In her summer talk, alpine star Sara Hector told that she suffered from severe performance anxiety.

Now several Swedish sports stars say that they recognize themselves in Hector's story.

Two of them are biathlete Sebastian Samuelsson and cross-country skier Maja Dahlqvist.

For Samuelsson, it was the worst in his teenage years. 

- I had a period as a 14, 15, 16-year-old where I thought it was very difficult and I was very nervous in connection with competition.

There were also many times where I felt physically ill and threw up before competition at that age.

Grew out of it

He has difficulty putting his finger on what thoughts were in his head when the performance anxiety was at its worst.

- I wouldn't say it was a concrete thought, it was just a feeling you had.

How did you get out of it?

- For me, I think it was a bit of a matter of maturity as well.

I got older and read some books on mental training.

I'd like to say I grew out of it, but exactly what is what, I don't know.

But for me, over time that disappeared and I think that today I am very careful to distinguish between performance and person.

Dahlqvist: "I hope I get sick"

Dahlqvist also says that she handles the pressure in a good way today, but that she felt performance anxiety when she was younger.

- When I was younger, junior and so on, it was almost like I "hope I get sick" because I was so nervous to even start because I was afraid of failure.

How did you deal with it then?

- I think I started and failed and realized there were no problems.

I think I've 'faced it' that way and had people around me that I've been able to talk to.

Längstjärna believes that one should talk more openly about performance anxiety.

- Yes, I think so.

And I think, especially for younger skaters, that you take it almost a little too seriously.

It's not the whole world to fail, says Dahlqvist.

REPORT: The skiing stars open up about performance anxiety

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Ski stars open up about performance anxiety