Season prep interview with: Emma Ribom

Little Vasaloppet win, gold in Junior and under23 World Championships, podiums in World Cup, illnesses and the strong desire for an Olympic medal. Paolo Romanò had a chat with the Swedish skier, Emma Ribom before the season starts.

During last season, everything was going well in summer and autumn training for Swedish cross-country skier Emma Ribom.She had prepared everything in perfect way, in order to be at her best already for the beginning of the winter season. Then she could fight as much as she could to overcome the tough internal "trekroner" selections and have the opportunity to fly to China to be able to compete in her first Olympic Games. This was the dream she had since she was a child, when she put on skis for the first time in the little but idyllic Swedish city of Kalix. To compete in the greatest winter sport event and put a medal around her neck was a dream she had worked for so long

Greate pre-season 
During summer of 2021, Emma had taken part in all three competitions that are part of the greatest Swedish rollerski summer event, the Trollhättan Action Week: sprint, 15km interval start and the 48 km’s mass start competitions. Well, during that weekend at the end of August, Ribom won all the three events showing a confidence and a condition already close to the optimal one which well prefigured what she might finally demonstrate during the upcoming winter. In the Swedish town of Västergötland, the blonde cross-country skier had allowed herself to beat rivals who boasted a more noble past and skiers who would have fought with her to get a ticket to China. As a demonstration of her completeness and versatility that she had already shown in flashes in previous seasons, in the sprint she had left behind Dahlquist and Lampic, in the 15km, among others, Andersson and Kalla and in the 48km, Korsgren and Sömskar who have been for years in the elite of the Visma Ski Classic circuit.

But with this already almost perfect shape and all the profitable work done during the summer preparation, it was really thoug for Emma when she got the at the beginning of November and which forced her to postpone her seasonal debut to the second World cup stage in Lillehammer. The week after, although still not at the best of her shape, she competed and Ribom was able to end the sprint in fourth position.
Still in the sprint, the following week in Davos, she reached the final but finished in sixth place.At the turn of the Christmas holidays, a new relapse due to seasonal sickness, imposes a new stop. Those two top six results, however, allow her to get a place in the Swedish team selected for the Beijing 2022 Olympics. In the land of the dragon, the 24-year-old Norbotten native, got a good sixth place in the free technique sprint. In China she also took part in the 10km classic and in the 30km mass start but without give rise to a great impression.
Back in Europe for the final World Cup’s stages, Ribom gets the second career podium, finishing second the sprint in Lahti. With shape that was on the rise again, Covid 19 imposed a new stop to Emma before Holmenkollen week, affecting then her condition and results in the season final month.

Season 2021-22, that the Scandinavian girl, lived like a roller coaster due to the alternation between races and sickness stops, but that she still stays positive despite the continuous pause in training that have slowed down her development from November till end of season:

"I learned a lot from last season because in Lahti. Even though I missed several races I qualified for my first Olympic Games and made the podium in the sprint. So I learned to always look ahead and not to stress myself too much, because there is very little you can do against disease. However, I realize that despite all those problems and not having had the best opportunities to complete the best preparation, I skied fast during the races that I was able to ski. Regarding next season, I think we have a good plan with my coach to do better preparation and I hope that next season we will have a chance to do what we really want to do before the season starts. I'm really excited to see my true value with the full preparation we have in mind. "

Complete preparation and cancellation of sick days are currently her only obstacles to be able to aspire to the hypothetical title of "breakthrough athlete awards" for the next season and to demonstrate from the first to the last race in calendar a potential expressed only in flashes during the past seasons in her still young career. In her homeland, Emma jumps to the headlines when she is only 15 years old and won the small Vasaloppet reserved for skiers still in youth age.In international level, her name is highlighted for the first time during the Junior World Championships in Rasnov 2016, where she contributes in first leg to get gold medal to the Swedish girls in relay. As a demonstration of her completeness in both technique and distance, the Kalix's native makes her World Cup debut in March 2019 in the Holmenkollen temple, finishing 26th the 30km mass start with classic style.

In the following season she takes another step forward by winning gold medal in the free technique sprint of the Under23 World Championships in Oberwiesenthal adding also two bronzes in the other two distance races. During her third World Cup season, she hits the first career’s podium in Valdifiemme sprint, finishing then her first Tour de Ski at the twenty-first place.

These are the main successes achieved so far by a girl who starting from the Northern city who boast the production of the best caviar of Sweden of Kalix, well supported by her dad Johan and her mom Kerstin, then moved in high school age to the even more northern Gällivare to successfully attend the local and prestigious skigymnasium to follow the footsteps of fellow countrymen, Charlotte Kalla, Marcus Hellner and Niklas Jonsson, all capable of claiming the individual Olympic title.

How was it for you growing up and living in Kalix, a small town in Swedish Norbotten? Is it a nice place to practice sport and cross-country skiing?

«It has been really nice growing up and living in that little but charming place with my lovely family. During my childhood together with practice skiing I also played football and basketball. There I really loved being active and practice different sport and being mainly outside. With my family we had great fun doing long walk in the mountains and go skiing during winter season. In Kalix you have a lot of opportunitys to practice sport in general, of course the fact that we have long winters with natural snow and tracks from beginning of November till end of April, facilitate boys and girls who choose to practice winter sport in general. We are lucky with that. So I was a really happy child during my life there.»

