The same tests for everyone, since 1998. Sports scientists describe the profile as outdated and unscientific.
Armand Duplantis is one of many athletes who have taken the SOK's physical tests, and he believes that it is not optimal for the tests to be the same for everyone.
- I didn't do very well on them, because I'm not very good at long distances.
I am a sprinter.
When everyone does the same tests, it is not relevant for all sports, because they are so different, he says.
Even middle-distance runner Lovisa Lindh agrees.
- There is certainly a basic idea, but some tests didn't feel that relevant to me.
You were supposed to do chins, and I couldn't do it, but that doesn't say much about whether I can run fast in the 800 meters, she says, adding:
- I would never have been eligible for their program if I didn't have sufficient basic physics for my sport and then you are doing something right.
Reinobo answers
Peter Reinebo, director of operations at SOK, says that the physical profile is good because it measures the basic physics of all athletes.
But that SOK can also be involved in financing other tests, for example branch-specific, if there are requests.
- Examples of this are cross-country skiing and biathlon, which carry out various types of endurance tests on belts with oxygen absorption equipment.
We can be involved in developing the tests, but it is something that the athletes themselves do best because it is close to their discipline-specific training, he says.
Felt that the tests affected the selection
An Olympic athlete, who wishes to remain anonymous so as not to risk "getting caught", felt that the performance in the physical tests influenced the selection for the support program Topp och Talang.
- I was a bit one of the crowd at the selection.
It might be different if you stand out and are predicted a very bright future, but for me, who was mostly one of the crowd, it felt like it was positive if you did well, says the athlete.
SOK believes that it should not affect. What made you get that feeling anyway?
- You do the tests before you come in.
It would have been a different matter if it was done afterwards, but since they are done before it was as part of the selection.
Peter Reinebo says the following about the athlete's experience:
- There are tests both before they are included and in the actual selection process and after, but the tests are not discriminatory or selective for that selection to Top and Talent.
It's a much longer process, but it's about a level of follow-up to be able to help strengthen the base physics, which we think is incredibly important.
In a number of sports it has been neglected.