision was not obvious.
– I didn’t get the season I was hoping for and thought about whether I should do another year to feel that I did well. But I felt that the training for traditional skating attracts me more. That was mostly it. It felt best in the stomach, says Ericsson.
She placed best in the Vasaloppet and Marcialonga, where she finished eleventh. In the analysis after the season, she thinks too hard training during the summer lowered her. She was also ill at the beginning of the season.
– With hindsight, maybe I should have had a little more respect because maybe I didn’t tolerate the training as well as I thought.
Shocked at first
She describes her first camp with the long-distance team as a bit of a shock.
– I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my entire life.
– But I never thought it would be too much. It also felt fun, like a challenge. I thought ‘wonderful, now we’re going, we have to practice if it’s going to be good’.
The sights are set on the U23 WC
Next season, the U23 WC is the big goal for Ericsson, who is outside the national team operations. Despite the fact that the past season did not turn out as she had planned, she takes a lot of positive things with her.
– I don’t regret that I did it. I don’t think back to a year that I want to forget. I will always remember all this I have had to do.