– It will be exciting to see what the body is like after a long pregnancy, birth and all that, says Iuel to news. – I have seen that it has gone well with people in the past who try to come back, but you don’t hear so much about those who are not doing well. On Thursday, she was present at the Olympic Summit’s Paris gathering at Fornebu, barely ten months before the start of the Olympics in the French capital next year. On 1 September, she and the former alpine star Aksel Lund Svindal became parents for the first time, when their son Storm was born. – Life is very good. We enjoy ourselves like the little family we are. It has simply been four very nice weeks, says Iuel about the period after the birth. STAR COUPLE: Aksel Lund Svindal and Amalie Iuel, here from the Sports Gala in January 2022. – Aksel is very clever. I think he thinks it’s really cozy, says Iuel about family life. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB – A very hairy goal The 29-year-old has for several years been among the biggest Norwegian athletics profiles and has, among other things, Olympic participation from both 2016 and 2021, four World Cup participations and a fifth and sixth place as the best in European Championships in 400 meters hurdles. Now the question is whether she can make it to the Olympics and EC in 2024. – I have set a very ambitious goal for myself to try to make it to the Olympics. It’s the big thing next year, but it would have been nice to take the EC in the same vein, she says. While the Olympics start on 26 July, the EC will be held in Rome from 7 to 12 June. – Now it’s a little before the Olympics next year, so it’s a question of whether the body has time to get ready. But in any case, I will do everything I can to get back to it. OLYMPIC GATHERING: Photography was among the items on the agenda at Fornebu on Thursday. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB Took Iuel’s record: – I’m looking forward to following along with Sports Manager of the Norwegian Athletics Federation, Erlend Slokvik, has full faith in Iuel’s possibilities to return to the highest level. – I have experience from both orienteering and biathlon with athletes who have given birth to children and come back and even become world champions the year after, he says, and continues: – She has very good training motivation and is in a very good environment. We absolutely believe in that. Before the season, Iuel held the Norwegian record for 400 meters with 51.64, a record that Henriette Jæger improved three times during the season to 51.03. – It will be very good to have Amalie back. I know I’m looking forward to following her. She can do most things, so I’m very excited, says Jæger. Not allowed to take part in training Iuel is part of the training group including Karsten Warholm, led by trainer Leif Olav Alnes. For the time being, she is not allowed to take part in the group training sessions. – Leif Olav is quite strict that I cannot come back until I am 100 per cent, because he wants to try to avoid any setbacks. We have no time to lose now that there is so little time until the Olympics, so he would rather wait a little longer and finish the training and wait for the body to be 100 percent before starting again, she explains. TRAINING TOGETHER: Amalie Iuel and Karsten Warholm have been part of the same training group for several years. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB – How do you think the next few months will be and what needs to happen for you to return to the Olympics and possibly the EC? – I think the most important thing is to have continuity in the training. Don’t suffer any setbacks with injuries or illness. The body has been through quite a lot with a pregnancy and birth. In a way, I start from scratch in training, she says. – Even though I’ve kept it fairly steady during my pregnancy, it’s been a while now without exercise. I just think it’s about not starting too early, sums up Iuel.
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