HONORARY DOCTOR. Track and field legend Carolina Klüft has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Sahlgrenska Academy. She held her honorary doctorate lecture before the conferment, in connection with the Sports Research Day and the Swedish National Sports University’s kick-off. She gave an eloquent presentation of her sports career, lessons she has learned, and her professional life.
“I have received many awards and prizes during my career. But this award is something special,” Carolina Klüft said.
Describing her journey
Last year, Carolina Klüft was appointed an honorary doctor of medicine at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg for her work through the organization Generation Pep to inspire children and young people to live an active and healthy life. Because of the pandemic, she was only now able to hold her honorary doctorate lecture.
The title of Klüft’s talk was “My Journey.” It was a fitting subject because students at the Swedish National Sports University, which combines academic studies with an elite sports career, made up about half of the audience. Klüft began her story by describing how, as an 11-year-old, she became involved in athletics and immediately saw it as great fun.
“Joy has always been my strongest motivating force. Having fun and finding joy in everything was enormously important throughout my career. I have enjoyed being in the big arenas and competing.”
Not defined by achievements
She described how her ambition has always been to give 100 percent, and when she has not come out on top, she could still be proud and satisfied knowing she had done her best under the circumstances:
“Having good self-confidence involves knowing you are good at what you do, but having good self-esteem involves knowing that you are good as a person, knowing who you are. I learned early on to work on distinguishing between myself as a person and as a performer, because who else would I be the day I stopped competing?”
Support of the team
Recalling the 2003 Paris Olympics, she recounted the time when, after two infringements, she had to make the final and decisive attempt in the broad jump. The fact that her coach outwardly could appear so calm in that high-pressure situation and that she felt the support of her teammates played a decisive part in enabling her to win an Olympic gold medal in the heptathlon.
“Anyone in track and field knows that the margins are very small, and that last jump might as well have been an infringement. But the team gave me confidence. I knew that if I was going to fall, there would be someone there to catch me.”
Seven milestones
For the students practicing elite sports, she described seven milestones in her journey to the top, with drive and motivation being the first and most fundamental. Besides the ability to distinguish between performance and self-esteem, the milestones included leadership and team building, listening to one’s inner voice, managing and learning from adversity, recovery, and perseverance.
In addition to Carolina Klüft’s honorary doctorate lecture, the Sports Research Day offered an extensive program of current sports research and sports medicine. Professor Mats Börjesson delivered the keynote address, in which he spoke about the progress of sports cardiology with sudden death in sport. The program also included lectures on topics like coaching children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), physical activity, and stress-related illness. As project owner for the Swedish National Sports University in Gothenburg, Dean Agneta Holmäng played a key role during the day, including welcoming the students of the Swedish National Sports University.
BY: ELIN LINDSTRÖM AND CARL-MAGNUS HÖGLUND
