One of the biggest surprises I encountered this year racing the single internationally was how friendly the field was. During regattas, right up until the moment the buzzer went, as well as immediately after crossing the finish line, every athlete truly cared for each other and wanted to get to know each other. One of the athletes I had the pleasure of getting to know is none other than 2025 World Championships Bronze Medalist, Frida Sanggaard Nielsen. I had the pleasure of sitting down with her to dive into the behind-the-scenes of her new adventure: the Women’s single scull.
Too often, the road to success is marked by a culture of grinding away at training and isolating yourself from those outside the sport. For Frida, the secret to one of her most successful seasons in the sport was trying to do the exact opposite. Following the Paris Olympics, Frida found herself at a breaking point. After eleven years in the sport, she found herself burnt out and in need of a break. However, the glamorized ideal of doing nothing after the Olympics quickly lost its allure, and just weeks after racing her Olympic final, she found herself lost and bored. She quickly realized that going from 100 to 0 wouldn’t work. Friends and family helped Frida accept that she did not actually have to leave the sport to get the reset she needed. By leaving the national team system and rowing with her local club, she had the autonomy to make her own decisions and do what she felt was best.
Her goal was simple: learn to scull. Prior to last year, she had been in a sculling boat fewer than you can count on two hands. Her biggest ambition with this project was to maybe race at Henley Royal Regatta. Something extraordinary happened during her “fun” year: Frida got really fast. “I definitely ruined my fun year for myself,” Frida joked, reflecting on a season that quickly spiralled into medals at the European Championships, Lucerne World Cup, and the World Championships in Shanghai.
Frida’s success this year highlights a paradox in high-performance sports: sometimes removing pressure is the only way to apply it effectively. For years, Frida was a member of the Danish Women’s four. Frida described the boat class as a “puzzle” in which you are constantly trying to fit all the pieces together. While she loved the teamwork and having her girls with her, training in a crew is rigid and leaves little room for necessary modifications. She compared it to trying to bake cookies without having enough flour; you try to make the recipe work even if the ingredients (your physical state) aren’t quite right.
Transitioning to the single offered her complete autonomy. She could customize the program to fit her state; if she was tired, she could move things to accommodate herself. This mentality is a complete contradiction to the typical rowing training mentality, one that celebrates grinding. The funny thing is, this flexibility didn’t make her soft; it made her consistent. This past year, Frida admits that she has been in a much better mood, and that happiness has directly translated into boat speed. It came down to the concept of energy balance. By ensuring that training gave her energy, rather than draining it, she unlocked performances that grinding had failed to produce.
Breaking the “Stone Cold” Myth
The shift to the single brought another challenge: loneliness. She quickly realized at the European Championships that if she didn’t talk to the other single scullers, she had no one to talk to whilst out on the water. In a sport dominated by a “stone cold” focus, Frida did the unthinkable: she started making friends with her rivals. She quickly realized that the “crazy strong” athletes she feared were often other nice people who were also struggling and wanted connection.
The European Championships, held in Plovdiv, marked the true testing ground for Frida’s “fun” experiment. Sitting on the start line of the final, the solitude of the single suddenly brought a wave of chaotic, free thoughts. The first thought that hit her was pure panic: looking over and seeing her coach, Ian, and all the other national team coaches lined up, she wondered, “Are they here to watch me fail?” She quickly reframed the panic, reminding herself, “They’re here to help you,” and that the pain ahead would be shared, “It’s going to hurt for all the rest of them.” As she narrowed her focus, all the chaos in her head “got it slimmed down” to the one simple reality, which led to a result she “did not expect at all.”
At Henley, she bonded with Lauren Henry, whom she ultimately met in the final of the Princess Royal Challenge Cup, admitting, “I cried today training out there.” Lauren immediately replied, “Yeah, I almost did too, but we made it.” This vulnerability didn’t make her soft; it sharpened her resilience. Quickly, she realized that the negative thoughts she had were not exclusive to her. Everyone hurts at the 400-metre mark. Coaches aren’t there to see you fail. Everyone is nervous on the start line.
The “Triple T” and the Fish
On the start line, when panic sets in, Frida doesn’t try to be a superhero. She channels Dory from Finding Nemo. “I just have to row,” she reminds herself. “Just keep rowing.”
Looking back, Frida says she would offer her younger self this advice: “Dare to be vulnerable” and share her feelings with those around her. She has replaced the fear of failure with a sustainable approach to mental health. She has a metric for burnout coined by her father growing up: the “Triple T” or “Temmelig Traet Teenager,” Danish for Terribly Tired teenager. When she feels Triple T setting in, she knows it is time to rethink her balance.
Conclusion
Frida’s best season came when she stopped trying to force it. She knows the mental cost of chasing boats that weren’t clicking how they should and does not want to go back to that. She has her sights on the LA Olympics but is taking things one year at a time.
Whether you are an Olympian or a club rower, a powerful lesson can be taken from Frida. The secret to speed might just be lowering the shield, talking to the competitor next to you, and, at the end of the day, remembering that this is supposed to be fun. As Frida proved, sometimes, you just need to try to have fun and let the speed “ruin” your plans in the best way possible.
