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Explore our Wearables, Experience sampling method (ESM), Sleep, Heart rate variability (HRV), Sedentary Behavior, and Physical Activity article collections for insights on related articles.
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This is the Physical Activity Researcher Podcast, a podcast for researchers of sedentary behavior, physical activity, and sports. Join for a relaxed dialogue about research design, practicalities, and, well, anything related to research. Learn from your fellow researchers useful and relevant information that does not fit into formal content and limited space of scientific publications. And here is your host, researcher and entrepreneur, Ollie Tickenit. Welcome everyone. We have a very special guest for this episode. She is a European champion in Long Jump and Hepaflon, three-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist in Hepatlon. She's been working in the Generation PEP project from 2016 and Generation PEP is a non-profit organization promoting physical activity and healthy eating behaviors among children and youth in Sweden. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our guest Carolina Cluft. Welcome Carolina. Thank you so much. Yeah, nice to have you in the podcast. So if we start a little bit with your athletic career, it's now a little bit over 10 years after your retirement. How do you how do you look back those here? How do you reflect it? Well, right now I feel like my athletic career is a long, long time ago. You know, when 10 years pass and it happened so much in my life since I ended my career, I think it feels like it was a completely different life of course. But I remember when I think about my athletic career, I have of course many, many great memories, great friends, great adventures, a lot of challenges, both ups and downs like an athlete career usually are. So I have, but I have mostly I have great memories and great experiences that I have been using after my career in my in my new life as a more normal person working more like 85, having kids and family. But I think my athletic career has helped me a lot to challenge myself and to also handle different situations that I've been facing during these years. And how was the transition from elite athlete to normal life? Well, it was it was not that hard for me. I can definitely see that it could be. It's a it's a big change in your life. It's a big change in who you are and what you do when your identity is so connected to your athletic career. So I definitely see that it could be very difficult for me. I had some sorrow and you know, it's like saying goodbye to an old friend at the time when I quit it. So the weeks around my last competitions when I did my my last competition was Fin Campan, you know, the big big match against Finland. We were in Gothenburg and I had this farewell party and it was it was I was a lot of joy but also a lot of, you know, sorrow to say goodbye. But but after a few weeks I was already determined to do new things and I started study and I had a lot of plans and a lot of things I wanted to do that I couldn't do when I was an athlete. So the transition was quite okay for me, I would say, and then you just start coming in new possibilities for me. The athlete career opened up a lot of new doors and I had a lot of a lot of connections through through my athlete career. So yeah, I think the transition was in the end quite good for me and I was happy with my decision that I made myself to quit. Then I was also happy and very curious about my new life. Yeah, sounds nice. And how is your approach now for sport and exercise? Have you have you done any hip at learn as a hobby? No, no I have not but but still I would say that athletics through the training of athletics is, you know, when you train at let it is is about a lot of physical training with, you know, conditioning training. It's it's it's strength. It's a lot of running and these kind of different things you do as an athlete and I still do that. If I just can go out and do something it would still be athletic training but I don't do so much. I have of course played around with techniques as well. I did some high jump or played some long jump when I see and and now I have kids so I try to play with them of course but it's not like I do it for a hobby. It's not like I'm competing anymore and I think for me that was maybe one of the keys not to you know stay in my old life. I needed to do new things and I have training for me had been such a big part of my life and suddenly I could do other things so I have kept training because I've I for me it's you know the foundation of of feeling good but nowadays it's more like the physical activity I do is not only training but it's just move around in my daily life be with the kids you know play around with them be outside and I would say completely different from what I had before. Yeah and I think for many elite athletes the transition is probably more challenging than for you. What do you see as the factors that you are able to transition and maybe change your identity quite easily from elite athlete to normal person or whatever the identity would be cool. Yeah it's a good question is it's not that easy to answer because I think a lot of people are different you have your individual challenges and I think I found my keys I don't know if that's the truth and it's not one thing it's of course a puzzle maybe but first of all I think it was because during my athlete career I was not only Carolina Cliff the athlete in my own in my own perspective I always saw myself for being more than an athlete I always saw myself being more than my success I always asked myself who would I be who am I if I'm not succeeding on the track if I'm not doing what people expect me to do and I work really really hard during my athlete career with my self-esteem and that has more to do with who I am and not what I do. If you could say like that and myself confidence may might be more related to my athlete career I had a lot of self-confidence in being an athlete but I still thought that I would good I was good enough without my athlete career so when I started I just needed to practice new things to hire myself confidence in new challenges but my self-esteem was quite the same because I always knew that I'm good enough whether I'm an athlete or not and I worked really hard it was not easy all day now it sounds my maybe that it was easy but I really really worked hard with this bit because it was not worth it for me to be an athlete if I would only be fine as long as I'm a success or as long as I do good results and for me that was giving me too much pressure and my life cannot depend on my athlete career that's something that I do for bonus it's fun it's challenges I'd learn new things about it but cannot define who I am so that was one key so so I was not so I was not totally fundamental connected with my athlete as an as my identity my identity was always has always been more and now I took one piece out and I tried to put new pieces in and what I also try to do was not to compare the old piece with the new piece I knew that the experience I have as an athlete being my best shape go into a big stadium with full people around me and and you know to be in a big Olympic championship or world championship it's not to be compared with the new piece that I have this is new feelings new experiences and I don't want to be disappointed of this new piece I want to be curious about the new piece so I decided not to compare my life as good as I can and in my new piece there was being a mother start to work as a host for Olympic I was the Olympic Games I was the host for Swedish television and I started to work at Generation Pepin so a new pieces came into my life and and I was challenged and I was curious and I had so much fun with these those new pieces and I never compared it with the other one and I also had good support around me I would say I felt safe with my friends my family I had good support with I also got a new job and I could quickly translate I got a new job a new income I didn't have to live still be part of my that career as much so I was also