What are your memories of Ungdomvasan 2013 that you won when you were 15y.o.?

The world started to know Emma Ribom when you won gold with the Swedish relay at the 2016 Rasnov World Junior Championships. Is that your biggest victory so far?
«Yes. Maybe. It was really cool winning that relay with the team in that occasion. Norway team was the favorite before the start, but we were able to beat them in final sprint. All the other three girls (Elina Rönnlund, Ebba Andersson, Jenny Solin) are still a really good friend of mine because at that time we trained a lot together with the junior national team in that season. But then I did some other great races in U23 World Championships in Oberwiesenthal, getting the gold in sprint. So when I look back to my career so far, those races are really valuable to me and of course going to my first Olympics in Beijing and the two World Cup podiums are in a really high position in my personal chart.»

Why did you choose cross-country skiing on a professional level, instead of being a biathlete, a footballer, a doctor or a lawyer for example? What is special about cross-country skiing for you?
«I think I choose cross-country skiing because I like being on my own and don’t cares too much about teammates, because I used to play football for a long time also and I remember the fact that other girls sometimes didn’t give their best compromising the result of the match. While doing cross-country ski I can always do my job counting only on my abilities. I am interested in stuff that imply to find my own way and do better in different small stuff. I love doing my own thing and cross-country discipline is a perfect way to do that.»

How different are you as a person now, compared to the Emma who won gold at Rasnov at 18 y.o?
«I think I have accomplished a lot since that edition. I become a professional skier and grow up both as a human being outside my job but also as a skier. I now believe more in myself than I was when I was a teenager, gaining more confidence during training. I think I have grown up a lot since that first period of my career.»

Usually every athlete sets a goal before a World Cup, World Championship or Olympics event. But when you don't get that result you set out for, what is your reaction? What comes to your mind during the following days? Do you elaborate that result or the reason of that in your mind for many more days?
«Of course a sense of disappointment remain in me for some days and I feel sad. But after some hours from that race I try to look forward and I think how I can do better for the next time and being a better skier. The following days I start to think about new training session, strategy or stuff like that. I think that a good thing to try to forgot delusions even if disappointment remains in me. In some occasions It happens also that I try to erase this bad race and put it right behind my back.»

Let's talk about your skiing technique, elegant and powerful at the same time in my opinion. What does your personal coach think about this? And you´re personal opiniont as well?

What is your mistake in technique or in tactic during competitions that is more often pointed out by your coaches?
«I have worked a lot in last couple of years in being more stable on skis and get more power to put on in front of my skis and not on side as I used to seasons ago. Another think is that my movement is better standing on one leg rather than the other. I am trying to eliminate that. Outside of the ski tracks, I have worked a lot on the gym to be stronger and get more power so I can put more of this power on the tracks. About tactics there is always space to improve even if things on this side are going better during the last couple of years and one thing I used to do wrong was to start too fast especially in distance races. I worked in gaining more resistance throughout the race. In sprint I worked a lot in being already strong in qualification, because of this I think I can do better in the following heats too.»

In Swedish nationals, in Scandinavian Cup and in some World Cup races you proved to be also a valid all-rounder skier. What do you think your potential could be in the distances also in Planica World Championships or Tour de ski? 
«I like to do both, sprint and distance races. And about distance I think in the women side races are going faster and faster and that will be good for a skier with my characteristics. In the past with tracks not too hard and faster I proved I did well also in races with more than 10km, and I do hope to be better on this also in future. According to new format, next year Holmenkollen will be a 50km for women too and that will be a bit crazy but interesting and cool at the same time to do.»

Swedish girls have been dominant in sprint in last four/five years. What is special about you?
«We are such a strong and competitive team, but I don’t have a proper answer about this fact that we Swedish girls are so many and all so strong in sprint mainly. We don’t know how the other nations are training but for for us is good that we train together mostly all the year along, so we can push each other in every training and being a better skier day after day. Also getting a bib for competing in World Cup or Olympics for us is always a fight and you have to give all the time more than your 100% if you want to beat my compatriots and then getting podiums or medals. I think in sprint we all start races really fast and we have a good position in the beginning of our batteries that is a good starting point in finishing in top position at the end of the race.»

Cross-country skiers practically in every season have your own constant path. Training camps almost always in the same locations, races in the same places, and you see around the same faces during races. How do you deal this constant routine to keep your motivation high?
«Actually I love the life of the cross-country skier and I love the fact of having my routine in training and repeating them day after day. I love that lifestyle because together with races we have the opportunity to see beautiful places that would have been harder not being a professional skier. I enjoy being outside in nature during summer training or on beautiful snow tracks in winter. But inside this constant routine is also interesting being every season in new places. For example me and Jonna Sundling this summer had a training camp in Lavazè and it was our first time there. So this kind of things and passion we had, keep me interested and well motivated in trying also something new.»

After your last 2034 Olympics, will you be happy with your career if....?
«My dream and my goal from many years back was to take an Olympic and World Championships medals. I worked hard for that and next winter I have again this opportunity in Planica WCH and I will fight hard for that. Then of course I look forward to next Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Games that hopefully will be my second winter Olympics after the good experience I got last season in Beijing. So getting a medal in those big events will complete my career dreams I had since I was a little child.»