Yolanda Ngarambe representing Sweden is currently preparing for the European Championships in Rome in June.
Middle and long distance runner Yolanda Ngarambe competes in the colors of Sweden, but tells the Swedish public broadcasting company SVT that during his career he thought about whether he should have represented Finland.
– I have foreign parents, but I was born in Sweden and I feel most Swedish, Ngarambe says in Swedish in an interview with SVT.
After that, the runner switches to Finnish and starts the sentence.
– Once I thought…
Ngarambe, 32, switches back to his mother tongue and recalls the moment when he says that he thought about representing Finland in the prestigious competition. The time in question was during the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, when despite falling below the qualifying limit, he was not selected for the competition team.
– Then I thought that if I represented Finland, I would possibly have been elected.
Born in Märsta, north of Stockholm, Ngarambe has been on the podium several times in the Swedish championships. First time in 2010.
His Finnish-born mother Eine Kivelä Ngaramben through Ngarambe would in principle have the opportunity to represent Finland as well. His father is Ugandan.
The runner star also emphasizes his Finnishness with a personal statement on his Instagram accounton which she appears as Yolanda (Kivelä) Ngarambe.
However, in the story section of his Instagram account, Ngarambe specifies that he intends to stick to representing Sweden and says with amusement that he was only disappointed with his fate at the 2021 Olympics.
I aimed at the European Championships in Rome
In February, Ngarambe broke his existing Swedish record in the indoor mile, when the new record was set at 4:23.68.
Ngarambe’s sights are on this summer’s EC competition in Rome. He has been practicing for several years in Atlanta, USA.
Ngarambe says that he loves to compete in the Sweden match, and in an interview with SVT, he says that competing feels especially at home when there are familiar Swedes around, but also Finnish competitors. He will also participate in this year’s Finnkamp in Helsinki.
On the Finnish side, for example in ice hockey
Most fanatically in Ngarambe’s house, Eine’s mother watches all the sports broadcasts. He has also had a great influence on, for example, the family’s hockey watching habits.
He has managed to get the whole family to cheer for Finland.
– If it’s Sweden and Finland are facing each other, the whole family is usually on Finland’s side, Ngarambe says in a video published by SVT.
However, in running sports and when Ngarambe competes, the family is naturally on Sweden’s side.