Cathrine Rosengren

Started: She began playing badminton at age nine in Taastrup, Denmark. "I only started playing Para badminton when I found out [in 2016] it was going to be included at the Paralympics." (olympics.bwfbadminton.com, 21 Aug 2021, 11 May 2021; bwfpara.tournamentsoftware.com, 16 Nov 2019; kvindesport.dk, 06 Jul 2017) Reason: "I played at school and my teacher said I was good, so I started." (bwfpara.tournamentsoftware.com, 16 Nov 2019) Ambition: To win a medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (Facebook page, 31 May 2023) Additional Info: TOKYO EXPERIENCE She says that her experience at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo made her more confident for the 2024 Games, and that she has been working on her mental strength ahead of Paris 2024. "[I] feel that my game is better than ever. I have a completely different understanding of how big it is to go to the Paralympic Games this time. It has required a lot more of me, so I can appreciate being part of the team in Paris even better. It dawned on me in Tokyo how important it is to have the mental part involved, and how little I had actually worked on it. Now I'm in a much better place and I think my game has become more free." (parasport.dk, 01 Jul 2024) TRAINING OVERSEAS In July 2023 she and Norwegian Para badminton player Helle Sofie Sagoy joined a training camp led by coach Jivananthan Nair at the Asia Badminton Academy in Selangor, Malaysia. "It was very hard in the beginning, also because the first week I was sick. I had tonsillitis. I could barely stay awake on court, and the humidity was hard as well. I had to drink so much water, which I wasn't used to in Denmark for normal training. I used to change into one shirt, maybe two on a good day, and in Malaysia I had to go through four changes, and my skirt too. It was crazy." (olympics.bwfbadminton.com, 09 Nov 2023, 05 Aug 2023; Helle Sofie Sagoy Instagram profile, 28 Jul 2023) OTHER ACTIVITIES In 2022 she became a member of the Badminton World Federation [BWF] Para Badminton Athletes' Commission for 2021-25. After competing at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, she enrolled for the Women in Leadership programme, conducted by the Swiss-based organisation Women Lead Sport in association with the Association of Paralympic Summer Organisations [APSO]. She has also done TV commentary for Badminton Denmark. "In the beginning I wasn't sure if I wanted to attend this [Women in Leadership] course. I felt like I'm not a leader, why should I do this? But when I started doing it, I could see that I can use a lot of things, work-wise at university and at badminton. I never saw myself as someone who would go in front and do things, but now I feel like I want to. I nominated myself for the Para Badminton Athletes' Commission. I would never normally go for stuff like that. I would normally go in the back and say my opinions to someone else but I really felt like this side of me who walks in the front and wants to do something. It's a new side of me that I never really explored before. [TV commentary] was fun. I had to get out of my comfort zone in the beginning, I wasn't sure what to say and how to say it. But I got more confident and I think it worked very well. I would like to take it [commentary] more seriously, maybe." (badmintonoceania.org, 14 Mar 2022; Facebook profile, 12 Mar 2022; development.bwfbadminton.com, 08 Mar 2022)