Ex-Hong Kong athlete swims 360km around Swedish island as part of mental health fight

South China Morning Post

3 days ago

A former Hong Kong athlete, who said the city was where he 'fell in love with open-water swimming', has swum 360 kilometres around a Swedish island as part of his battle with mental health and to raise awareness of the issue and for nature conservation.
Karl Palmqvist, a Swedish national who trained with the Hong Kong Sports Institute's triathlon national development squad as a teenager, completed the 21-day swim around Gotland, Sweden's largest island, on Thursday.
But the mammoth achievement comes two years after he was at his 'absolute lowest' following years of injuries, an identity crisis and the constant pressure to perform.
'The way sports are nowadays, you push kids so early on that it's almost the only thing that they're banking on, or in my case, such a big part of my identity,' Palmqvist said.
'And then, when you've almost gone professional or been elite within your sport, and then it's taken away from you due to injuries or mental burnout, we're just left there floating on our own without any tools to be able to work through it.
Karl Palmqvist checked himself into a psychiatric ward but has since pulled through. Photo: Anders Klapp
Palmqvist moved to Shanghai when he was three years old and relocated to Hong Kong aged 10. He lived in the city for five years before returning to Sweden.