– So I support the girls who have gone out and told about their experiences. I myself have experienced what it is like when there is a fear in the group, Lindborg continues.
31-year-old Nathalie Lindborg chooses her words with care. She takes long pauses before formulating the answers to the questions. She does not want the focus to be on her personal experiences, but points out several times how important she thinks it is that these issues are raised and that changes take place.
– From my time there, I can recognize myself in many of the parts that swimmers who appear in the article address, and how it was for both myself and many of my teammates, says Nathalie Lindborg.
– The mood was the same as described in the article. It was a high recognition factor to read it. You constantly went to the training with a worried feeling in your body.
DN reported on Saturday that star coach Teri McKeever, who has been the head coach of Cal’s women’s swimming team for almost 30 years, is now accused of systematic bullying. The revelation was made by the Orange County Register newspaper who at the beginning of last week published the article with testimonies from about 20 swimmers.
Several of the swimmers described how Teri McKeever, who has been a trainer for about 20 Olympic swimmers, created an environment that made them feel afraid to go to training. For some, it went so far as to consider suicide.
Nathalie Lindborg was 19 years old when she left Trelleborg in 2010 to study and train at the University of California, Berkeley.
– For me, it had always been a dream to go to the United States. I wanted to be as good a swimmer as I could be, and considering how extremely many world stars the United States has produced, I saw it as if the best development opportunities were there.
– There I also got the opportunity to also get an education. That combination is more limited in Sweden.
The teenage Nathalie Lindborg left Trelleborg and moved to California, but already after a year at Cal she chose to change university to Southern Methodist University in Dallas where she completed her education and continued elite training.
– I am very pleased with that decision today. It was tough there too and it should be, but there I had a very supportive coach and as an athlete I got space to develop, she says.
Nathalie Lindborg is not alone in having left Cal. According to a survey conducted by the Orange County Register, a total of 61 female swimmers were admitted to Cal between the 2013/14 and 2020/21 school years.
Of them, 26 swimmers (just over 40 percent) chose to leave school prematurely.
Under Nathalie Lindborg’s time at Cal put her weight in relation to how fast she swam for the first time. Something that in the long run would have major consequences. A few years later, Nathalie Lindborg developed an eating disorder.
– When I look back, I realize that it was somewhere like the mindset that my weight was something I had to review to become an even better athlete started, says Nathalie Lindborg.
– Of course, there were also other contributing factors, but as I said, it was the first time that someone in a coaching position noticed my weight, which had an impact on the eating disorder that I later developed.
Nathalie Lindborg has been feeling well for several years, and since just over four years ago she has also retired from swimming.
After the short track European Championships in Copenhagen at the end of 2017, where she participated in swimming home a European Championship silver in 4×50 meters freestyle together with Sarah Sjöström, Michelle Coleman and Louise Hansson, she chose to stop swimming.
– I do not want to discourage other young athletes who dream of going to the US, because there are very many opportunities there. But that is also why it is important that what does not work is lifted to the surface.
– Considering how young the athletes are who move there – many times they move there directly from the parental home – they are at a vulnerable age. Then it is important that they come to good environments.
A few days ago, the news came that Teri McKeever has been removed from the operations at Cal with her salary retained while the accusations against her are investigated. McKeever had not commented on the accusations late on Saturday night Swedish time.
Read more:
The star coach is accused of bullying: “Did not want to live”