Josefin Taljegard: “The Olympics next year? I feel like I would want to do it, and I may still continue to fight for it”

Josefin Taljegard could have said No to this interview.

After all, she came to Bucharest, at 2025 Bellu Memorial, straight from Road to 26 Trophy in Assago (photo above), the end of a tour de force consisting in 5 events meant to win her the ticket to the Worlds in Boston, the minimum TES she had been chasing all season.

It didn’t happen in Bucharest either despite all of her obvious efforts and her becoming one with her programs, as she usually does: she fell during the choreo sequence in her free skate and that fall would cost her the needed minimum.

The choreo sequence is actually her favorite element of the program, and that made it even more disappointing, Josefin will say when we meet, a dozen minutes after seeing her scores in the Kiss and Cry and realize World Championships wouldn’t happen for her this season.

But even then, she found the resources to smile when posing with some of the Romanian skaters who asked her to, and who had followed her free skate with amazement, eyes wide open to her performing qualities, and gasped with the entire arena when she fell.

So even if Josefin had all the reasons in the world to decline the interview we had planned, she gracefully returned from backstage and offered us every time slot possible: before the medal ceremony, waiting for her name to be called, right afterwards, with her medal, diploma and her supportive plushy fox at hand, and then in a hallway next to the athletes’ locker rooms, while nearby there was this buzz of voices, medalists of all ages surrounding us, surrounding her, while Josefin recounted the story of her career with a smile that soon became joy while remembering all that made her who she is.

And the thing is: she was always like that, a revolutionary child, “a wild child”, who didn’t like the rules, who didn’t like to be told what she could or could not do.

She smiles to the ears at this point, and you see a naughty Josefin tap-dancing as in “Happy Feet”, swimming as Nemo, with his playful, shorter fin, and recounting the dress that needed to be redone because Nemo’s distinctive fin had been sewn at the wrong place.

And Josefin would start skating at 3 years old because her older sisters did it, and Josefin would quit skating at 18, eager to know what the real world looked like, the other world apart from skating, and she would go to New York and learn acting, and Josefin would come back to competitive skating a year and a half later.

In her own words: “When I started again, I think around 20 there, I did it because I wanted to do it, not because somebody was forcing me, or I was 3 years old and I didn’t know what I was doing…”

And the same Josefin would go to the Olympics in Beijing to prove herself and everyone else that she could, especially with people raising eyebrows at her plans, and the same Josefin gave herself one season after the other, to see how it all went, instead of pressuring herself and committing for cycles.

And she would have liked to be in Boston for the World Championships this week and fight for an Olympic spot again, if not for anything else but experience a regular Olympics, without the COVID scares and precautions at all places from 2022. But mostly: “I love to perform and the Olympics is the biggest stage that you can go as a figure skater”.

That’s why she skated in five events in 4 weeks, that’s why she flew from Milano to Bucharest, literally jumping from the free skate at Road to 26 Trophy to the short program at Bellu Memorial – because she really wanted to go to Worlds, and needed to make up for the lost time at the beginning of the season.

“But I feel proud of myself that I did all these competitions and I really tried my hardest”, Josefin says while coming to terms with it.

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At the beginning of our talk, Josefin still struggles with the idea that her favorite element in the free skate put her down in Bucharest, her last shot at qualifying, and she shrugs her shoulders when saying “If I had skated here the programs I did in Milano, I probably would have gotten the scores”. But it is what it is, it happened and it can’t be changed.

What can be changed though is the emphasis we put on technical scores as a sole qualifier for Worlds (& every other major championships), with components not being taken into account – and skating isn’t only about technical elements.

And Josefin has such a valid take on this, and maybe things could change in that regard.

[During Bellu Memorial we have a similar conversation with Matteo Rizzo, who feels that figure skating has somehow lost the skating part of it. And we have an unofficial conversation with a scoring system connoisseur, also taken aback with the fact that qualifying for major competitions only relies on TES, when all parts of what figure skating is should be taken into consideration.

Because Josefin Taljegard, the kind of performer that she is, she should really be at the World Championships. People want to see performances like the ones she brings to the stage. Because to Josefin Taljegard the ice really is a big stage and, though nerves are there, of course, she feels at home on the ice, she belongs there.]

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And while, at the moment of the interview, she didn’t know if she’d go to Beijing for the last Olympic qualifier, nor she knew if one more season lay ahead (because it’s difficult to support this journey financially and she would love to have a sponsor), Josefin thoroughly delved into her skating story, into her story, with joy, smiles and eyes that sparkle, paying no attention to the buzz around her.

