Here is the google translate version of the interesting interview:
Called horror: "Saw the doping headlines"
Reveals the concerns in the new book "Shame on those who give"
Jonathan Knekta
Updated 2023-11-03 | Published 2023-10-31
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Charlotte Kalla was just one miss away from being punished for doping offences.
She reveals this in her autobiography "Shame on those who give"
"I understood just how close I was to razing my entire existence." she tells.
Earlier this year, Swedish tennis star Mikael Ymer was suspended for failing three doping tests.
In the autobiography "Shame on those who give", which is released on Tuesday, Charlotte Kalla reveals that she was a missed stay report from meeting the same fate at the end of her career.
An icy cold spread through the skiing star's body when she picked up the phone after the roller skiing session at home in Sundsvall in May 2021.
"A message. Seventeen missed calls. All from the same number.
The number was familiar but I wasn't quite sure who called. I pressed the screen, heard the voice and immediately understood what had happened.
It became difficult to breathe because of the terror that washed over me.” she says in the book.
Also read: Charlotte Kalla's rage against Peter Settman's kiss at the Sports Gala
Charlotte Kalla during a training session in 2021.
Charlotte Kalla during a training session in 2021.
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Photo: ANDERS DEROS / Schibsted
Second miss in a short time
As an active member, she would write in the ADAMS reporting system three months in advance a place where she could be found for an hour every single day for a doping control. Three weeks earlier, she had forgotten to change her location to Östersund, where she was for a meeting before the Olympics in Beijing 2022, instead of her home in Sundsvall.
It was messy, but not a disaster.
Now she was just a dot, a single mistake, away from being punished for doping offences. Anyone who has three mistakes in the stay reporting within a twelve-month period will be suspended for at least twelve months.
"In the stay report it said that I would be available between 07:00 and 08:00, but I had forgotten to double-check that. When I stepped out on the pass, I was so sure that I had reported 06:30-07:30.
I left at 07:45. The doping controllers came eight minutes later.”
Charlotte Kalla.
Charlotte Kalla.
Photo: Anders Deros
"I saw the headlines in front of me"
Charlotte Kalla describes how everything came to a halt when she heard the doping inspector's voice on the phone when she called back after all the missed calls.
"I understood just how close I was to razing my entire existence. I saw the headlines in front of me if I was careless one more time:
'COLLY FIRED FOR DOPING'
That was how my career would end. Everything I had done would be questioned. The image of my character would crack. The awards and medals in the locker I just passed would be completely worthless.
No one would want to see the whole picture, bother with explanations, or want to hear excuses for carelessness. One more miss would put a stamp on me that couldn't be removed:
Convicted of doping.
What I did was far from doping, but it was a mistake in a system that elite sport needed. And it was my responsibility to make sure I did the right thing.”
Charlotte Kalla and her partner Fredrik Karström at the Sports Gala in January this year.
Charlotte Kalla and her partner Fredrik Karström at the Sports Gala in January this year.
Photo: Jesper Zerman / Bildbyrån
Didn't dare tell
She needed to talk to her partner Fredrik directly. Her sisters would eventually become some of the few who knew the secret she carried. No one in what was called "Team Kalla" was told anything.
The shame was too great to tell and the black cloud of worry would follow her career for the rest of her career. Not least during the long journey from the training camp in Italian Livigno to the Olympics in Beijing in February 2022.
- I was super stressed because I was going to be on the road for so long. When will we even arrive at the Olympic Village? I didn't get any clear answers anywhere either. I applied to Antidoping Sweden so that they would help me explain exactly where I should enter my slot times, Charlotte Kalla tells Sportbladet.
Charlotte Kalla ended her career with a SC bronze in the three mile in Piteå on March 28, 2022. She knew exactly what she was going to do the next day: deregister in the ADAMS system.
- I was at Pite Havsbad and asked if they could print the documents. “Do you have a scanner? Can I scan it in?”. It felt like a stone was lifted from my chest as I emailed in the documents I had signed.
Charlotte Kalla ended her career with an SM bronze in the three mile in Piteå on March 28, 2022.