– I started in that corner of hell there, says Hedda Hynne, pointing to a spinning bike. – And went over to that corner of hell there, she continues, and looks over at an elliptical machine. Both devices are located in the training room in the basement of the detached house at Byåsen in Trondheim. She has spent a lot of time in this room over the past year. But too little time for the device she would most like to use: the treadmill. When news asks how she would like to summarize the 2024 season, Hynne uses both hands to draw a strong in the air while demonstratively pursing her mouth. – There is not much to say about it. There was no indoor running and there was no outdoor running. So as a competitive person, I have a little pain in my soul, she admits. SO AFTER REVENGE: There was no Olympic final in Tokyo. Hedda Hynne intended to rectify that in Paris. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB Three brutal years In the corona year 2020, Hedda Hynne was the world’s third best woman in the 800 metres, when she lowered the Norwegian record to 1.58.10. The following year, she reached the quarter-finals during the Olympics in Tokyo. Afterwards, together with her coach partner Erik Sakshaug, she put together a three-year plan that would end with a place in the finals during the Olympics in Paris in 2024. – If we take three years, then it has been three rather brutal years, she now admits. The problems started when she got corona during the preparations for the WC in Eugene in 2022. – It didn’t work quite well, but I hadn’t had corona before, so it was worth the try, she says now. In 2023, she trained differently, with larger doses of volume training. Coach and student were aware that it could produce worse results in the short term, but believed it was necessary to be as well prepared as possible for the Olympic year itself. – A frustrating year, but it’s okay when you know you’ll reap from it in 2024, Hynne points out. – Just had to stop But this year the indoor season only ended due to a new round of corona infection. – And then, barely a week before I was due to start the season, I was diagnosed with a fatigue fracture, she says. The stress injury in the fibula bone in the calf crept in. The pain gradually increased. – If we could have done the training well with the pain I had, I would have done it, but it was too painful in the end for me to be able to have quality in what I was supposed to do. Then we just had to stop, says Hynne. – What was it like to make that decision, or to realize that it didn’t work? – I sat on the kitchen floor here the next day and licked the brownie bun. I hadn’t slept much that night, or really all summer, it’s been very tough. It is clear that the tears are pressing on. – I know it’s hard to talk about it. And it was hard to take it in when it first happened. Because until that decision was made, I had expectation and hope that it would work, says Hedda Hynne. AIMING HIGH: When Hedda Hynne posed for NTB at the Olympiatoppen Olympic assembly in 2023, it was not in her mind that the Olympics in Paris would go ahead without her participation. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB – A bit of crap – An incredibly boring day. Hedda has worked incredibly professionally, been a full-time athlete for ten years now, and we have had this in mind ever since the Olympics in Tokyo. So when it smokes, it’s clear that it’s incredibly boring, admits Erik Sakshaug. He too has felt that the three-year plan never came to fruition. – It’s been a bit crap at times. Especially when negative news is pouring in. It’s not funny, he says to news. But despite the adversity, or perhaps rather because of it, Hedda Hynne has chosen to take another year as an athlete. – When it turned out the way it turned out now, I have very little desire to give in to this. I am absolutely sure that I have good runs in, and that I have had pole out. I want to show stamina, and not give up because I’m fussy, she says. After there was not a single race in 2024, Hynne is without a place in the national team. She also does not have any ranking points, and will probably have to race her way to the top via smaller events. BELIEVE IN BRIGHTER TIMES: Erik Sakshaug and Hedda Hynne. Photo: Anders Skjerdingstad / news Betting on the WC final and Norwegian record – That’s pretty good to deal with, then. I am not responsible for anyone but myself. We have always been concerned that those who are in the closest team are the ones who are most important to me and to my venture. And then again, it’s basically my motivation that controls the whole thing, she points out. – What is the biggest motivation right now? – It’s really just that I feel that I have more to offer than what I’ve been shown in recent years. I have performed at a level that I know I can actually repeat. And it has pained me not to be able to do it, to not be able to show it. So that’s my motivation. – Is it a goal that you should be able to run faster than you ever have? – Yes. Erik Sakshaug believes that the partner has all the prerequisites to manage. – I’m pretty sure she can replicate and maybe run even faster than what she did in 2020. If she can do that, she’ll be in a position to reach a global final, which has been her goal since been close for the first time in 2017, says Sakshaug. The work to reach that goal of the WC final in Tokyo next September is already in full swing. Published 23.10.2024, at 09.37
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Hedda Hynne opens up about the shattered Olympic dream – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