And, maybe, for 30 minutes or so, she forgot about the disappointment of a missed qualification and came back to why she does skating after all: because she loves it, she loves the way she feels on the ice – and skating loves her back, and we feel all those feelings, we see all those characters, and even Nemo’s lucky fin, when watching her skate.

Interview by Florentina Tone / Bucharest

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Josefin, you’ve been doing a marathon these days: you skated in Assago the day before yesterday, at Road to 26 Trophy, and now you’re here, at Bellu Memorial in Bucharest. The pursuit of minimum TES for Worlds can really be a hassle…

Yes, I’ve competed in five competitions in 4 weeks: Europeans, then Nordics, then Tallinn, then Milano and then here…

And do you have anything else planned until Boston?

Well… [on a disappointed tone], I’m not gonna go to Boston. I fell today on the choreo sequence and…

[And since we find this difficult to process, our disbelief translates itself into even more questioning.

What follows is almost a common attempt to come to terms with the reality of Josefin Taljegard not making the trip to 2025 Worlds in Boston, hence not being able to try and win a spot for Sweden in the women’s event at the Olympics next year.]

You don’t have the minimum, but maybe there’s another competition where you can get it still…?

No, Bellu Memorial was actually the last competition I could go to. You can’t go after this, because the deadline is now, to decide the entries for Worlds and publish them.

Ah, I am really, really sorry to hear that…

[Reassuring] It’s OK, it’s OK…

I mean, I was happy with the short program yesterday and the free skate today was very good too. But I fell in the choreo sequence, which I have never done before! [bitter laugh]

So, of course, it feels very odd and I think I haven’t really accepted it, or realized it yet.

But, you know, I’ve had many competitions this season where I could have done it, I know that I’ve done my best now, but I also had a really tough fall because I was sick for two months.

So of course it’s a huge disappointment, but I feel proud of myself that I did all these competitions and I really tried my hardest.

They raised the minimum with 5 points, but it’s the technical score, which I think it’s a little bit sad, because I hear more and more from the audience that they think it’s boring to watch, and then why only focus on the technical score?

I can understand some reasons why, because the other one is more subjective, but it also depends on what panels you have. I think if I had skated here the programs I did in Milano, I probably would have gotten the scores… It’s all very different from competition to competition.

While we talk, the medal ceremony for all categories at Bellu Memorial has already started in Berceni Arena, so Josefin keeps an eye on that too – she’s the silver medalist of the senior women’s event and her name is about to be called soon. I offer her to go already and meet up afterwards, but she generously stays and talks to us until the very last second.

“I LOVE TO PERFORM AND THE OLYMPICS IS THE BIGGEST STAGE THAT YOU CAN GO AS A FIGURE SKATER”

I didn’t see that coming either, this being the end of the season for you, and I guess what I want to ask is: if you look at it, at the season as a whole, what do you see? Apart from the disappointment today, if it’s possible to go beyond that now…

Well, I think… It was a struggle.

I’ve been working a lot as a figure skating coach, and I’ve met a lot of kids every week, and we’ve had some illnesses going around, and I caught them all.

So I missed a few competitions that I needed to have in the beginning of the season, just to get me started – because now I feel like I’ve done five competitions in 4 weeks, and in the last four events it started getting better and better… I enjoyed the competitions more and more, because when I skate more, I get less nervous.

So if I were to do it all over again, I would have wanted to compete more in the fall.

Also, I feel the new program [Josefin’s free skate to “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” by Celine Dion] has grown, and I’ve grown into it more and more, and I’m proud to show it.

And the thing I love the most about this program is my choreo sequence. Not today, not today! [voice shrinking into a laughter], but otherwise I do!

And I went into this season knowing it was going to be hard, because I’m a grown up and it’s harder to sustain financially…

I know this from Julia Sauter too, how physically and financially consuming this journey can be – but, listen, I need to ask you: I know that you have been to the Olympics in Beijing [Yes, yes, I was!] and I was wondering if would go to China in the autumn, for the qualifier event, to try to get to 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics?

I could go, I mean, it’s the federation who chooses who can go, but…

I guess what I want to ask is: do you wanna go? Do you wanna go, do you wanna continue? How is it?

Well, now it’s too early to say, because I’ve had my focus so much on Worlds that… I need to think.

