Never give up until it's over!

I want to share a story, which hopefully motivates you to fight through obstacles.

Back in 2006/2007 my goal was to be on the podium for World Cup total score. My summer training went very well and I was very excited to start the race season at the end of November. I had the perfect start to the season, and by the third race, I was racing with the yellow bib, leading the world cup.

I had a great December and beginning of January and built up a comfortable cushion over my competitors.  Everything was going as planned until I got a bad case of bronchitis. I had to skip four races and saw on TV  how “my” yellow bib was taken over by other athletes. By the end of January, I started racing again, but of course I was not in great shape after being sick. I kept losing points to those in front of me with every race. 

By mid-February I got my strength back and started closing the gap step by step. At the end of March, it came down to the last race of the season. There was a chance to win the total score, for me, my team mate Kati Wilhelm and Anna Carin Olofsson from Sweden. It was a mass start, five loops, 12.5km, and four times shooting. 

The race started and of course all of us came together to the first shooting stage. There I missed all five targets! First thing I had to do was to concentrate. It seems silly, but Biathletes know it is not as easy as it seems counting penalty loops, when shooting more than three. It’s a good thing I experienced that before ;)

Entering the second loop, I was in last place. On this loop I got the information that all of my previous shots had been up and to the right – great shooting, just the wrong spot... 

When I came to the next shooting stage, everyone was already done. But by hitting all five targets this time, I was not last anymore. At my third shooting stage, I missed one more target, but now I had Kati skiing the second to last loop just in front of me. Entering the stadium area, we were skiing directly towards a big screen. This made it easy to see what was going on at the shooting range. There we saw Anna Carin missing four targets in her last shooting. Here was my chance again- Anna Carin in the penalty loop and Kati shooting next to me- Somehow I put it together and cleaned again, Kati missed one and I made it back on course, before Anna Carin made it out of the penalty loop. I finished 15th that day, but this was good enough to earn 1st in the overall World Cup. 

Please never give up! Even when the race does not turn out the way you were hoping, you at least want to know that you did your best. Trust me, I didn’t get as lucky all the time, but this story shows that races sometimes offer chances that are hard to see at first. But you need to keep yourself in a solid position-and mental state- for when those chances show up.

Do You Have A Dream? Let´s Take The Next Step!