For Swedish curler Almida de Waal, February 8 is destined to be an unforgettable day. In the winter Olympic curling mixed doubles bronze medal battle that day, she and teammate Oscar Eriksson defeated the British duo 9-3 to win the bronze medal.
Few people knew that the bronze medalist, Armida de Waal, was originally an "office worker" of a company. This was her first time in the Olympic Games, and she had come to Beijing on leave from the company.
"I am participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics." During these days, whenever Armida de Waal's colleagues sent her a work email, she always received such a short and elegant automatic reply. In order to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics, Armida de Waal took a leave of absence from the company where she usually works in early January this year to concentrate on preparing for the war.
School bully, office worker, crossover athlete, bronze medal, these are all the labels that the 25-year-old girl has. "Hurry up and claim it!" Congratulations to our beautiful and powerful alumni, Miss Armida de Waal. Less than an hour after she won the bronze medal, the official account of the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology was on social platforms, shouting at Armida de Waal and congratulating her on winning the bronze medal. The story of her taking leave to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics once occupied the first place in the hot search list of social platforms.
In popular parlance now, Armida de Waal is a "slash youth". However, behind her bronze medal is not the "easy to get a bronze medal" as the Internet said, but the focus of love and "ten years of training".
"Starting small and doing everything you can every day will lead to great things." This is the philosophy of life that Almida de Waal espouses. And her path of movement is also practiced in this way. More than a decade ago, when she saw Sweden's Annette Norberg win the gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, she decided to go to a junior selection tournament in Gothenburg and immediately became "hooked" on curling.
Since then, Armida de Waal has been curling in Gothenburg for 10 years. She then moved to Stockholm to practice curling and went to university. In 2017, she won the World Junior Curling Championship.
Back in October, Almida de Waal, who had not yet left for Beijing, set herself a goal: to win a medal in the mixed doubles competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics and a medal in the women's competition in the future.
The Beijing Winter Olympics is Almida de Waal's first participation in the Olympic Games. Now, she has fulfilled her dream. But this is not the end, "slash youth", she will continue to chase dreams.
Photo by Deng Wei, reporter of the Winter Olympics
Source Client The Winter Olympics | Reporter Li Ge Li Songlin
Edited by Han Ye
Process Editor Liu Weili
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