LET golfer Lynn Carlsson, 23, from Sweden, is supporting the European Commission’s #BeActive campaign over the week of September 23-30, 2017, which is encouraging people to get moving. Find out more about her life-long passion for sport here.
Who got you into sport and what sports did you try when you were younger?
My family introduced me to sport, but it was mostly my father, who is a professional golf coach. It felt quite natural for me to start playing golf, but I also had friends that encouraged me to try different sports, such as gymnastics, dancing and handball.
What about sport makes you happy?
What I think is so interesting and fun about sports is that there are so many different ones. There are some kinds of sports that you can do from a very young age, which can also be suitable for the elderly. Golf, running, tennis and cross-country skiing are great examples of that. My sport is golf, and what makes me happy while performing it is that it can bring out both the best and the worst of me. I can challenge myself in so many different ways and very often I get to try my capacities in various things that I’ve practiced my whole life. I put myself in new situations and surroundings and that’s one of many things that I just love about the game of golf. If we speak sport itself, I believe that it brings so many people together, both friends and family but also strangers that eventually can become friends. I do believe that sport is a bit similar to maths: it is basically the same in every country around the world and because of that it can bring so many people together and therefore happiness into people’s lives.
Besides golf, what sports do you do actively and why?
Since I’m a golf professional I don’t really have the possibility to activate myself in other sports because of the time it takes and the risk of injury that might come with it. But since my boyfriend is a former tennis player I do like to play tennis sometimes and my boyfriend and I like to spend time together on the court. We also play padel tennis when we get the time which is great fun and a growing sport nowadays.
What does the #beactive campaign mean to you and why do you support the campaign?
The #BeActive campaign is a really important campaign for our population and I really stand behind it. To me, it means that we have realised that some of us need to improve our lifestyles and change it for the better. If I can make an impact that affects someone’s way of thinking about the daily activation our body gets, I would be very happy that I could contribute to a change in someone’s life. Even if the impact would hit hundreds of people or on only one person, it wouldn’t matter. To me, the important thing is that someone, somehow will be inspired. It doesn’t matter what part that will be affected, if it’s the way of how or why they exercise, what they eat or why they eat. If they just stop, take a moment and get some food for thought around the body as whole, how it works and its importance in our lives, I’ll be more than satisfied. I support the #BeActive campaign since I truly believe that a healthier way of living will really affect us in the long term. There is no doubt that we can gain many positives from putting in some extra thoughts and actions about how we activate our bodies and what kind of fuel we feed ourselves with.
How do you use your position to help and inspire other people to have an active lifestyle?
I try to be encouraging and inspirational through my social media and frequently post and update my followers. Nowadays social media really helps you to reach out to people around the world and its very accessible. I’m very happy if my own way of living can influence others and inspire them to be more active and healthier in their lifestyle or change their way of living and become a better version of themselves.
You can read more about the campaign here: https://ec.europa.eu/sport/week_en
