‘Believe in your dreams’, wise words from #TeamGym2024 All Star and Shooting Star Agnes Arvidsson (SWE)

I got sick when I was 1,5 years old, and spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals throughout the following years until I was 4 years old. Then I was done with my chemotherapy. This was followed by a lot of check-ups. In the beginning every week, then every month, then just once a year. When I hit puberty, I had to get blood tests to see if everything was working out fine. At 18 years old, they did a final check-up, and then I was released.

I’m feeling happy about that decision ever since. I’ve never regretted it. That was the beginning of my gymnastics dream.

Together with our team we wanted something more, we wanted to increase the level, do things that had not been done before. The team then just trained because we couldn’t go to school, to work. We just had our gymnastics then. The dream switched a little bit for a lot of us in our team as we understood how important gymnastics was for all of us.

You can hear to crowd cheer ‘Sweden’ instead of our club name which is very different. The national team is picked half a year before Europeans. You train so hard at home, just seeing each other at weekends, at camps. Everyone has the same dream. They’ve dreamt about it for so long. For some people, it’s the first time, others have done this before. Still, it’s the same feeling, that rush when you run out. And when you’re pleased with your performance, everyone is screaming, hugging and laughing. It’s the best feeling in the world. It’s very cool and I’m thankful that I’ve been able to do this for so long.

I knew that I was going to get the All Star Award, and I was thankful for that of course. Then they said ‘Agnes you have to wait here, you got to go down first’.  I heard talk about the Shooting Star award but I thought it must have been for someone else. I didn’t know that so many people knew my story. When I walked down, I heard the whole presentation about my life, it was a good moment, and I was not expecting that! It was weird to hear this big story about my life. Everyone is listening to it, everyone is taking it in. My mum was in the audience, crying, she saw another person crying. It felt good to share my story. It shows you can go through something like that and still believe in your dreams.

I spent a lot of time in the hospital, with my family. They did everything to get me healthy again. I’m very thankful for that. That’s also why I’m motivated to have a positive mindset, motivated to help other people because I know it’s fragile. I’m grateful for the people around me, for the opportunities that have been given to me, as it hasn’t always been the case.