It did not take many minutes before the phone rang out at the summer place on Gotland. TV interviews and all the other congratulations in Tokyo had to wait – first Josefin Olsson would talk to those who meant the most to her sailing career: mother Bodil and father Mats.
– She’s overjoyed. She said that of course it had been a tough race, says Mats Olsson about the conversation.
– We have been involved all the way until she joined SOK’s Top and Talent. We drove around her all over Europe by motorhome. It was Italy, France, Mallorca and a few places like that. We have acted as both parents and coaches and helped her throughout the journey.
He himself is the former chairman and competition leader of Oxelösund’s sailing club, the same club that can now take the honor of having trained Sweden’s latest medalist in the Olympics.
After that with excitement have followed Josefin Olsson in the decisive final race, where she finished first and at the same time secured a silver medal, he states:
– She has her entire basic sailing upbringing in Oxelösund. That is why she is so incredibly good at sailing in headwinds, especially when there are waves. It is so open in Oxelösund and when it blows southwest or south, she gets a fantastic headwind with waves that she can surf and train on.
– The downwind is one of her strengths, so Oxelösund has meant a lot to her. She clearly enjoyed it today as well.
Josefin Olsson was born in 1989, grew up in Nyköping and learned to sail already at the age of four or five. She started competing in the optimist class before she was recruited by Motala sailing high school and later changed club to the Royal Swedish Sailing Society, KSSS.
In 2008 she became world champion in e-dinghy, the forerunner of the ladies’ Olympic branch laser radial, and after coming sixth in Rio 2016, the parents may have had hopes of a bronze medal in Tokyo. But that she would be only three points behind the Danish gold medalist Anne-Marie Rindom and come before the reigning Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester exceeded their expectations.
– Before the Olympics, I thought there was more than a theoretical chance to fight for a medal, especially for the bronze. Bouwmeester and Rindom have been a bit in a class of their own. But on the other hand, Josefin has been involved and disturbed them a number of times and was about to win the latest World Cup. So I thought there was a medal chance, of course.
Josefin Olsson got off to a heavy start at the Olympics and was far from the top initially – but performed better as he did and delivered his best sailing when needed most.
– It is quite typical of her character, says dad Mats. She has a huge winner’s skull and a hard forehead.
What do you think about the media attention Josefin gets after this?
– It’s just fun for her after all the hard work and effort she has put in all these years to achieve this enormous success.
– Josefin Olsson’s parents Bodil and Mats.
Photo: Private.
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