The overload led to an identity problem for swimmer Ida Hulko. Hulkko is currently training less in quantity and the pleasure of swimming has returned. He still misses the August European Championships.
Aino Paloniemi,
Heikki Ali-Hokka
Breast swimmer Ida Hulkolle I’m doing fine. It is not a matter of course to repeat the journey that Hulkko has traveled to this point during the spring. Behind is an overload condition that made Hulkon reconsider his athlete identity.
Hulkko will return to the race track at the Finnish Swimming Championships starting in Thursday in Tampere. After the Games, Hulkko will end his spring season and will not be seen at the August European Championships.
– With the illness and everything else, the season has been so intermittent that I don’t feel it makes sense to go as a race tourist, Hulkko says in an interview with Sport.
Hulk’s difficult times began last summer after the Tokyo Olympics. The swimmer gave his best to Tokyo, but the season continued almost immediately in the International Swimming League.
There were 70 starts in the five months since the Olympics.
As the season progressed, fatigue began to weigh more and more. The fierce pace of competition, combined with continuous professional training, eventually pushed 23-year-old Hulko down the tongue.
– I was already on zero batteries after Tokyo and after that I just went more to minus and minus. Then I noticed that the downturn is already so great that it may not be stopped, Hulkko describes.
There was another prolonged flu in June, which sealed the big decision to skip the European Championships. Hulk’s gaze is already on the short track World Championships, which will take place in December.
In the longer term, Hulko’s goal is to make it to the 2024 Paris Olympics. After the congestion, Hulkko emphasizes that he is moving towards Paris with short-term goals.
Hulko’s last major race start was in Sweden in April. Signs of overload began to show as competition began to become routine and enthusiastic drilling.
When the same world of thinking moved into the exercises, Hulkko realized that not everything is fine.
– We had a great idea, coach Jeren (Jännes) with that hey, take a swimming league lightly. Let’s go see and enjoy.
– However, everyone knows that if you go to race with the tops, you won’t go there to watch and enjoy a bit, but you will go there to work, earn points and make money.
Hulkko now knows that if he had wanted to avoid exhaustion, he would have had to take a break after Tokyo. Recovery was never enough.
– The same path was continued. The body broke the game, the head broke the game and now a couple of steps were taken backwards.
– The delay in the break itself has been a matter of pride. It is thought to be a machine and able to rot to its fullest, to make constantly, to forge new records and to keep the evolution curve the same.
As an athlete, you owe it to yourself
Hulkko says he went in deep water. As the congestion condition increased, Hulko’s athlete identity was tough.
However, it was not about depression. With fatigue and strain, the stress levels were so high that Hulkko simply did not experience feelings of joy.
– I noticed that I look at the world in black and white and nothing feels like anything.
At no point was it about Hulkko not enjoying swimming. The swimmer also did not experience external pressure in the situation, but wanted to be constantly better despite the fatigue.
– I felt that I owe myself the most in the situation.
– Through that, I was also indebted to all that work. My own world of thought was that if I take a break, it has wasted some training period, for example, and it won’t take me any further.
Hulkko, who holds the Finnish records for the 50-meter long and short track and the 100-meter long track, had to leave the pursuit of perfection at the same time.
Button performances have been applied for until the last.
– This is the end result, Hulkko describes.
Swimmers are tired
With the intensified pace of competition, exhaustion has become more common among swimmers.
Hulkko says that during the spring, 15 swimmers who competed in the Olympics and the International Swimming League missed the World Championships or swam in Budapest with mere messages.
– By the way, many have just not recovered and are currently on the verge of burnout.
Hulkko sees the duel between the International Sports Federation Finan and the swimming league founded in 2019 as a sport problem. With two race organizers, the race schedule is often very tight.
– It is also affected by the fact that in many cases these are young athletes, like me, who have no experience of being able to say when there is enough.
Before the swimming league, athletes have taken a break for half a year after the Olympics. The fierce pace of competition is also one of the reasons for the decline in the overall performance level of swimming.
– Now that break did not come and it is noticed in many people. For example, the World Championships had a lower level again and the athletes are tired, Hulkko opens.
Going on one’s own path continues – “No conflicts have been avoided here before”
The necessary withdrawal has produced a result for Hulko. Hulkko has changed his way of thinking about his identity and has become detached from his role as an athlete.
– So far, I have made the mistake of building on an athlete’s identity. Then, when you are not doing well, you feel lost with your own identity and at the same time lost with everything else.
At no point did Hulkko stop swimming completely, but the amount of training clearly decreased.
– The idea was taken that every workout is one I enjoy and that I want to be there, and it is not the coercion I had done for myself for half a year, even though I did not have the resources to do so.
For the first time, Hulkko missed the racetracks during the World Cup in Budapest. The difference is huge, because even two months earlier, Hulko had no interest in even thinking about races.
– I would have liked to see myself there. My heart beats for competition and I have to be glad I got my enthusiasm back and I want to get to show up.
Hulko and coach Jere Jännes’ goal is to invest in training in the autumn and return to the championships at the World Short Track Championships in December. The autumn race calendar also includes a few smaller short track races.
– From 2017 until last year, there was quite a rise in praise with Ida. They both knew that there would be bends and ridges somewhere. Nevertheless, this year has been a difficult place, and now we are starting from a clean slate to build a new journey, Jännes says.
Hulkko believes he is a cautionary example.
– After all, there are certainly many of us and many do not want to bring them up, but I thought that conflicts have not been avoided here before.
– I have always gone my own path and if I bring out my own path and tell you that this may not be worth doing, then maybe it will save some young athlete.
The Finnish Swimming Championships will be held this week in Tampere from June 30 to July 3.