But of course I want to go to the Olympics and it was nice to be in that arena, for Road to 26 Trophy, just two days ago – it was inspirational.

But what is it about the Olympics that people want to go so much? What makes them the focal point of one’s career, let’s say? Beijing was, no doubt, a bit different: with COVID you couldn’t really feel the…

Yes – and if I want to go to one more, it’s because I didn’t get, you know, the normal experience.

But I definitely feel proud of my achievement, I feel proud that I went there.

And what makes it different from the World Championships, let’s say – because I’ve gone to a few World Championships and the competition is not different – it’s just… the Olympics is on the world stage more.

And I feel there are more people who are not that focused on skating, but watch it too – and, in a way, I feel like they appreciate my skating more.

Because they find it entertaining, they’re drawn to it.

I love to perform and the Olympics is the biggest stage that you can go on as a figure skater.

And how was it in Assago, how was it in the arena that is going to host the Olympic figure skating events in less than a year?

They’re still working on it and, of course, it’s gonna be totally different when it’s the real one, with the Olympic rings and everything, but I find the arena very interesting and very cool already.

I don’t even know how to describe it, but almost from like a movie or something on the outside of it.

And the Olympics are in Italy and it would be nice to go.

[And then reality strikes again, with Josefin missing the minimum TES to go to 2025 Worlds in Boston, the main “entrance gate” to the Milano-Cortina Olympics.]

…when I was younger, I think this would have devastated me more.

Now I feel like I would want to do it, and I may still continue to fight for it.

…it’s not the end of the world, after all…

Yes, it’s only the end of the season…

That’s right. And there are always shows and stuff as well. So who knows?

I’m going to perform at the Junior Worlds in Synchro in just a couple of weeks [World Junior Synchronized Championships, Gothenburg, Sweden, 7-8 March, 2025], so this is not the end of my season in that sort of sense, I’m still performing.

But the plans are to continue to skate competitively, right? No pressure [both smiling], but please think about it well, because there are so many people out there enjoying your skating…

Right now I’m not super keen on it, but, from 2020, I started saying: One more season, one more season. And now it’s 2025.

So I’ve always said: One more season and I didn’t look further than that. And I think maybe that’s the reason I’ve done four more seasons, you know? [smiling] Because it’s easier for my brain to motivate itself like that.

There’s one thing I want to say about continuing or not: it depends also on my situation financially.

But how do you handle it, how do you do it?

Right now it’s working, that kind of thing. And also my parents are very supportive.

But it would mean a lot to me to have a sponsor or something.

Because also my sisters, they’re working with me every day, and traveling with me, and they’re not getting much pay, you know…

They’re doing voluntary work.

Basically, yes.

But it’s only so far you can ask them to volunteer, volunteer, volunteer [on a staccato voice]. My oldest sister, she’s been my coach for 15 years or something.

But how come that all of you are skating? You have two sisters, right?

Two older sisters, yes.

And the thing is my mom studied to be a PE teacher [physical education teacher]. Like a gymnastics teacher in the school…

…While we hear in the background: “The next category: women” – the medal ceremony for the senior women is about to start.

“Is that mine? I need to go!”, and Josefin runs to the gate, greets the audience and steps on the podium – she is the silver medalist of 2025 Bellu Memorial in Bucharest, Romania, her final competition of the season.

Right after the ceremony, she heads back to where we talked, near the boards, hands full with her trophy, diploma, while on the bench her fluffy companion had patiently waited for her.

And we now look for a quieter place backstage, only to find ourselves in the hallway to the locker rooms, surrounded by the medalists of all ages, categories, and their happy buzz.

Believe it or not, I don’t hear the noise, I only hear the story, Josefin Taljegard’s story, the layers of it, one after the other – we’re travelling together into the journey of her career so far.

“THEY TOLD ME I WAS A WILD CHILD, I DID MY OWN THING EVEN THEN”

Josefin, you have a large fan base, we at Inside Skating are a part of it. And we do want to get to know you better, so allow us to do that and start from the very beginning [both smiling at this point]. You were already mentioning something about your mom being a physical education teacher…

Yes and because she was this kind of teacher, she wanted my older sister to know how to skate before she started school. She’s seven years older than me.

So she started skating and then my middle sister started skating and then I started skating [bursting into laughter]. I was 3 years old when I started.

Who took you to the rink?

Whoever could drive [smiling], my mom, my dad, my grandparents…

And was it public skating [No, no, she answers fast] or actual skating lessons?

