She is the WC’s biggest exclamation point.
Now Linn Persson is being praised.
– It’s tough to stand out there. She has been working on it for so long, says the national team’s mental coach.
Hanna Öberg has certainly been the most successful Swedish skater during this year’s WC with a gold and a silver. But the biggest exclamation point is still Linn Persson. Before the championship, she was considered an outsider, having never won a championship medal.
Highly praised
But all winter she has made huge strides, and she is actually ahead of Hanna Öberg in the overall World Cup. Persson has long been in the shadow of the stars, but started the WC with a bronze in the sprint – and then a silver in the distance race. And in the national team, you couldn’t be happier.
Now Linn Persson is hugely praised by the national biathlon team’s mental advisor Göran Kenttä, who is hugely impressed by her journey.
– You sometimes think that the riders are just machines, but it’s tough to stand out there, he tells DN, and continues:
– Linn has worked for so long and has been on this for a long time, and I think that deep down she has known that this will come one day. So not giving up but working on is an amazing strength.
READ MORE: Sweden misses out on a medal in the single mixed relay – just off the podium after Samuelsson’s huge miss
The key behind the success
Even the coach Johannes Lukas is impressed, and believes that Linn Persson deserves the success.
– It feels like she has had so much “edge” over the years, but still that if she continues in this way it will be good. Then she has had some injury problems, but that may have also changed the focus, that “okay, I have to drive a little differently”, he says.
Linn Persson explains that much of his success is based on how he thinks about himself. She says that she “thinks less”.
– It’s clear that it feels important and big, but at the same time I try to make it just a little bit important in my head when I come in and have to shoot, so it doesn’t become too big a deal. Like, “there are five dots to shoot down, you just have to try”. If I miss, so be it, you have to try to pick it down a bit to make it easier for yourself.
READ MORE: The Norwegian shock after the pictures of Sebastian Samuelsson – dropped his chin on live TV: “How is it possible!?”