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A warm breeze with a mixed smell of chlorine, shampoo and French fries is blowing out of the ventilation shafts of the red brick building that holds the Frederiksberg swimming hall in the centre of Aarhus. Indistinct chatter is bouncing off the walls and a lot of young athletes in swimming club jerseys stretch and flex their muscles down the neon-lit entrance hallway. A lively hullabaloo of eastern Jutland youngsters, who have come together to compete over four days. Among the uniform looking swimmers with their broad shoulders, dark sports suits, alien goggles and slick caps is 18-year-old Freja Kvist, a talented swimmer from Ebeltoft, who will start her race around 11am.
On the billboard Freja’s name and number appear: She walks up to her starting position, calm and focused, stretches her arms and splashes her bathing suit with water. Some of the other competitors hit their big biceps and barrel chests with their flat hands to enhance blood circulation in a way that looks intimidating, almost painful.
There comes the sign from the referees – Ready? – the music stops, the crowd turns silent in attention, the competitors step up onto their starting blocks – Set? The swimmers simultaneously squat – a bloodcurdling honk tears the tense atmosphere: Go! Freja cuts through the air and her streamlined body pierces the water surface like an arrow.
The athletes plow through the pool, heads and arms pop up and down at a breathtaking speed until their bodies dissolve in ten parallel rocket trails of splashing water. Freja is the only para swimmer competing for Aarhus today and in this moment all eyes are set on her. The arena vibrates and the volume rises again. A commentator mentions her name: She has broken her own record! A big applause rouses from the rows of spectators. She gasps for air, rises up her head and smiles, slowly drifting over the lanes to the pool ladder. Her trainer, Line Petersen, a slim, freckled woman with a strict ponytail, congratulates her with a comradely fist bump. Her mum and dad, both overwhelmed with joy, hug and kiss her proudly.
Becoming a para athlete
Freja was diagnosed with cerebral palsy on her right side, when she was one year old. She came six weeks prematurely and lacked oxygen during birth. Symptoms vary from person to person and over time but may involve stiff or weak muscles, impaired walking ability, balance and coordination issues. When Freja was little she tiptoed and had to walk with a splint on her right leg, which was replaced as her foot grew. Regular hospital visits became part of her life as a child. When she was 14, she had her achilles tendon lengthened and screws inserted into both of her knees. Today her walk is unhindered, but for swimming she had to develop her own technique for her leg kicks.
Freja started swimming at the Ebeltoft Club in 2018 just for fun and because it was recommended for her disability. Her exceptional talent was soon discovered and one year later she switched to the bigger Aarhus Swimming Club (AGF), which changed her life completely: She now has 7–8 training sessions a week, 2 gym sessions and competitions. Weekdays are strictly structured into training, going to school, eating, homework, sleeping and repeating. Her parents are fully involved. They drive her to trainings at 04.45 am and also follow her abroad to support her at competitions. Luckily most of her friends and her boyfriend are also part of the swimming club.
Focusing on her career at AGF, she quickly developed her skills and today she attends elite competitions nationally and internationally. When she competes with able-bodied swimmers, she ‘races against her own time’, she gets a dispensation so she can‘t be disqualified. In the para swimming contests she is classified category S10 (least affected by handicap) and finds it even more exciting, as all athletes start on an equal level. In any case, she has to be a really fast swimmer. She can swim in all the required styles but her speciality is breaststroke with a newly set record from the race last year. Freja has been working very hard for a long time to reach her goal and has already won several significant Nordic medals and awards on her way. Para swimming helps her mentally as she gets the chance to go all over the world to meet other para-athletes who train with the same or different disabilities. She learns from them and enjoys following how people progress and thrive in their sport and lives. Denmark actively supports inclusion and representation of para swimmers in major international events and supports initiatives, which recruit new talents at grassroots level in local swimming clubs. At the Paralympics 2024 in Paris, two Danish athletes started for their country.
It’s all in the planning
After her race Freja relaxes her muscles with low intensity exercise in the back area of the pool. Later she walks up to her colleagues to analyse videos on an iPad and talk about their performances. For the start of the next round her cheerful teammates line up to clap and sing a chorus, which soon transforms into hearty laughter. Freja’s club means a lot to her, as they push and support each other to reach their personal goals and cheer each other up, when training gets tough. Just recently she had some problems with her back, which makes her tired even faster. Walking lots of stairs or very far is a challenge for her. The cerebral palsy will always stay part of her life, but as Freja says, “I learned to live with a little pain and exhaustion in my body and I don’t really notice it anymore.”
Swimming is what she loves most and she doesn’t want to spend her time differently. It gives her peace of mind: If she has a bad day, she can shut herself up in the pool and concentrate again. She alone controls how the training or competitions go: If she wins, she did the work herself and if it doesn’t go well, she can work harder and improve, she explains.
Freja grabs her fins and towel and heads to the changing room. Tomorrow is the last day of competition, and she needs to get some rest.
The next day Freja walks up to her starting position with her headphones on. She has a detailed plan before her race starts that she follows meticulously. It tells her when to get dressed, warm up, go to the start and much more. Her special playlist of upbeat pop music usually gives her an extra energy boost for the race. This time she swims a little bit slower and looks disappointed coming out of the water. Her coach tries to cheer her up. Freja wants to go straight home, because she feels very tired after she has been pushing her limits the last days. There’s a lot of homework that needs to be done, before she is going to the intensive training camp in Spain the following weekend.
Grounded at home
Freja got sick with an ear infection after her journey to Spain and must stay away from the water for two weeks. Her family’s modern summer house is set in a chic golf resort, as they are passionate golfers. Freja is not into the sport but she likes driving around in the golf car with her brother and enjoy the scenery. The whole family will soon move closer to Aarhus, which will make it easier to commute to her trainings. While running up and down the hills for some cardio workout, she is breathing heavily, still fighting against her illness. Back home she has to finish schoolwork for tomorrow. Although it is a challenge to juggle her schedules, she enjoys learning, especially English and social studies, which she will major in next year. When she was little, Freja wanted to become a nurse, but now she isn’t sure, what to study after her final exam. Half of her classmates at high school are sports people and don’t have much time for leisure activities besides training.
It is already dark outside when she is done with her biology report, and she must get some food. Before competitions, she sometimes changes her diet to more meat and proteins. Usually she loves ‘what her mom puts on the table’, but her parents are on holiday, so a fast snack from the supermarket will do for tonight. She has to sleep early anyway as her swim training tomorrow starts at 5:30.
Eat, Sleep, swim, repeat.
It’s dark and cold and the swimming hall is one of the few buildings in the neighbourhood already awake, lit up and ready for the day. The club members gather for a quick introduction at the poolside. Everybody is happy to see Freja back again after two weeks. Her trainer hands her a swimming board with the training plan sticked on the back. She puts her fins on, adjusts her goggles and takes a deep breath. Freja is still a little exhausted, but she wants to get fit before her next competition. After the first cold plunge, her face lights up, and with every single stroke she gains back her power.
Freja has set big goals for her professional future: She hopes to make it to the World Cup in September 2025 and to the Paralympics in 2028 in Los Angeles, one of the biggest events in the sport with 600 competitors from more than 60 countries. She believes that with hard training and mental strength you can do anything, if you really want to. “It may be extra tough in parasport sometimes, but there are so many people ready to support you in fulfilling your dreams.”
»I think it’s important for other para athletes
to know that it’s perfectly okay not to be
like everyone else, we fight just as hard
as normal people in their sport.«
