The Story

Name: Anja Sofia Tess Pärson
Born: 1981-04-25
Height: 170 cm
Weight: 81 kg
Club: Tärna IK Fjällvinden

I'm sitting here wondering what to write. The story of Anja Pärson, who I really am. Let’s start by saying that I come from a small village called Tärnaby in the north of Sweden near the border of Norway. With the mountains as my nearest neighbor and skiing as one of the few activities in the village it is safe to say that things are a bit different compared to the life in a big city. In Tärnaby, nothing can be taken for granted. There exists no store that has everything, no soccer field with green grass, and really no other sports activities besides skiing.

The ski slope is the place where people hang around and play, it has been that way for a long time. It is said that I already as a three year old knew what I wanted in this world, that is, to become the world champion in alpine skiing. Despite this early focus, I played around with a soccer for a period of time in my younger days. But as you might imagine, with home games 200 kilometers away, it was rather difficult to continue. My playground instead became the ski slope. It was where all my friends were and where I felt truely at home.

Fun slopes, jumps, "the ride of death" in the forrest, everything contributed to the making skiing a great pleasure and joy. I can’t remember the countless number of times I nagged at my mother to allow me to ski all the way home from the slope through the forrest, I mean come on, off piste, how cool was that? Along with all the fun and playing around was also a determination. I wanted to succeed in anything and everything – to be able to jump the furthest, ski in the coolest way or simply to be the fastest. I competed in everything. At the age of seven, this was quite a challenge since my sister Frida and my cousins Sofia, Johan and Robert were at least three years older than me. Everything they could do, I wanted to do better. Johan always tells me that even though I was five years younger than him, I firmly believed that I could jump further than he could. As you can see, a lack of self-confidence has never been an issue for me. I have always believed in my own abilities to complete any task at hand. In combination with presistancy, that makes for a goal-oriented little girl.