Skating school, or whatever you call it. We always have group training in Sweden when you’re younger.

What’s the first skating memory that you have as a child, the first thing that you remember?

Involving me…? I think I was bored with skating when I was a kid [smiling to the ears].

I think I remember it myself, and I’ve also been told: when I was small, because I was very talented, I was always skating with older people.

And I would be bored with doing three turns or whatever around the ice, so whenever there was a line, you know, the red or the blue lines, I would jump over them [bursting into laughter].

They told me that I was a wild child [smiling still]. And the coaches didn’t like it – they didn’t like this kind of energy.

Too much energy, too much character…

Yeah, but I think that’s something that makes me unique [large smile follows].

Because I defied the rules even then, or what people think about you, or how a skater should act. I did my own thing even then [she chuckles].

And what’s the first thing that you remember from watching skating on TV, let’s say?

I remember watching Plushenko with Yagudin at the Olympics in Salt Lake City, I think I was 6 or 7 years old.

Did you have a favorite out of the two? I remember I loved Yagudin at first because of his “Winter” program, and then I became a Plushenko uber…

I liked Plushenko’s Carmen program – I think that’s what he skated at the time. So, back then, I liked him more.

But now that I’ve worked so much with Nikolai Morozov, and he worked a lot with Yagudin, I’ve become more and more in this way.

What about your own programs since the very beginnings until now – are there any that you remember in particular? I love to ask this question because the journey into memories can be so nice: I remember Adam Siao Him Fa talking about his Lion King short program from young age with so much candor, so much joy…

One of my favorites – I think I had it when I was like 9 or 10 – is Finding Nemo.

And I had all the stripes and everything, and all the movements, and I had one long arm and one short, because, you know, Nemo had a shorter fin…

And, at first, the seamstress put the long arm on the wrong side of the dress… [laughing] And we had to redo it, because I couldn’t change the program, I was so used to doing this… And I love that program, because it also had so much variation in the rhythm.

But even if it’s not that much difference in the music – like my short program nowadays, to “Wicked Game” –, I can still find the nuances, I can still find ways to Okay, now I’m expressing this, and now I’m expressing this, in the same song.

And I remember I also did Happy Feet, about the penguin who can’t sing, he can only dance. And he’s doing the step things [and Josefin hits the floor with her skates, she still has her skates on], so that was a fun program to do as well.

“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN ACTING, SO IT’S BEEN A WAY FOR ME TO DO THAT”

There’s this thing I want to ask you for a while now: Josefin, what do you like about skating? Because you thrive when you skate, you thrive on the ice, as if you were living your best life… Or: what did you like as a child, and what do you like now, in case there are some differences here…

I’ve always been interested in acting, so it’s been a way for me to do that. I get to be there on my own, and everyone’s watching me, that kind of thing [laughing].

Especially when I was younger I loved being there, being in the spotlight. It’s a rush, you know?

Like: some people climb mountains and stuff, and I skate in front of 10.000 people!

But how does one get to live it like you do? Some people crumble under pressure when there are 10.000 people watching…

I get very nervous as well, it’s not that!

I was born loving this, but then when I went through puberty and stuff, it was more difficult to handle, and everything was so serious, you know?

Like: figure skating is so serious [making a serious, pompous face].

And I understand why it’s serious, because you put in so much money and time and all that, so of course it’s serious, but, for me, it didn’t make my skating better to take it so extremely serious.

So I quit skating when I was 18, 19, something like that, for one year and a half.

And I learned to love life more, or who I was, and stuff outside of skating. I realized it’s a whole world out there, you know?

And: who am I now? Because I had been Josefin-the skater for so long.

And how come you came back? How come you decided at a certain point that you wanted back? Did you miss the rush, the adrenaline?

No, it wasn’t for that.

It was more that I felt I hadn’t lived up to my expectations, I felt I had more to give. And maybe not expectations, because I knew that there was a lot even when I was younger, but when I came back there was no expectations…

A few years before the Olympics in China, we were sitting and talking, and I said something like: If I ever go to China that would be for the Olympics, you know?

And the Federation people – they’re not in the Federation anymore, but I talked to some people that were involved in skating at the time – and they were just looking at me like: Yeah, sure! [making an incredulous face]

I had already started again at that point, but that kind of [reaction] gave me…

Because I don’t like people telling me what I can and cannot do. And I think that’s something that made me actually go to the Olympics, you know? [laughing]

It gave you the fire…

Yeah, or just like: Who do they think they are that they can tell me what my future is going to look like?

