N°29 – Aiming for the Games

Stockholm, 3rd July
I was born with an eye disease called glaucoma, which basically means that the pressure in the eyes is too high. In other words, I’m blind.

I became blind when I was six, but it wasn’t dramatic or anything. My parents didn’t make it a big deal, so it wasn’t for me either. I just went on with life. My vision wasn’t that great even before I was six, so it wasn’t such a huge difference for me.

I grew up in a very active family. I’ve always known that I’m different in some aspects, but on the other hand we have always done the same things we would do if I was fully sighted. We have been skiing and sailing and, of course, cycling too.

I’m part of the Swedish national paracycling team. I compete in tandem cycling. And, as you read these lines, I’m still waiting for the final answer regarding my selection for the Paralympics Games in Paris.

Sport has always been very important to me and of course, cycling is my top priority at the moment. To qualify for the Paralympics, you need to be determined and sort of pause quite a lot of things in your life. I try to view the Paralympics as my current mission to give myself the opportunity to really focus on it, because the most important thing for me is to feel that I have done everything I can to go as far as possible.

I want to show other people, of course, but primarily myself, that I can do whatever I want. My goal is basically to say “Okay, I want to do this. Okay, do I really want to do this? Yes I do. Okay, let’s do that!”. Then I sort of adapt how I will achieve that, taking into consideration the fact that I’m blind.

My blindness always comes second, and what I want to do is my first priority.

I wouldn’t say that it’s positive or negative, or that I can do everything and that there are no limits. There are limits, but I just try to accept them as much as possible, and work around them when I can. Of course there are things that I can’t do, but most things I can do – I might just have to do it differently.

Louise

Louise is a driven woman who always pushes herself to excel. At the moment, she is preparing for the Paralympics, but already needs to plan for the next move in her career –all of that, whilst living with a disability.

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