It has been a quiet summer for Frida Karlsson. In an honest post, she now opens up about performance pressure and an increasingly data-driven sport.

Throughout the summer and into the fall, Frida Karlsson has followed her own training plan, skipping several Swedish national team camps. After a lengthy rehabilitation due to a troublesome foot, she has gradually resumed full training.

But on social media, the Swedish national team star has been silent.

Also Read: Frida Karlsson training pain-free ahead of Olympic season

“It’s been a while”

This week, Frida Karlsson spoke out on Instagram. She says she is tired of chasing nearly unattainable measurable values and following research slavishly.

“Training-wise, as usual, there have been ups and downs, and I’ve done a lot right and surely plenty wrong. But I’ve actually been thinking a bit about that,” she writes, continuing:

“Should we, athletes, really always strive for perfection? Follow research slavishly? Or is it okay to sometimes be a bit like Frida—fast and messy??”

Sport is becoming more mechanical

The 26-year-old feels that sport is becoming increasingly mechanical and data-driven, reduced to measurable values and results. It’s a development she wants to move away from.

“I’ve always been told: to be the best, you have to go your own way. But with theories, research, and optimization, athletes have started to become more like machines than people,” she writes and continues:

“Everyone trains almost the same, follows all the latest studies, and gets tested the same way. Listens more to heart rate, lactate meters, and sleep rings than to their own body and gut feeling. We risk losing what’s unique—the unpredictable, the human, the fun.”

Letting go of control

For Karlsson, it is clear that this is about more than just tests and research.

“Of course, knowledge and research are important. But that special spark that some athletes have cannot be measured in any lab. It’s about creativity, passion, and courage. About loving the challenge. The ability to push boundaries. The best—the exceptional—the optimal for each individual has no universal formula.”

Frida, who has 13 World Championship medals and one Olympic medal, has previously hinted that she may retire in the foreseeable future—not least because she wants to fill her life with more than a constant chase for margins.

“So maybe it’s time to let go of control a little. Make room for play, for art, for feeling. Because when sport becomes more than just performance, then I believe something magical happens,” she concludes.

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