And when it comes to starting skating again, it was because I felt I was happy again. And I started because I wanted to start, not because somebody was forcing me, or I was 3 years old and I didn’t know what I was doing… When I was 3 I didn’t know that I was going to skate when I was 18, you know?

So for me, when I started again, I think around 20 there, I did it because I wanted to do it.

Again, nobody could tell me what to do. [There’s laughter – but a laughter that feels so serious: that’s who Josefin is, a strong-minded woman making her own choices, and restarting skating at 20 was something that she wanted.]

Alysa Liu came back this season [Yes, she started again!, Josefin nods] and I might have read she wanted that adrenaline back…

When I didn’t have skating, I went to New York and studied acting, and I was standing in front of people improvising in another language, so I get the rush and I can find it someplace else. But it was still…

You know, it’s a very special feeling when you go out there and you’re just gliding… On the ice, you can move in a different way than anywhere else.

Yes, there’s this freedom – and I saw you here, in Bucharest, as well, really enjoying your time on the ice, and off the ice, dancing near the boards…

I just love moving to music, not only when skating my program, but when I train, I love putting on a song and move… That calms me down and I think it’s therapeutic for me, because I’m this very emotional person.

A few weeks ago, my mom was: Just put some music and relax, you know? Because I was going to all these competitions, and I only had a couple of practices at home. And she was just: Just put on the music and skate and relax.

I feel that just moving to the music makes me happier and stronger as a person.

With your work as a figure skating coach, how much time do you find for your own skating?

I skate six days a week, sometimes two times a day, but, I don’t know, maybe… 14 hours on the ice and then some hours outside of the ice.

But I definitely would have enjoyed more time outside of the ice. This season, I would have needed more. As you get older, everything hurts [smiling], so…

Because you mentioned earlier that you went to New York and studied acting, there’s this thing I noticed when it comes to your programs: they’re almost movie-like, you make them look like movies, they have this quality… So how do you do that?

Thank you [smiling]. Actually, I also studied writing so that’s why…

So there’s a connection between your screenwriting skills and your programs – do you imagine them as short movies?

Yes, sometimes I do.

It depends a little bit on the program too. When I skated to “The Joker” it was more like a movie.

This season’s program are different though, more like monologues…

Yes, basically.

When I did my short program last season, to “Wicked Games”, I just listened to the song and the lyrics kind of wrote the story, what could have happened, that kind of thing.

Then if I know what I want to portray, I need to think about: Okay, so how can I go from the beginning to the end? So maybe in the beginning, she’s like: Oh, this guy, oh, wow, he likes me! [smiling, giggling] You know, something like this.

And then she’s singing something about a fool, and then there’s something happening, and she’s sad, and in the step sequence it’s more like: Okay, fuck this dude, you know? [laughing] And then the anger comes out.

Of course, you can’t tell the whole story, because nobody’s going to be like: Exactly what’s happening? But if I know then I can figure out how I want… Because you don’t want to be sad, sad, sad all the time.

Or that’s what I also learned with acting: if you want the scene to end somewhere, maybe they’re kissing or something in the end of the scene, you can’t start the scene there – they have to be fighting, you need something happening, because, otherwise, it’s not so interesting just watching two people being like Aaah! [happy face] all the time.

I know a lot of programs which are just that.

Yeah, whereas others… Many years ago, I saw someone skating to a soundtrack where I know this movie is about bullying, and I think somebody is even murdered because of this bullying.

And I don’t know if she knew – but you probably should know. Because it was really… The soundtrack was from this film, so I think it’s important to…

…pay attention.

Yeah, or if you skate to a song where it’s maybe in Spanish or some other language you don’t speak, you need to at least listen to it, know what they’re saying. There’s no rules about it, but you should know at least.

And then you can stand for what you’re showing.

“Maria, I’m here!”. Josefin’s sister has been looking for her for a while now, and she has finally found her. The two Taljegard sisters, the skater and the coach, talk to one another. Maria: “You need to sit and rest a bit, you need to rest…”

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[Interview by Florentina Tone, Bucharest
Photos by Askar Ibragimov at 2021 Finlandia Trophy
Photos by Alberto Ponti at 2023 Europeans, 2024 Europeans,
2024 Worlds, 2025 Europeans, 2025 Road to 26 Trophy
Photos by Florentina Tone at 2025 Bellu Memorial]