Martin Hasson ready to end ice hockey career in style





After suffering with anorexia at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, goaltender Kim Martin Hasson has made a full recovery and is confident of success at Sochi 2014, which will be her fourth and final Games. "I started suffering in 2008 and I had problems for a couple of years, but now my body is in full balance. I feel fine".

Her problems with anorexia were at their worst in 2010 when her weight dropped to 57kg, 19kg below her ideal weight. Despite support from her parents in Sweden, as well as the coaches of the Swedish National Team, there were no signs of improvement until after Vancouver 2010 when she returned to her US college, University of Minnesota Duluth, and met with a psychologist. "I can eat properly now, practice and I feel that I'm on the right level with everything. However, there are still things that make me feel bad. I love ice cream, but I sometimes feel bad eating it", added Martin Hasson, 27, who married her husband Jay last year and added the name Hasson to her own.

After almost singlehandedly steering Sweden to a sensational silver in the 2006 Torino Olympic Winter Games, Martin Hasson failed to finish on the podium at Vancouver 2010 after losing the bronze medal game 3-2 to Finland. "I wasn't playing badly in Vancouver, but had I felt better I'm sure I would have been able to play at a much higher level", she said. "Sochi will also be my last Olympics. Despite what happened in Vancouver, I felt that I had more to give and that it really wasn't over for me. Now I feel it is and the decision to hang up my skates has been growing in me for a while".

A seasoned veteran, Martin Hasson was only 15 when she played her first game for Sweden, but she's now the oldest player on the national team and says she feels her age every time she takes to the ice. "I've been playing at a high level for so many years that I'm starting to feel it in my body", Martin Hasson said. "I struggle with my left foot, both knees and the achilles tendon I tore just before the world championships in Ottawa last year. There's not a day that goes by without pain in some part of my body". (ons)




Photo: Sochi 2014