For Frida Westman, the new ski jumping season is over before it has even really begun. The Swedish hopeful remains plagued by bad luck with injuries in her career. A difficult situation, as the winter sports athlete herself openly describes.
Frida Westman was seriously injured during a training jump in Trondheim a few weeks ago. The 22-year-old recently had to have another operation and a tendon was inserted into her left knee. Westman has already had five knee procedures in her young career.
“Once you’ve reached the bottom, you can’t go any further down – and then you just have to get up again,” the Swede told broadcaster “SVT” about her ordeal.
Just a few years ago, Westman tore one cruciate ligament and then the other a short time later. Last winter she was slowed down by a meniscus injury, which, among other things, prevented her from taking part in the World Cup. This, of all things, in their most successful season to date.
“It’s hard and you become very critical of yourself. You feel incredible disappointment and go through a lot with yourself: What did I do wrong? And what could I have done differently? But unfortunately you can’t go back. And yet “I felt like I had done everything I could,” Westman gave an insight into her emotional world.
This summer she “worked hard and was stronger than ever.” “That’s exactly what’s hard: ‘Why do I have to go through this again?'” asked the Scandinavian.
Ski jumping: Frida Westman wants to come back stronger
Westman wants to keep fighting. Working with a sports psychologist should help you move forward despite the misery of injuries. “I think I’m going to get stronger because I have no choice. Or at least that’s the decision I’m making. That I’m going to get better,” she said.
Westman landed on the podium for the first time in her career in November 2022 in Wisla, Poland. This made her the first Swedish ski jumping star in 30 years to make it to a World Cup podium. The last time Mikael Martinsson achieved this feat was in 1992.