10 September 2021. 22-year-old Ingvild Meinseth stands ready at the starting line during the NM in Kristiansand. The 100 meter final is to be run, and Ingvild knows she is fast enough to win. She has yet to make it. She won silver in the NM 2017. Silver in the NM 2018. And silver in the NM 2020. But in 2021 things will loosen up for the young sprinter from Grimstad. Ingvild is quick out of the starting block and takes the lead early on. It’s as far as it goes, but she keeps her competitors behind her and runs into the first NM gold of her career. Finally, she has reached a new milestone. In the victory interview after the finish, she tells news reporter Ida Nysæter Rasch that the gold tastes extra good because she has had some injury problems leading up to the final. Little does she know about the huge downturn that awaits. WHAT NOW: Ingvild Meinseth does not know for sure what the future of sports entails. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news – That’s when it all started Ingvild Meinseth realized early on that she was going to be an athlete, already as a six-year-old she joined training. Perhaps not so surprising when the parents’ name is Sølvi Meinseth, the sprint queen with 20 individual senior golds, and the father is former track and field athlete and footballer Frank Otto Meinseth. His brother Even Meinseth is also Norwegian champion. As she herself puts it: The genes were in place, so to speak. Therefore, everyone thought that the NM gold in 2021 was just the beginning. This girl had the potential to go far. – That was actually when it started, after that NM gold, she says with a sigh today. Ingvild Meinseth sprints to victory during the NM in Kristiansand in 2021. The triumph in Kristiansand came with an aftertaste. Ingvild noticed that something was not right, her back ached and her body gave a clear message that she needed a break. In the weeks that followed, she visited all sorts of knowledgeable health professionals to find out what was wrong. She took an MRI, went to a back surgeon, visited the sports health center and consulted the best doctors in the country for back injuries. In a frenzy, she tried everything to overcome the injuries that had hindered her to a greater and greater extent towards the NM final. IN DYP DAL: Ingvild Meinseth did not feel good about himself after the reality of the injury sank in. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news Scary message from the doctor When the results of the MRI images came, it was like a blow to the face. She was diagnosed with a grade four fatigue fracture, which indicates that it cannot heal. There are only four degrees, she has the worst. In addition, the images showed that she has a slipped disc which in turn affects the large thigh muscle at the back of the thigh. Then came the terrifying message from the doctors: “You will never be completely healthy again”. The punch in the snout was now a Mike Tyson punch. – I took it very hard. I buried myself and thought that “this is the end of my sports career”. Then came the tears. I had sacrificed a lot over many years, and now everything was going to go down the drain, she remembers. GOT HORRIBLE NEWS: Ingvild Meinseth had never imagined that the doctors would come back with the news that she has a chronic injury. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news – I was very sorry That it happened right after the highlight of her career in the NM final, the thing that gave her confidence and motivation to invest fully in the sport, made it extra painful. – It is an athlete’s worst nightmare to never get rid of such an injury, she describes. The time afterwards can be described in one word. Pitch black. – It was very mentally demanding, I struggled with a lot of negative thoughts. “How did I manage to end up in this situation?” “What am I going to do if I can’t do athletics?”, she recalls. She kept to herself a lot, was alone a lot with thoughts that everything had gone wrong. She had never been this far down mentally before. – It was extremely heavy. I was very upset, quite simply, she says. Ingvild Meinseth wins the final of 100 meters during the NM in athletics at the Kristiansand stadium in 2021. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB The doctors tried to keep her spirits up. They took comfort in the fact that the injury would be a limitation for her as a performer, but that it did not have to be the end of her career. She could continue as long as she made adjustments in her training. But it didn’t help much. Ingvild always had in the back of her mind that she now had a limitation, a handicap. Not ideal for a sprinter. Now the sprint training had to be replaced with calm intervals. Explosive training was replaced by strength, stretching and bending. She was angry and frustrated. What had she done to deserve this? And right now that her career was taking off. She cursed the back injury and all it caused. TØY AND BEND: Ingvild Meinseth has to train alternatively because of the back problems. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news – People wondered if I was crazy Even daily life, everything that had nothing to do with sport, was affected by it. At times she was in so much pain that she struggled to sit upright. When she gave lectures at school, where she was studying to become a social worker, she often had to lie down in the auditorium to overcome the pain. If she was in social gatherings, where it was natural to sit together and have a good time, she had to constantly get up or lie down. – People started to wonder if I was crazy, she says when she thinks back on it. DOESN’T GIVE UP: Ingvild Meinseth has shown solid willpower during two years of ups and downs. She knows that’s where things go up. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news The new existence was difficult to accept. – That autumn was very tough. I notice that I get emotional when I talk about it, she says. The tears appear. She has to take a short break before the interview can continue. – It was a very tough period. I lost my appetite and lost quite a bit of weight. It’s no fun when it physically takes a toll on the body and the appetite disappears. I lay inside a lot and just dozed off, she says. – Those around you must have noticed that you were not in a good place? – Yes, mum and dad noticed that I wasn’t feeling well, my boyfriend too, so they constantly tried to cheer me up. It wasn’t so easy at the start, she admits. MENTALLY STRUGGLED: Ingvild Meinseth is open about the fact that she lost her appetite and lost a lot of weight when she was struggling the most. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news She doesn’t know what or who managed to get her out of the dark hole she had wandered into, but she thinks it helped to find some new hobbies. Pearling and looking after nails got my mind on other things. – Do you want children once? The recovery came in earnest when she slowly but surely realized that the injury did not have to mean the end of her career. – Are you, or have you ever been, afraid of how life will turn out in the future? – It has struck me many times that the best thing for health is perhaps to give up. I will have a life after sports, she says. She drags the sentence a little. She has thought a lot about this. – I do want children once, and want to be 100 per cent present and involved in the game with them. Is there a risk, if I continue with the sport, that I might get so bad that I won’t be able to lift my own children? It has struck me, she admits. – What do the doctors say, is there a risk for that? – They basically say that, as long as I keep it in check now, and don’t push when I’m in pain, it shouldn’t get any worse. It is reassuring. It is important to be smart, adapt the training and look at the day’s form, she replies. FEAR CONSEQUENCES: Ingvild Meinseth wants a future where she can play with her own children. Therefore, she has had bad thoughts about what the injury could lead to in the worst case. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news Today, two years after the peak of her career, she still has not fully returned as an athlete. Last year, the last remaining sponsors disappeared. She is now largely financing the venture alone, with good help from what she describes as very kind and generous parents. But she hasn’t given up on coming back in full force. Uncertain future This season she has even participated in a few competitions, but her form is not where it should be. She has a long way to go before she is back where she was, in the Norwegian stop. Now she is in the thinking box and is considering switching to betting on the 400 metres. Perhaps it is easier to succeed there now that she can no longer train as explosively. In any case, the big goal is the NM 2024. – Do you think a lot about where you would be today if the injuries hadn’t destroyed you? – Yes, I do. It’s crazy, I feel like I have a potential that I haven’t realized yet. At the same time, this is what gives me motivation to continue, she says. COACH: But if Ingvild Meinseth could choose, she would have trained in a different way than she is forced to do right now. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news Part of the reason why she chooses to tell her story to news in this interview is that she hopes to be of help to others who have difficult periods. She felt the effect of being a good role model when she published a post on Instagram in April 2022 and spoke openly that she was not in a good place in her life and career. She then received an extremely large amount of response, both comments and personal messages, from other young athletes who were struggling with both injuries and eating disorders. – I received many messages from girls who wrote that “your post helped me a lot”. It meant a lot. If I can be a voice for other young athletes who are going through difficult periods, that means a lot to me. Do you struggle with bad thoughts? Mental Health Norway’s helpline is open 24/7 on 116 123 or via online chat. You can remain anonymous and they are bound by confidentiality.
ttn-69
“How did I manage to end up in this situation?” – Sport Langlesing
