So there she stood, ready to convey her feelings after her Olympic debut that yielded a gold. Until Tuesday's sprint, Linn Svahn had been unavailable for interviews to rest; she is still suffering from brain fatigue after a concussion before the World Championships in Trondheim last year.
But on a day like this, nothing can dampen your spirits. Not when you have a gold medal around your neck.
I feel good. Today I feel good, said Linn Svahn when she met Swedish media on Tuesday evening, with the gold medal around her neck, at the back of the national team hotel in Val di Fiemme.
And I feel good in general. But there are some small baseline tendencies where I still feel more stressed than before I injured my head.
"Five years wiser"
Until now, she had never really had the chance to perform at her peak in a championship. Before the concussion, a complicated shoulder injury from a fall at a competition in early 2021 hampered her for several seasons.
But it may not have actually been as tough as you journalists say. Everyone has their problems, but mine may have been a little more visible when I broke my shoulder and injured my head. But I've always enjoyed sports and always had fun.
However, the many setbacks in her career have changed her perspective on what she is doing.
Then again, I think you only change when you become five years wiser. But I think I appreciate the way sports unite people much more than I did before my setbacks.
Three Swedes on the podium
The fact that she got to share the podium with her teammates on the national team Jonna Sundling (silver) and Maja Dahlqvist (bronze) made the sprint success even better, she says.
It's all the people who have been around me who have made the sport still valuable and important to me. So it was really nice to share this with two very good teammates.
At the same time, she doesn't deny that this gold medal is something special.
It feels like it means quite a lot. Just getting to the start of a championship has been a goal. But winning a medal in my first race at the Olympics, and it's a gold, still feels significant.
