In the preliminary talk before the last Olympic competition, where the Swedish biathlon squad was to be expanded with two names, it was between Stina Nilsson, Mona Brorsson and Johanna Skottheim.

It was the first two who got tickets to Beijing.

27-year-old Skottheim was left with a big disappointment.

- First you get sad.

When you get a message, it definitely is.

Then you have to relate to the decision that has been made.

I am very happy that I am able to turn the page and look ahead and look positively at what is left of this season, she says.

Can it be said that you have undergone a short mourning work after such a message?

- It will be so in a way.

For me, given the season I had last year, the Olympics were a goal I have been working towards.

I have not had a completely unproblematic year and then it has helped me to have the dream that has been there all along.

When that dream disappears, it gets tough.

It feels.

What I worked for disappeared.

Those were some tough days, I must say

Got a lot of love

On Sunday, Johanna Skottheim wrote an emotional post on Instagram about "the dream that crashed".

It was met with much love and warmth from her followers.

- I am very surprised at how many people hear from me and am happy with what people write.

And how many actually believe in me.

The last few weeks were not so easy from that perspective either.

You get to read quite a lot of criticism about one (most experts preferred both Stina Nilsson and Mona Brorsson, ed. Note) and if you hear it enough times, you will eventually start to believe it.

It was actually very nice that there are so many who believe in me and that I will succeed.

This season, Skottheim has only made three competitions in the World Cup, one of which is individual, and describes the past year as a nightmare.

- It started last year.

I did not want to see that it was so bad, so I struggled for a very long time with a body that did not work.

I crashed when the season ended and was in a bad place in life both physically and mentally.

It takes time to scratch and I have tried to find the way forward and get out of it.

But it has not been so easy.

If you look back at what I had for years, I would have been deducted a long time ago.

But I keep such a high level that I was in the last even though it did not go as I wanted.

This weekend she competes in the World Cup in Antholz.

There, the 27-year-old looks forward to being able to ride without the gigantic pressure, which the Olympics gave, on his shoulders.

- Now I can go into a competition weekend without the same pressured situation.

It will be fun to compete again.