For the first time, Kajsa Bergqvist will lead the Swedish athletics team in the OS. She will surely tell them how it is to take a medal and how it is to live in the OS village.
And maybe even the story about the auction of the OS clothes.
It became a really good little fund, she says.
The former high jumper made her OS debut in Atlanta 1996. The then 19-year-old Kajsa Bergqvist failed to reach the final. But still went to the fall semester at college in Dallas as a winner.
She had auctioned off a lot of OS clothes before leaving Atlanta.
In Atlanta, we got incredibly many things and I realized I couldn't use all these clothes. So before I went home, I went into Centennial Park and stood on a wall and started an auction, she says.
The Americans were crazy about all the memorabilia that had to do with their home OS. I started with a t-shirt, held it up and shouted out "Swedish Olympic team, 20 dollars". More and more people came and the bidding continued, 25, 30 dollars. I sold a jacket for 300 dollars. It became a really good little fund that I took with me to Dallas where I studied. I managed the whole fall on that auction.
"Feels a sense of security"
Bergqvist then took OS bronze in Sydney 2000, but just before OS 2004, she tore her Achilles tendon and missed the OS in Athens.
Now she is the national team captain for the Swedish athletics team and her experiences of having participated in the OS can be worth gold for her athletes.
Everything I myself have experienced in championship contexts is in my knowledge bank, then it doesn't work for everyone like me. It's about listening, what does each individual have for expectations and demands. But I feel a sense of security in having been in many different zones, as an active athlete with the pressure and everything around, and then I have worked on the media side also for almost ten years with SVT. All experiences I try to build into my leadership.
The biggest thing to be part of
She says that the OS is the biggest thing to be part of as an active athlete.
No question about it. It's history and the fact that it's every four years creates an extra thing with it. To be part of the OS and be part of a larger national team. You represent your teammates who are volleyball players, wrestlers, football players and all others. It's also an incredible feeling to meet the whole world's sports in the OS village. Competition-wise, it doesn't differ that much from a World Championship, but it's all around and the little extra prestige of being able to take an OS gold, an OS medal or reach an OS final or whatever goal you have.
Andreas Kramer (800 meters), Andreas Almgren (5,000 meters), Carl Bengtström (400 meters hurdles), Thobias Montler (long jump), Armand Duplantis (pole vault), Daniel Ståhl (discus), Fanny Roos (shot put), Suldan Hassan (marathon), Carolina Wikström (marathon), Perseus Karlström (walking), Axelina Johansson (shot put), Oskar Edlund, (400 meters hurdles), Thea Löfman (hammer throw), Ragnar Carlsson (hammer throw), Henrik Larsson (100 meters), Vanessa Kamga (discus), Julia Henriksson (200 meters), Nora Lindahl (200 meters), Maja Åskag (triple jump), Caisa-Marie Lindfors (discus), Samuel Pihlström (1,500 meters), Erik Erlandsson (200 meters).
