Ella Halvarsson was the big sensation in Swedish biathlon during the 2025 season. Two World Championship medals and suddenly a well-known name across Sweden and in the biathlon world.

26-year-old Ella Halvarsson qualified for the Olympics, but she never made it to the starting line. After winning two World Championship medals in Lenzerheide in 2025, she was nowhere near the podium this winter. The reason: her body simply did not cooperate with the Borlänge athlete.

In an interview with Expressen, Ella Halvarsson discusses all the issues she faced this winter. The disposable camera meant to capture the joy of the Olympics ended up documenting the exact opposite.

The season started positively with two top-10 finishes at home in Östersund, followed by a relay victory in Hochfilzen, Austria. Another top-10 finish in Le Grand Bornand before Christmas, but then the problems began.

Fell ill over Christmas

Ella, who rarely gets sick, contracted a severe flu after the competitions in France. With a fever over 40 degrees Celsius and minimal training over Christmas and New Year, she struggled to get back on track.

“It was fine to get going again, but the competitions in Ruhpolding were stable,” she tells Expressen. However, her placements were modest, finishing 49th and 47th.

Then she went up to altitude, which turned out to be detrimental at that time.

“My body wasn’t ready for that, and I took quite a hit. It felt really heavy, and I couldn’t train well, so my form was poor.”

Things didn’t improve when she returned to lower altitudes. She lacked the resilience to handle the training, and her form didn’t come back. With the Olympics in sight, it became stressful, a rollercoaster both physically and mentally.

Didn’t perform well at altitude

Ella Halvarsson began to realize that there would be no Olympic start during the second week of the pre-camp.

“That’s when my body started to give up, and I became really stressed,” she recounts to Expressen.

“But I had still been at altitude for two weeks. It should have started to ease up a bit, yet I could only cycle. My heart rate was sky-high the entire time.”

She couldn’t find any explanation for why it wasn’t working. Her heart rate was too high, even when she was moving slowly. A last desperate attempt before the Olympics involved taking two days completely off with just some light cycling.

“I cycled at the lowest intensity, but my heart rate was still high. I felt like I couldn’t move up here. I realized I was nowhere near being able to perform at the level expected at the Olympics.”

“That’s when I just broke down.”

Watched as a spectator – Wants to return

Thus, she took on the role of a spectator as a reserve in Antholz. A disappointing experience after being celebrated as a World Championship hero with two medals the previous year. However, Ella Halvarsson is not ready to give up, even though she needed a break after the season and now wants to change a lot in her training.

“Not everything is bleak. Sometimes you might have a disappointing season. Unfortunately, you have a bit of bad luck. There are certainly things I could have done better. If I had known I wouldn’t compete at all in the Olympics, I might not have gone to altitude at all.”

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