Helle Frederiksen

Mrs 100%

By InnerVoice

September 23^rd, 2016

my dream of becoming an Olympian

My journey to the start of my current day discipline, triathlon, was a journey that, over the course of several years, consumed me bit-by-bit. Slowly, triathlon encompassed my life and became my career focus in 2008. But it wasn’t before I had ended my 8 years as an elite swimmer, back-packed New Zealand, Australia and Asia during my gap year as a university student, and successfully completed my Master’s Degree, that I truly embarked on my journey as a professional triathlete.

While my professional journey started back in 2008, the non-professional, amateur exploration of triathlon started in 2004. I’ll never forget it! It is still clear as day; my very first “Try-A-Tri” called “Women with Power”. I wore a baggy shirt, had a bike three sizes too big, and didn’t really have any clue what I was supposed to do other than swim, bike and run as fast as I could. I won that event, but it didn’t captivate me. It would be 2 years later that I would complete my second triathlon and it was there, in 06, that sparked my dream of becoming an Olympian.

I am not good at diversifying my focus.

Did I consider quitting while I was a beginner? Now that’s a good question! I think I have a different outlook on “beginner” than some. We are all beginners at some point and when we commit to something, whether it be a physical activity, a new job, a new adventure or a completely new career path, we mustn’t consider quitting until we get what we came for. For me, personally, if I commit to something, I will never quit until I am content I have achieved everything that I could. I mean this on both a small and big scale. For example, my 2004 “Women with Power” competition; I had committed to one event so I was never going to give up, irrelevant of the outcome. Back then, however, I was not captivated enough by the challenge for it to become a focus outside of the one event, so I continued on my chosen path at that time — my education. The same is true today; I am heavily captivated by my journey and pursuit to become a consistent champion in the sport of triathlon. I will not quit this journey and neither will I look for something else until I feel I have done all I could. And that is for sure not yet.

Even within triathlon, I might look at longer distances, but that is only if I get to a point where I feel I have achieved all I could at my current distance. For the very reason I explain above, I can only give 100% to the things I commit to. I am not good at diversifying my focus. I don’t know any other way, I have to narrow my focus in order to be successful. I think the moment I feel I have achieved all I could in this sport; I will be able to step away. At least as a competitor.

I’m amazed at what the human body is capable of.

I’m amazed at what the human body is capable of and how it is able to rebuild, repair and perform if we want it to and if we believe it can. If we are unable to accept that hurt is a given part of success, we will never be successful. And, if we don’t believe we can be successful, then experience tells me we won’t. Some people never see what their body is capable of because they don’t push it to a place where it can go. They don’t have the patience to persevere over years. They are unsure of what is truly needed to get the best out of the human body; this can only be known through trying.

When I was 14, I remember I wanted to become a physiotherapist. I have always been interested in the human body and how it functions. It’s a career path that I never actually pursued. Over time, I grew a desire to become educated and capable of preventing illness and injury, as opposed to treating illness and injury, which was my view on a physiotherapist back then. It was for this reason, with thanks to my career advisor back in high-school, that I chose the route of a Bachelor Degree in Sports Science combined with a Masters Degree in Human Nutrition.

Actually, while I was doing my Bachelor Degree studies I became a spinning instructor as a means of staying active and earning some money, and it was my spinning clients that encouraged me to give triathlon a try. It’s funny how things in life come full circle like that.

I would have no regrets.

Dreams, long-term goals and commitments certainly do not come easy. Often people set their goals and before their journey has even begun they pull the plug and re-assess. Why? Because they hit a stumbling block in the road, they faced an obstacle that was not in the ‘dream’. Well, in short, the script that takes us towards our dreams and goals is very rarely written as we would like it. In order to achieve what we believe we can achieve we need to make sacrifices, we need to ride the storm and, most of all, we need to accept that pain and defeat is all part of the process of becoming successful.

I, for one, can certainly speak of this first hand. My journey to London 2012 Olympic qualification was certainly not a straightforward one, and even after qualifying I still had to overcome a lot of nightmares to reach my goal.

My London Olympic journey started as the 2008 Beijing Olympics began. I missed qualification to Beijing due to inexperience and rushed progress, which ultimately broke me. Whilst studying for my Master’s degree in Human Nutrition, I suffered with a discus prolapse. This ended all hopes of reaching the Games and also made my final months of study extremely painful and tiresome. On successful completion of my degree I made the commitment to myself to reach the London 2012 Olympics.

Since 2008 this has been my ultimate goal, certainly not my only goal but definitely the main one.

Learning from the mistakes I made before Beijing, I set about making extreme sacrifices. I committed 100% to being the best I can be. I made a conscious decision to step away from all the things that had a negative effect on my career i.e. social life, location and surroundings. I did this whilst adopting a level of professionalism and commitment that has seen me obtain one of the world’s leading support teams. I knew that, if come London 2012, I could look at myself and say I did everything I could, I would then have no regrets.

“I can only give 100% to the things I commit to. I am not good at diversifying my focus. I don’t know any other way, I have to narrow my focus in order to be successful”

My inner voice reminds me of the work I have done.

During a race my mind goes to a place of simplicity. An example could be physiological form, a technical aspect that enables me to distract my mind from the fact that I am hurting. My inner voice reminds me of the work I have done and that instills confidence in me despite things being tough.

When things get tough away from racing, my mind goes to the people in my life that are capable of making the tough times seem manageable. I think I actually could be better at this than I am.

Overall, I am incredibly stubborn that I will not lose sight of what it is that I need to do to be successful. 8 years as a professional triathlete and 6 years as an elite swimmer have enabled me to know exactly what approach I need to take.

tough lesson.

I’m incredibly inspired by people and their success stories. I take a lot of inspiration from hearing peoples’ stories, not one particular person, but people from all walks of life and abilities. As athletes we can often get wrapped up in our own little world and feel that our struggles are the only struggles. I get inspired when I see and read of people overcoming hardship and not letting life’s challenges phase them.

In 2002 my Dad unexpectedly encountered a quadruple bypass. Through my childhood my Dad provided for the household, worked incredibly long days, committed everything to his job and endured an incredibly high level of stress. It enabled myself and my two brothers to be as successful as we are today, yet seeing my Dad become far more at peace since his quadruple bypass as taught me to enjoy life’s opportunities while they are around. It was a tough lesson to learn but it impacted me enough to ensure whilst I strive to be successful at what I do, leading a balanced healthy approach to life is a must for me.

I don’t hold it against them.

For the most part I would say triathlon has impacted my relationships for the better. It has brought me my marriage to Ben, a relationship that has helped bring out the best of my career. Of course, pursuing my sport takes me away from family and friends. For the most part they understand, but unfortunately there are times where it is clear they are unable to relate to my decisions to travel the world, to pursue what it is I want to be successful at. This can be tough. But I don’t hold it against them. I have no doubt family and friends support what I do, for sure they would like me around more and it can be hard to feel that on times, but it is a part of it. And I’m sure I am not alone when I say that.