Stina Nilsson is heading towards her third season as a biathlete.
Now the star opens up about the press ahead of her first year of competition.
– Such unreasonable demands on me, she says to Östersunds-Posten.
It has been a little more than two years since Stina Nilsson dropped the bombshell that she is quitting cross-country skiing. Instead, she intended to continue her sports career in biathlon – a decision that surprised many.
Tough first season
During Stina Nilsson’s first season as a biathlete, she mixed and gave. There were many who had high expectations of her, but at first the 29-year-old had an incredibly tough time on the shooting range.
The peaks came towards the end of the first season, but she had a minor breakthrough last year. First, she was selected for Sweden’s Olympic squad, although without starting a single competition, and a month later she took the first podium of her career in the World Cup in biathlon.
Now Stina Nilsson talks about the enormous pressure she was under before her first year of competition – and think that people had unreasonable demands on her.
“Unreasonable demands”
– In the beginning it was hard. I myself knew what demands were reasonable and I understood that the environment had such unreasonable demands on me during my first year as a biathlete, she says and continues:
– But I cannot influence what everyone else hopes for, but I have to go to myself and see what is actually reasonable. One cannot expect miracles.
At the moment, Stina Nilsson is getting ready for her third season. Before that, the Swede hopes to take further steps in his development.
– From year one to year two there was an extreme amount of development and the idea is that if we continue with the same plan, I will continue to develop as a biathlete, but I cannot promise an equally good development. I believe in the system we have, says the 29-year-old.
READ MORE: Sebastian Samuelsson’s happy message with love – now tells about the big step: “A lot to buy”