Earlier in autumn I had an opportunity to take part of the Wulf business Seminar of 2023, that was hold in the Helsinki Olympic station. There the theme was sports and there was many speakers among giving speeches on about their career and leadership. In this essay we will go through the Elina Gustaffsson’s story. 

Background 

Elina was born in Pori and spent most of her early stage of life there. While growing up she didn’t have the best relationship towards her parents as then she moved out from her parents house in a young age. In her youth, she was a rather problematic kid, who didn’t want to obey and didn’t care too much about school. Instead, she did start caring about dating but instead of boys, she was more interested in the girls. Then she and her friends came to the age of drinking. She used to party and drink a lot, all while also working in construction. The weeks would go in working and weekends by partying around. Leaving her with very little to no money. When time moved on her friends started experiencing with drugs. To that she crossed her arms and was given a sign as she believed. She had a dream where she was wrestling and as a person who believed in sign, she decided to make the change from there on.  

The Beginning 

From the dream, she got courage and inspired and determined to make a change. As her lifestyle in the moment was not healthy nor did she have any dreams. But as she is hard-headed she was determined to start boxing and went to the local studio of Porin NMKY to start. There she was welcomed but also questioned. As it is hard to start sports later in life. Because she was already at the time around her mid-twenties, she was behind in the competition. But from the first day she started, she got really into boxing and this new mindset. A mindset of competing and showing everyone that she knew in her past life that she is duff and determined and you will hear about her. She worked very hard with her coach and made it to the Finnish national level to compete. There she was able to score gold and left everyone shocked by her performance. As she was a noob who came to the ring out of nowhere and brought in the gold. The feeling was overwhelming that she got from the winning but it only made her more thirsty. 

After the gold she continued working on her boxing with her local club. She was happy and the coach was happy with her. The coach saw Elina’s way of boxing as unique since she was never taught the proper technique, therefore her performance was in a way lacking but the coach didn’t see a problem with it. For the second year, Elina entered the Finnish national competition determined to get that gold medal again. But this time she lost due to her poor technique. After facing the loss she asked for the coach to train her more in technic, but the coach didn’t see the need for it. Thanks to the assistant coach’s support and the potential they saw in Elina they recommended she to change to another club as she did in the following year. It was hard for her since she had a good relationship with her coach but she was determined and wanted to aim higher and therefore changed to the other club the coach was more knowledgeable and actually paid attention on Elinas lack of proper technique. From there on Elinas life was hanging around boxing and training and she put her whole focus on it to succeed. 

The path of being open and sponsored 

From the years to come Elina was able to compete in high level competitions and score well. She became to be on of the known female athletes and her life was all about sports that she loved. While competing and training she did get some break seasons and in one of them, she joined miss gay competition in Finland during pride as a joke and a way to have fun. She ended up winning it and as she had always been open about her sexuality didn’t see any problems regarding it. But little did she expect to have a call from her coach the next day criticizing the win in the miss gay competition as it would cost her sponsorship deals by being openly gay. From there Elina got into confusion as she didn’t see anything wrong with being openly gay and couldn’t believe how it would affect sponsorships or rather if I did she wouldn’t want to be sponsored by them to begin with. It is understandable that a coach tries to protect but to Elina, I wasn’t okay. To rebel against the coach and anybody who was there saying it is not okay to be gay in this sport etc. She tattooed a pride flag on their arm, to wave it high and proud when in being in the ring and when announcing winners.  

Fitting into a mold 

After the scenario of being openly gay, Elina started feeling that she was trying to fit into a mold. A mold that was too small and uncomfortable for her. She felt the pressure coming from her coach and therefore she changed the club again but this time to Tampere. There she was warmly welcomed and all seemed good in the beginning. But shortly the truth became visible as the coach there was leading and coaching with fear. It again started feeling like being forced into some sort of mold. She started losing her passion for boxing and went into survival mode. Where she was just doing and competing without really having passion or more behind it, as it was something she just had to do. There started coming the thoughts of self-harming. She wasn’t anymore living for her life, but only performing. From the start of the boxing journey, she had this mindset of showing everyone off that she was duff and that people would hear big things from her. She was in this bad state of mind for a while and even hurt herself by accident in one of her competitions. But it all came to an end as she won the gold medal in 2018 in the EM. After the win, she started reflecting on herself and got professional help. She realized that she was enough in the way she was and started surrounding herself with people who encouraged her instead of making her feel fear. She was able to reflect and from there decided not to go for the Olympics as it was not anymore in her passion to get that. Since she didn’t need to prove anyone anything. 

From there she has continued her career in a different direction. Publishing a book regarding her story being an inspirational speaker in events regarding her journey and teaching what important role a good supporting team has including a coach. As she is not sure if she will compete in boxing anymore or what her life bring her, she is focusing on making life good for her and impacting others with her story.  

Conclusion 

The human mind is powerful and can make a huge difference in life how we experience it and what we do in life generally. With Elina’s story, I want us all to understand that we can make changes in life but also that we need to know ourselves on the matter of who are we making the changes for and what are the motives behind them. To me, Elina’s story was blessed to hear, and the ending shocked me. A high-performance person can easily lose track of why they are, doing what they are doing where are they aiming at it, and if it is even their passion to go with. Therefore, who are they working in life for? Elina’s story also brought up the importance of having a good team to support you and not let you fall into a bad place. Elina’s story can be many-layered, and I believe for an entrepreneur it is important also to remember the importance of a team, to take care of the mental and physical health, and how with determination and passion you can score places if you truly have a good intention behind it. Also, it is okay if you change your direction. 

Sources

The Wulf Business Seminar 2023. Guest speaker Elina Gustaffson.

Ulla-Maija Paavilainen. 2021. Rohkeudella Elina Gustaffson.