Retirement of Bergqvist

Swedish High Jumper Kajsa Bergqvist, the 2005 World Champion has just recently announced that her athletic career is over, after spanning a peaking performance of the sport for over 15 years. She states to the press that this decision wasn't made brashly or suddenly, and that it had been a rational outcome of a process that has been going on for a year. This process in question refers to her enthusiasm for training and competition, and how said enthusiasm has dropped significantly, to the point where she no longer has the drive to stay competing.


Bergqvist had her last meet of the summer in Zurich, after which she took a big break for a couple of months, hoping that her passion for the sport would come alive again. Unfortunately, her enthusiasm never came back, even with the potential chances for victory in the upcoming Beijing Olympics. It is impossible to be competitive in the world arena without passion for the sport.


Her resignation has nothing to do with her health, as she is physically fine with no injury problems whatsoever. But after fifteen years of competition and training, high jumping has made her weary, and she has come to the point where she felt that her mission to the sport was already finished.


She acknowledges that she will probably have moments of regret, or a little sadness, especially when she watches the High Jump competition in the Beijing Olympics. However, she doesn't feel any of those things now, and will instead, opt to look back at her successful career with pride and joy.


She will always keep in contact with the sport, with athletics being a major point of her life for so many years, but she will be looking at it through a different viewpoint now. She had entered a new phase of life that she has longed for-- which began with marriage to her long-time boyfriend, and moving back to her hometown, Stockholm, after staying in Monaco for so long.