I didn’t think that it would be that hard. 50 m freestyle. 9 years ago I did 2.000 meters per training session. So, last year I promised to swim during the 10th year anniversary of David Lega Cup, a swimming competition for all children, disabled and the rest together. It’s really a unique competition, it’s the only one in Sweden where all these young talents meet and compete together.
So, when I promised to swim this year, my club MASS invited several other Paralympic Swimmer to do an exhibition race together with me for the first time. This exhibition included my teammates in Sydney, Gold medalists from Athens, and Sweden’s new stars from Beijing! It was a fantastic experience, all of us had a great time, but I was totally exhausted after 40 meters… I ought to be though, to swim 50 meters only with the muscles in my thighs takes a lot of energy…
But to see all the children there cheer on our future stars, and to see swimmers like Jennie Ekström and Christoffer Lindhe take the time to talk to all children there, to make them feel important, really made my day. 5 days ago, me and Lindhe were at the Swedish Sports Gala where he got standing ovations from Sweden’s top athletes, and today he takes the time to discuss training and swimming with hundreds of children under 10. I was impressed.
Here are some pics:
Me, together with last year’s Paralympians Jennie Ekström and Christoffer Lindhe.
This year’s winners of the Relay: Team MASS, my old team
One of MANY award ceremonies. Naturally, awards handed out with my mouth
It doesn’t matter if is an exhibition race or the Paralympics. First thing I do after the finish is to check the scoreboard for the time. And it was decent. 2m12s. Compared to my elite years would be around 1m40s.
Three fantastic athletes. From the left: Karin Bergek, finalist Sydney 2000 – Christoffer Lindhe, finalist Beijing ’08 – Sandra Eriksson, Gold Medalist Athens ’04
Thank you all and thank you to MASS, for making this reunion possible.
Oh, by the way, LegaWear had a huge article in today’s Expressen about making clothes that fit everyone! Check out a part of the article on http://www.expressen.se/halsa/annabasen/1.1442966/storleks-vansinnet