Eythora Thorsdottir is known for her expressive floor routines. Her new floor routine, she hopes, will resonate with many people and they’ll be able to put their own emotions into it:
“This time we decided not to put a story in it, everyone can make up their own story. I had a girl who was very sick texting me and saying that she saw her own pain and her story in my routine and that’s what I love, that she feels her emotions in my routine without knowing what I think or feel.”
She feels like in order to have a memorable routine, you have to go all in:
“You have to dare to do something. Don’t be afraid of expressing yourself and don’t be afraid you’ll look insane, because you won’t. Either exaggerate or just don’t do it. Because if you hold in, it’ll look crazier than just going out there.”
Despite her experience, Thorsdottir still gets nervous before competitions but managed to find a way to work through her nerves:
“I get nervous a lot. In the warm-up hall, I’m very nervous because you haven’t started yet. And when you get here, you just got to get in the moment and it flies by like that. Sometimes nerves control me, but I try to control them. I think they work with me instead of against me.”
Thorsdottir’s focus at today’s competition was team qualification to the Tokyo Olympics, and the Netherlands were able to accomplish that:
“Our main goal is to make the top-12 with the team and the rest – just to go with it, to see how many finals we can get into. But I’m not very focused on my individual goals right now, the main goal is team final or team qualification to Tokyo.”
After Tokyo, Thorsdottir plans to take some time off gymnastics and then see if she feels like coming back:
“First, I’m going to have a good break. After Rio, I noticed it was very hard to keep on going, you kind of felt you were in the flow but you get so tired after that big year. So, at first, I’m going to finish my degree, I’ve got half a year left. I’ll take a break from gymnastics, maybe do some training here and there, and when I feel like I’m ready to get in there. If it won’t go like that, that’s fine as well, but I haven’t put a stop on anything, it’s all open. I’ve got to have the passion back and if it’s there, then I will continue.”
The last three years brought her both the best and the worst moments in her senior career:
“The best moment would probably be Rio, being there with the team, that was just an amazing experience. And, maybe, this year’s European Championships because I came back from so many injuries, so that was great. I came back a different person, doing adult gymnastics instead of child gymnastics, that’s the difference.”
“The worst moment probably was when I got injured before the European Championships in 2018. I broke my hand on the last day of training before we left and that was hard. It wasn’t hard because of the pain, I can get over the pain. But I was already selected to go for the team and I was ready to go. It’s just extra hard, the last day before you go there. You just don’t want that to happen.”
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