There was under two weeks to go before the Beijing 2022 Olympics when Sweden’s Hanna Olsson received the news she had been dreading: her Covid test had come back as positive, and she would be forced to miss her second Olympic Games.
“Things are not always fair,” she wrote in an Instagram post in January. While her symptoms were mild, she knew that to protect her team and others in China, she couldn’t travel to Beijing. One of four Swedish players that received positive tests in the lead up to the Olympics, Olsson was replaced on the roster by Lulea’s Linn Peterson. “But now I hope that my teammates get to experience the coolest thing there is.”
While missing this tournament was difficult, Olsson knew how to approach the situation, having suffered a knee injury during a practice at the start of the 2020/21 season with the SDHL’s HV71 Jonkoping that sidelined her from playing for months. She used what she learned during this period of rest and recovery to push through the mental pain of not being able to compete with her teammates at the Olympics.
“I come from a hard knee injury so I’ve been off of hockey over one year [before],” said Olsson, who used her time away from the national team to workout. “Of course it’s tough mentally, that journey, but I’m just so happy to [now] be on the ice and play hockey every day. It’s the best thing I know. I did a lot of workouts in the gym that time and built up some muscle, and so I think that made me a better hockey player.”
The former U18 national team captain made her return to the ice with a bang on 25 August, opening up the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships with a hat trick against Denmark, scoring once in each period to help Sweden to a 5-2 win.
“It’s a team win today and of course I want to be here and produce points and score goals, so I’m really happy with [my goals],” said Olsson after the game on her first career World Championship hat trick. “It’s definitely the team effort.”
“I have the opportunity to play hockey full time,” Olsson said of what she is looking forward to about playing for Frolunda. Born in Halso, just outside of Gothenburg, she is excited to be playing for her hometown team. “They do a really good job for the younger girls and all the facilities there are really good. We have good leaders, coaches, physios. I think I will take the next step in my career there.”
Opening the season on 9 October against the Malmo Redhawks, Frolunda’s roster also features Finland’s Michelle Karvinen and Norway’s Andrea Dalen. The team is led by two silver and bronze Olympic medallists, general manager Kim Martin Hasson and head coach Erika Holst. With their sights set on earning promotion to the SDHL, the 23-year-old Olsson will captain the young Frolunda roster, joined by Karvinen and Karin Svedberg as assistant captains.
With the disappointment of her January Covid test result behind her, Olsson is focused on looking forward to her future with Frolunda and Sweden’s next game at the Women’s World Championship against Germany on 27 August.
“We are four really tough lines to play against and we skate hard and work hard every day,” Olsson said of what to watch for from Sweden going forward. “That’s going to be a danger for the other teams.”