In a long post on Instagram, Frida Karlsson described how she had grown tired of the fact that sports had become so square, that everything had to be measured and optimized and that "athletes had started to be shaped more like machines than humans".
I have to feel that it is pleasure and not a must. For me, it is so incredibly clear that when I think it's fun and when it's pleasurable and a little free and playful, that's when I move forward, she said later to TT.
Armand Duplantis questioned, in an interview with SVT in connection with the World Championship in Tokyo, why Swedish athletes so slavishly follow their training programs. When he was now made aware of Frida Karlsson's outburst about machine-like training, he says:
I agree with Frida! And I think I'm a very good example of that you can have a life beside your sport and still be good at it, he says.
He says that he lives a life where he enjoys many things and socializes with friends on weekends when it fits with my training and competition schedule.
People do not understand how much it helps one's performance when you are happy and have balance in life. Not just train hard and follow a schedule. It is no advantage to be a robot, says Duplantis.
