A jubilant Carolina Kluft in the women's Heptathlon (© Getty Images)
At just 23, Carolina Kluft, the world's outstanding all-round woman athlete, is gearing up for another impressive season, the highlight of which will be the defence of her European title on home territory in Gothenburg this summer.
"I sacrifice so much for my sport. Everything I do is geared towards improving my next performance," said Kluft.
The Swedish star avoided too much competition during the winter season, including the IAAF World Indoors in Moscow, for the first time for four years, allowing her to re-charge her batteries and to avoid the risk of injury.
Her plans for this summer are to compete in both Heptathlon and the Long Jump in Gothenburg. Her first Heptathlon of the year will be at the end of May. "I'll resume competition in Goetzis and then do some events up until the European Championships, where I'll compete in the Heptathlon and Long Jump," she said last weekend when in Paris, doing promotion work around the French capital's annual marathon.
She has other celebrity appearances to make, too, before she gets back on track: Kluft is one of a number of athletes on the short-list for the accolade of Sportswoman of the Year in the annual Laureus awards, which this year are being staged in Barcelona.
Her global status can be assessed when the other candidates for the award are considered: US Open tennis champion Kim Clijsters, Tirunesh Dibaba, the double World champion from Ethiopia, Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia), Croatia's Janica Kostelic, the winner of a record four Winter Olympic gold medals in Turin, marathon runner Paula Radcliffe, and another Swede, golfer Annika Sorenstam.
As well as being consistent when on the track, Kluft is also consistent off it, and she refuses to be drawn as to whether she can challenge the Heptathlon World Record of 7,291 points, held by Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA) since 1988.
Injury seriously hampered Kluft's performance in Helsinki last year - she twisted her ankle on the eve of competition and could barely walk, making her consider that final performance among her best so far.
Her best points tally remains the 7,001 she scored in Paris three years ago.
"I'm a long way from producing a Heptathlon I'm really happy with," she saids. "I know I can score more than 7001. There's better to come from me."
There is, though, a "but": "I'm not setting a world record as a target. My target is to produce a better Heptathlon than I have and if that beats the world record then that's fine. If I don't, I can live with it."
"I love being an athlete but I also want to travel. I want to study. I want to throw myself into new cultures. I have many dreams that I want to fulfil after my years as an athlete, but when that will be I don´t know this day. I take one year at the time and am planning to do athletics for many more years. I certainly have no plans to quit after Bejing 2008," Kluft confirmed to the IAAF today.
IAAF
