2025 – unstable performances, a couple of highlights, but a lot of struggling

2025 was not a year to remember for me when it comes to results and performances. I’m really dissappointed with how my season turned out, because I know I can do so much better.

The winter training went well, but just at the start of the season I got really bad tonsillitis, which took a lot of time to recover from. I got back into training reasonably quick, but I kind of struggled with my shape after that. Slowly, it became better and better, and I managed a few decent performances in the spring, even though I felt that my shape was unstable and erratic. Slight dissappointments at both 10mila and Jukola, but a really good performance at our WOC test race middle (which was clearly my best performance of the year) showed that I had a really high level in me. The World Cups in Idre Fjäll went OK, even though I struggled a bit physically, but I was looking forward to WOC with confidence. All preperations went according to plan, but just a couple of days before the races I suddenly felt that something was off. A race against time to recover and get back on track, but I just didn’t make it in time. A really heavy day physically, and with a not great technical performance either, it was just not enough. Extremely frustrating to be so close with such a ”bad” race as well. And then the relay. It was the first time since 2011 (!) that I wasn’t selected for the WOC relay, which was extremely tough. Not an unfair selection (really tough competition for the places in the team), but a selection that I really didn’t agree with and even more tough after recovering well and feeling strong again on the relay day.

After WOC I really struggled physically, and for several months I felt unsure if I could train or not every single morning I woke up. Very frustrating. That made the decision to skp the international autumn season easier, but it was not the only reason. To get some more family time was the biggest reason – and to be honest, I wasn’t too excited by sprint racing either.

I’ve been trying to analyze why this year turned out this way, but it is difficult. Elite performance (and life) is complex, and it is really hard to pinpoint all reasons. Two small kids and minimal recovery is probably one reason, and a tough spring when Helena got badly injured and was hospitalized for several weeks also took it’s toll. Bad timing with illnesses on top of that made for a troublesome year.