Frida Karlsson came to the Olympics as one of the big favourites.
But it ended up being a real flop.
She is absolutely sure what went wrong.
– It is easy to be a hindsight, she says ahead of the new season.
Frida Karlsson had threatened Therese Johaug and went to the Olympics with expectations of securing Swedish medals. Karlsson had shown great form during the autumn, but once in place in China, there was a real flat fall. Karlsson was often not even close to threatening top places, and had despaired of difficulty getting up to level.
Honest words
Karlsson’s Olympics were more about weak performances, collapses at the finish line and strong tears, than about medals and success headlines. But what actually happened? Karlsson has a good training summer behind him and is now looking forward to a new season, with new successes. And she learned lessons from the heavy winter.
It was simply a case of a classic high-altitude crash, and her training too hard for the championship.
– With hindsight, it is easy to say that I should have driven at a significantly lower intensity. But it’s easy to be an afterthought!, she says to Norwegian TV2.
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“I couldn’t make it”
Karlsson believes that she went way too hard during the preparatory training for the championship, at high altitude, which led to a crash during the Olympics.
– I couldn’t recover before the Olympics. I wasn’t in terrible shape when I got there, but I wasn’t myself and not in the shape I wanted. I toiled for a long time after the Olympics, and didn’t feel like the usual Frida, she says, and continues:
– It probably has to do with the fact that I was disappointed that I did not perform in the Olympics, but I was also hungry for revenge.
Karlsson says that it is easier for her to understand what is happening now, and she is not afraid to make the same mistakes again.
– I’m not afraid to go back and train at high altitude. I know I can do well there. But this summer and during the autumn I have not been there. I have trained a lot in Germany and in Mallorca, with Linn Svahn and Maja Dahlqvist.
Frida Karlsson concludes:
– In any case, I’m incredibly eager to get started with the season.
The World Cup starts in Ruka on November 25.
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