SWEDEN/FILE: ATHLETICS: Swedish Olympic champion Carolina Kluft will not defend her heptathlon title in Beijing

Record ID: 329474

  • Title: SWEDEN/FILE: ATHLETICS: Swedish Olympic champion Carolina Kluft will not defend her heptathlon title in Beijing
  • Date: 20th March 2008
  • Summary: HELSINKI, FINLAND (AUGUST 8, 2005) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CAROLINA KLUFT POSING IN SPONSOR'S CAR
  • Embargoed: 4th April 2008 13:00
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  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVACTLA4ZAMSGTZG30UZTGROL25K
  • Story Text: Swedish Olympic champion Carolina Kluft announces she will not defend her heptathlon title in Beijing saying she lacks the required motivation and will instead focus on long jump and triple jump.
    Olympic champion Carolina Kluft said on Wednesday (March 19) that her decision not to compete in heptathlon at the Beijing Olympics had come gradually but that she was sure she had made the right decision.
    Kluft, the winner of 19 heptathlon events in a row, said she did not have the motivation, nor the necessary commitment to go through with the rigourous preparations required for a major competition.

    "I felt that the motivation and the joy and inspiration wasn't enough to go through with what is required, the complete commitment needed ahead of the Olympic Games." she said.

    "I feel that I don't have the motivation for heptathlon - I've lost it and there are probably many reasons for it, but now I feel that the joy and motivation lies in another discipline," she added.
    The 25-year-old said she would, however, compete in the long jump and triple jump in Beijing.
    Kluft burst onto the scene as a bubbly 19-year-old when she won the 2002 European championships in Munich and has reigned undefeated since, raking in gold medals and adulation.
    At the 2003 world championships in Paris, she finished on 7,001 points to win gold ahead of Eunice Barber and became only the third woman to break the 7,000 points barrier.
    At the Athens Olympics a year later Kluft joined high jumper Stefan Holm and triple jumper Christian Olsson as they brought home a three-gold athletics haul for Sweden.
    Asked if the withdrawal from her trademark sport was permanent, the three-time world champion said she was "at least done for now" and that the decision has been both hard and easy.

    "Easy, because I have felt what I really wanted to do but it's been hard to find out what the reason for it was and to find the courage to take the decision, that hasn't been easy.
    Kluft said that now that the decision had been made, she felt it was the right one.

    "I feel very motivated and hungry to start training ahead of this summer," she said.
    She said she had been considering to stop competing in heptathlon for the last two years but felt she needed to really think it through before coming to a decision. She said the turning point came after the World Championships in Osaka, where she claimed her third consecutive world gold, a feat even American world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee was unable to accomplish.
    She crushed all opposition and set a personal best of 7,032 points, second on the all-time heptathlon points list with only Kersee ahead of her with 7,291.

    "After the World Championships in Osaka last summer, I felt an emptiness and readiness to change direction. But I still wasn't quite sure if that was really the case and wanted to give myself some more time, have more of a dialogue with myself to be really sure, because it has been a very big decision for me," she said.
    Along with her sporting success, the photogenic Kluft has charmed audiences around the world with her spontaneity and desire to keep a sense of humour while competing.
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