We're often received notes and comments about Power Woman’s most frequently photographed athlete, Swedish swimmer Linnea Lindberg. The comments are only positive, rather often on the topic, "Finally a female swimmer showing swimwear!",which makes us so happy.
So we decided to give you the chance to get to know Linnea a little better.
Linnea swims for the Swedish swimming club Neptun
Linnea is a 25-year swimmer, who lives in Stockholm, Sweden and swims for the Stockholm club Neptun. Breaststroke is her main swimming event, with a preference for the short distances. Born and raised in Stockholm, but Linnea has dual citizenship and has spent long periods in Australia, as her mother comes from Melbourne (Linnea's father comes from the not so well-known Swedish city Alingsås ☺).
Even though swimming has been with her all her life, Linnea started to focus on the sport when she was in junior high school. In 2015, she moved to the United States to study and swim for the Washington State University, a division1 school in the tough Pac-12 Conference. She finished her degree in psychology and moved back to Stockholm in 2019, where she now lives with her boyfriend.
Swimming is still a big part of Linnea's everyday life. In addition to her own full-time training, she works as the operations manager for the beginners classes at her Swim Club Neptun. She also works as swimming coach, for the Swedish Swimming Association, and as a freelance photographer when opportunity is given.
The club gives Linnea a great support in the balancing act to find sufficient time for both training and work, as well having a social life. However, Linnea has long experience finding a functioning schedule from her four years in US, where 20 hours of training/week was combined with full-time studies.
Practicing a sport at a high level and making everyday life come together is a challenge, but everything goes with good planning and structure.
"The challenge of getting everyday life together may be difficult, but the big challenge is to keep the body and soul healthy," says Linnea. "It is stressful to train and work at the same time, but it is a process and in the end you find routines that work. Both for physical and mental health.
"It is important to find a routine that works for each individual. The routine and training plan that works best for me, may not be the same for someone else. Everyone's situation is different and, despite that life changes constantly. The training plan I ran a year ago would not work today, and there is a difference between how it looks for an 18-year-old and for a 25-year-old," continues Linnea.
The SC bronze medal in breaststroke came after a tough period
One of Linnea's biggest swim achievements is the first individual medal from the Swedish National Championships in 2019. Linnea had then just returned home from US after a really tough final year at university, where she struggled with both training and studies to the point that she was ready to ignore everything and just go home to Sweden. But after a fun and successful training camp in Turkey, she came to the competition.
"Coming back after graduation and being able to swim home the SC bronze medal made it feel like I got my "payment" for all the hard work and that I decided to stay despite all the tough stuff", says Linnea
Linnea also expresses pride and gratitude for continuing to practice the sport she loves. She has seen many teammates quit over the past few years so she takes pride in continuing to develop in her swimming but also as a person. The joy of swimming and that she stills thinks it's so fun is what keeps her going. Swimming requires an enormous number of training hours and a lot of things like diet, rehab, strength training must be taken care of properly. But besides the love and passion for the sport, equally important is the people around her.
"The teammates in Sweden and in the USA, opponents who push her but are also her friends, coaches with whom you build great relationships and all the wonderful people who work with Power Woman! I have encountered and am surrounded by such incredibly nice people. People I might never have met if it weren't for the sport."
The photos of Linnea often get positive comments so we asked Linnea for her own thoughts on how female athletes are portrayed.
"I think it's important to have a variety of different bodies, ages and looks on SoMe. When it comes to swimsuits, it feels more authentic if it's a real swimmer who's modeling, for example," says Linnea.
I think it's important to promote healthy and diverse bodies on social media. I'm glad I get to be a part of Power Woman, who really has a healthy variety in the models they work with.”
And finally, we of course want to know what Linnea thinks distinguish a Power Woman.
A Power Woman is strong, determined, positive and humble. A Power Woman is not afraid to choose her own path.
Linnea Lindberg