My
name is Peter Björkstrand and I am from Malmö in the south of Sweden. I have
been involved in goalball since 1992 when I got in touch with some guys who were
planning to start the sport in the parasportclub FIFH Malmö. I had tried the
sport a few times before in different camps for impared youth here in Sweden.
So we started as a group of real amateurs but developed our team over the years
to be one of the most successful clubteams in the world during the first ten
years of 2000.
I
started as a player and was playing during twelve years, and I was more of a
teamplayer than a star. From 1999 I was also getting more and more into
coaching – and that was my big thing. I liked it and with the great results
that we made I must say to myself that I also was quite good at it. I have
worked as a coach mostly in our club here in Malmö and on all different levels
from youth to highest elite.
During
2013 and 2014 I got the honour to work with the national team for women. That
was a big challenge since almost all girls had just quit and we were forced to
build a whole new team. That was tough but I think we did our best, and there
was a little chance that we would surprise everyone at the World Championships
in 2014. But just a month before the tournament our federation decided that
they want somebody else to lead the team at the WC, so I quit and got no chance
to show what would have been possible for us. That is one of the most terrible
moments during my career in goalball.
But
just a few months later I got a chance to be involved in the national team for
men instead. There we also did a really big success when we got from Euro B to
the qualification for Rio - and succeeded to take a spot there. And then we
managed to go all the way to the bronzegame where we lost in overtime to Brazil
which is the toughest loss during my whole career. After the Paralympics in Rio
I quit from coaching since I was asked to be the tournament director for the
World Championships here in Malmö in 2018.
Over
all those years as a coach and player I have also been introducing, developing
and working with all different kinds of tournaments and competitions as an organizer
here in Malmö. It has been tournaments on all different levels. All the way my
aim has been to organize tournaments that are more like events and not just
competitions. So I think we were one of the first organizers who introduced
music, lights and shows around and during the games. The motto has all the time
been that we must take ourselves and our sport seriously if we want that also all
the people outside goalball should do it.
Already
in the year 1995 the goalball tournament during the parasport event Malmö Open
started, and every year in February up to twenty clubteams from all over the
world have got together here for playing. I have been the manager for all those
editions.
In
the year 2000 my friend Henrik Bergkvist, who was working as a coach for the
Swedish women’s team, asked if we could arrange a competition just for the women’s
teams since there were not so many competitions for the ladies as preparation
for Sydney. I said yes and that was the beginning of the story about the Malmö
Lady and Men Intercup. So the first idea was to organize this only once but
instead the tournament developed to be one of the biggest and most popular in
the world, and we have worked really hard to develop it with some new details
every year to follow our own motto. It has been a really hard but just
enjouyful journey with the Intercups and I am so thankful and happy for all the
great and good words that have been said over the years for our work.
And
then when everything got crowned by the work and success during the World
Championships in 2018 I was in heaven. All years that we worked hard with
goalball in Malmö got together in that week as one package and I was so proud
to be a part of the big goalball family.
Right
now my connection with goalball is still to organize the high-quality
tournaments. It was a great experience when I had the possibility to get a main
role in the organization of the last European A in Rostock. And maybe it is
possible for me to work more as a resource for organizers of tournaments and
championships over the world in the future because I am still interested to see
how far it is possible to develop arrangements around the goalball tournaments.
For
me the sport of goalball has been the biggest part of my life. My hope is that
we all together continue to develop not only our sport but also the
arrangements around it. I like the way we started to unionize and organize in
different levels as EGCA for example. I am proud that I was one in the small
group of people who introduced SEGL several years ago and I love that the
format is still developing. And this is also right in the spot of taking ourselves
and our sport more seriously. That will make the future of our sport even more
successful.
When I started with goalball thirty years ago I did not think that the sport would be such a big part of my life - but I am happy that it has been. I’m looking forward to new upcoming challenges.
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