The 23-year-old long-distance runner broke the Swedish record in the 800 meters freestyle at the Olympics in Tokyo this summer and thought that a little over a year of nightmares was over.
Since the autumn of 2019, he had first suffered from physical exhaustion due to overtraining, then from covid-19 and in December last year he was on a respirator at Jönköping Hospital after suffering from varicose veins in the neck and throat.
Now Victor Johansson, who studies and trains at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, has broken a finger and misses the short course WC which starts on Thursday, the Swedish Swimming Association states.
- I was so a little tired on Monday that you can be a new week when it's half past six in the morning.
During the warm-up in the pool, we drove a little faster, but my head was probably somewhere else because all of a sudden the wall came.
I got a shitty finish from the side and drove with my hand in the tile in the wrong way, Johansson tells DN.
Victor Johansson would have swum 400 and 1,500 meters freestyle in Abu Dhabi.
Now nine Swedish swimmers will start and Erik Persson will be the only Swedish men's swimmer.
Sarah Sjöström is, as usual, the big Swedish medal jump, but also Louise Hansson, world number two in the 100 meter butterfly, can challenge for noble medals as well as her sister Sophie Hansson in the 100 meter breaststroke.
The World Swimming Championships will be broadcast on SVT, starting on Thursday 16 December.