lucky in that sense yeah sounds really good and you said that you did this identity work self-esteem work was it mainly because of the pressure from being an idol being successful or did you already think about the retirement that how do you transition you both I would say I started working with my self-esteem early early I had early success I was successful I won my first European champions as a 19 year old I had my first world championship junior gold when I was 17 so so because I had success so early and I was in the you know the age of when you're 16 17 18 a lot of things happened and and it was hard for me not not that I was I loved my sport it was not that part but you know I just need I just felt that I need to work with myself I need to ask myself questions already in this in this I cannot just do this I has to ask myself why I do it I cannot do it because others expect me to do it or expect me to be good expect me to win gold I need to have my passion from within so I started to work with myself esteem and to be able to separate and not totally but try to separate a little bit who I am and what I do you know my person and my what what I compete and what I do on the track is two different things you know so I work with it really early and really hard in the beginning but and I also a part of that what was always to remember that this is a part of your life you will do other things in the future you retire from an athlete career before you retire as a professional working professional or being having a job so it will be a life coming after the athlete career I didn't thought about it that much because I was so focused on my athlete career but for being good athlete I knew if I would be the best athlete I need to also understand that I'm more than an athlete so therefore just to being a good athlete I also studied on the side I went to the university sometimes not full-time but I do some courses here and there I spent time with my friends I spent time with my families I did go on vacation when it could be a good you know a good timing in my training so everything I did was to be a great athlete but I knew I would not be a great athlete just by training I need to be a good athlete if I have a balance in my life and that helped me yeah sounds like a very good approach I think getting success in a young age and and the pressure I think it can go wrong quite many ways it was hard sometimes I've been working hard with my own my own doubts and and pressure from outside and it's been hard work people say to me when they saw me competing oh it looked so easy you just went out there you had fun you smile and everything went great yes when I was on the track that's what exactly what I felt it was easy because I had done the hard work before on every training I was thinking about how to perform how to be the best of myself this day and I also worked with my how to recover how to be balanced in my head it's hard work all the time both the training and the mentally part so it was really easy when I was on the track everything was just I'm ready for this this is my home this is where I feel home now it's I'm ready to to do my thing so so it's not been in an easy but I I knew I had to do it or else it wouldn't be worth it I would have quit I think do you have any advice for possible young athletes listening this other than what you have already said what would be your your advice from my advice I would say to never forget that you are a person with feelings you're not a machine that can only make good results good results day after day and day after day you will always be your person and you have to deal with your doubts with your feelings with different things that we set for some it will be in this way for some it will be in that way so we are individuals but never forget that to take care of the whole person that you are that can perform and can't be this I was really disappointed if I didn't perform good I mean the performance for me was really important I did my very best I trained hard to be my very best but if I did not succeed I didn't tell myself that you were you are worthless person I'm still the same person but I'm really disappointed on my performance and I will do this and this and this better for the next time but don't be so hard on yourself as a person be hard on your performance fine but don't connect it with too hard with who you are that you you do your best you have your ambitions you do your best and that's maybe the most important part the results is something that will sometimes be good sometimes be bad because of different circumstances you can only do your best and you will see how far you can go you can be disappointed on your performance but be be nice to yourself very good advice how is it when you look back would you change anything do you see anything for example contributing to injuries that you had is there anything you would do differently if you'd get the second friend it's really really difficult to say I mean of course I trained really hard I trained at the most 12 practices a week but it also took me to this success I have a lot of gold medals I had a lot of success and if I if I didn't push myself that hard maybe I wouldn't have all these experiences and challenges and gold medals and for me it's even if I have maybe make the stage during the way I have made mistakes have maybe I pushed myself too hard sometimes I have not listened to the inner voice that said well you don't feel on your talk today maybe you should take a step back but I have pushed myself because that was the way I was I was pushing pushing pushing I needed to have a coach really sometimes taking me away because I was pushing myself to so hard and of course I have made mistakes I have pushed myself too hard and maybe I should have told myself back then back off you know listen to what your body says to you you are not on top today you need to listen or else you will get injured but it's also part of life of pushing you and sometimes you'd learn so much from it and I would say I'm not a person that regrets things maybe so much it's in all failures and all mistakes they're also very very important knowledge and you will learn new things about yourself so I don't think I would change anything actually so like that even if there are things that I'm not proud of or things that I could have done differently it was lessons they taught me a new way forward it might not had shaped the one I am today and it's difficult to know where is the limit how hard you can push if you don't cross it like only by crossing you know that now I did hard enough and little bit too much but without going over sometimes you don't really know where it is yeah and I think sometimes it's I think more people maybe don't reach their maximum potential because they're too scared to push there are definitely people that push themselves too far so and they have to learn to listen earlier but you know the society we have today is both you know we push each other and we push our young kids in some way when it comes to results and performance too hard too early let them have their time to learn about themselves and be nice to themselves so it's two different things but you cannot go around and all all the time be afraid of failing or afraid of not succeeding and afraid of what will happen if I would take a chance here or take a leap here you will probably found out new things about yourself so it's a it's a balance push yourself but be nice to yourself I would say push yourself to work hard but be nice to yourself when you evaluate the results great advice thanks for joining us this week on physical activity research through podcast if you like the show make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing or following the show on Twitter this podcast is made possible by listeners like you thank you for your support if you found value in the show we would really appreciate rating on Apple podcast or whichever app you use or if you would in a real old-school way simply tell a friend about the show it would be great help for us we have a fantastic lineup of guests before coming episodes so be sure to tune in thank you all for your support and have a great day
