The New York Times-20080126-Swedish Star Finds Motivation In Variety

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Swedish Star Finds Motivation In Variety

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Carolina Kluft of Sweden will not turn 25 until next Saturday, but in the heptathlon, the seven-event test in women's track and field, she has won the last Olympic gold medal, the last two European championships and the last three world championships. She has won her last 19 heptathlons. Only the legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee has scored higher.

There may be no encore in the heptathlon because Kluft sometimes takes the approach of been there, done that. She is also the world's sixth-ranked long jumper (she has done 22 feet 10 1/2 inches), and she will jump Saturday night in the Reebok Boston Indoor Games.

In a news conference and interview Friday, she talked about her future.

I'm not 100 percent sure if I'll do the heptathlon again, she said. At the end of the indoor season, I will know what I want to do in the Olympics this summer. It will be the long jump for sure, maybe the heptathlon, too.

The heptathlon isn't boring. I love the sport, but in life you need changes. In different years, you need different schedules. I'm breaking my personal bests, but I need something new.

At 5 feet 10 inches and 143 pounds, Kluft (rhymes with hoofed) seems to have been destined for sports. Her mother was a world-class long jumper. Her father was a professional soccer player. Her husband, Patrik Kristiansson, pole-vaulted 19-2 1/4 before he retired.

Kluft played soccer before taking up track, but the charm of the two-day heptathlon seemed to wear off after last year's world championships in Osaka, Japan.

I felt empty, she said. I still don't have that motivation, and I'm not sure it's going to come back in the spring when I'm training outdoors again. I want to be happy with my career.

Happiness may mean something new, and she is experimenting already. After Osaka, she entered the triple jump in a low-level meet. It is not a heptathlon discipline and she had not trained for it, but she surpassed 46 feet, almost a world-class distance.

I'd like to do it again, she said. It's a fun event, and I like challenges.

Her future after track is unprogrammed, too.

The day I quit, I'm sure I'll not be sorrowful, but instead I'll be starting the rest of my life, she said. Exactly what that's going to be, I don't know, but it's growing in me.

I don't know how long I'll compete. But when I stop, I'd like to be home and lead a regular life, go to the store and buy food and clean my house. But there's fun and joy in improving yourself. I'd love to stay a few more years.

The Swedish people would like that, too. In a poll a few years ago, they chose Kluft as the most admired woman in Sweden. The runner-up was Queen Silvia.

NOTES

The leading women in the meet at the Reggie Lewis Center include Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia and Sally Kipyego of Kenya in the 3,000 meters, Meseret Defar of Ethiopia and Jen Rhines in the two-mile, Liliya Shobukhova of Russia and Jen Toomey in the mile and Jenn Stuczynski in the pole vault. Among the men are Craig Mottram of Australia and Nick Willis of New Zealand in the 3,000, Chris Lukezic and Galen Rupp in the mile, Khadevis Robinson and Nick Symmonds in the 800 and Reese Hoffa, Adam Nelson and Christian Cantwell in the shot-put.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Carolina Kluft will compete in the long jump at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games.(PHOTOGRAPH BY BIZUAYEHU TESFAYE/ASSOCIATED PRESS)