Jenny Rissveds: The hard way back to the top

RF
May 8, 2020
12:00 pm
Complete

For a long time, Swedish mountain biker Jenny Rissveds was considered a model racer who won medal after medal. But her fragile nature harbored dangers. Under the pressure of success that partners, the public and federations exerted on her early on, she seemed to crack until she quit the sport and wanted nothing more to do with it for two years. Last year, she bounced back with a new Team 31 of her own, working her way up from race to race until she won the 2019 Lenzerheide World Cup. A crying fit at the finish line was the result. She thus proved that she is a true champion, because a true champion never gives up. Now the Olympics await her. Can and will she defend her title?

by Rolf Fleckenstein

It feels like hardly any time has passed since Jenny Rissveds beamed at us from our cover of the first issue 1/2014 six years ago. Back then, she was in a celebratory mood, obviously doing well, still racing for the Scott-Odlo Racing Team, conquering podium after podium, with her greatest triumphs still ahead of her. Jenny's world still seemed perfectly fine, but a dark force was already lurking in the distance, waiting for her to stumble. Her results between 2011 and 2016 are a testament to the young Swede's constant and growing success in mountain biking: multiple Swedish champion in various disciplines, countless podiums and victories in the World Cup, leader of the World Cup rankings, bronze medal at the World Championships (U23) and then anno 2016 her greatest successes with the gold medal at the World Championships (U23) and gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, thus achieving the highest possible goals of her sport. Everything seemed perfect, absolute happiness and that could have continued now, but then the breakdown and the break with the international competition.

The break with the international mountain biking
At the time of the World Championships and the Olympics, you could always hear the annoying bickering in the background, how the Swedish national federation and sponsors, especially the Scott-Odlo Racing Team at the time, fought over which sponsors had to represent Jenny Rissveds at the international competitions, e.g. which helmet brand and which outfit she could or had to wear, and in the process, ruthless and powerful pressure was exerted on the delicate athlete. In one's early 20s, one is not yet as psychologically and mentally stable as a person with considerable life experience, one is impressionable and one cannot yet defend oneself so well against the pressure exerted by third parties. Due to the events and the strong reaction of Jenny Rissveds - she left the Scott-Odlo team despite her huge successes, which says a lot about the relationship with this team - one must suspect that too much pressure was put on the young athlete by the sponsors and partners until she could do no more than pull the rip cord.

Burnout?
A lot of information doesn't come through from Jenny herself about the difficult time, and I think it would be presumptuous to expect someone involved to be able to professionally analyze the background to her reaction and break with the sport itself. But when someone turns away from a group, there must be a conflict between the two. But was there more? Today Jenny talks about helping children to be able to develop ...