Throwing For Gold: Erna Sóley Chases Her Olympian Dream

“They’re all in boxes. If you’re moving everything, there’s no space for all of it,” says Erna Sóley Gunnarsdóttir, speaking about her sporting trophies, when we meet at the​​ ​ÍR training grounds in Skógarsel. The 24-year-old athlete trains here every day, and this year, she will make history as the first female shot putter to represent Iceland at the Olympic Games as one of the five Icelandic athletes heading to France. Having already made a mark, will she add even more trophies to her collection in Paris?

I’ve been doing track and field since I was nine years old. It’s been my dream to go to the Olympics ever since I started doing sports. Obviously, when you’re a kid, you don’t believe that’s a possibility until you’re a little bit older and see what chances you have at the sport.

I watched the 2008 Olympics, where I saw a javelin thrower competing for Iceland. After that, I was inspired to try track and field the following summer. I had a coach who basically encouraged me to try shot put. He saw that I had some talent and he really wanted me to try to pursue track and field. From that moment on, whenever I visited the sports facility, he would contact me and constantly urge, “You need to do shot put,” and “You need to come and throw.” That was essentially what inspired me to pursue track and field.

I graduated last August from a university in the United States, I came back to Iceland and I’ve been training since August here. Since January, I’ve been doing it full-time.

Massive big throwers

In Iceland, almost every kid under the age of 15 is doing sports. This is like 85% or 90% of kids in some areas. But doing sports hardcore doesn’t really start until you’re 15. You don’t really have homeschooled kids here, it’s more just a part of their daily life — going to school, and doing sports afterwards.

“It’s been my dream to go to the Olympics ever since I started doing sports.”

I did so many sports when I was younger, from gymnastics to swimming and karate. The one I did for the longest time was handball. I was pretty good at that and continued playing until I was 15 years old, when I started to focus solely on throwing.

What I really like about this sport is the diversity of people. You can have a lot of different athletes from distance runners to massive big throwers, sprinters to jumpers. It is a very diverse group of people, which I truly enjoy. Personally, I really enjoy getting stronger. Throwing is a good way of releasing anger, too.

The women’s shot [the name of the metal ball shot putters throw] weighs four kilograms, and the men’s is 7.26 kilograms. There’s a two-metre circle and you just throw it as far as you can. It’s a fun sport to watch. You’re watching really big people spinning and jumping and doing ballet moves to throw things really far.

Because it’s so simple, sometimes you have periods when there’s nothing working, periods when you cannot even throw because it’s a sport where everything happens in a split second. Either everything goes right, or everything goes wrong. It’s not fun when everything goes wrong.

Olympic bound

Getting to the Olympics, is about your top five performances of the year, basically. You have to go and compete in really strong tournaments with strong athletes. For track and field, it’s about making it into the top 32 in the world based on your average scores.

Since I found out that I’m going, there’s been a lot of support. I’m not really stressed about it, I’m just very, very excited. I don’t think there’s too much pressure on me doing well, since it’s my first time going. I’m just excited about it.

Participating in the Olympics is still the highest honour that you can get [as an athlete]. I think there might still be some doping and stuff like that going on, but it’s a lot better than it was 10 years ago. For most track and field athletes, this is the pinnacle of the sport.

My coach that I was working with here in Iceland, Pétur Guðmundsson, went to the Olympics. In fact, he went to two separate Olympics. I interviewed him about the whole experience — how and what his experience was with the entire process. I also have a training partner who went to the Olympics twice, which is really helpful. I kind of know what to expect. But obviously, it’s different when it’s yourself going.

The most surprising thing I found out is the amount of people that are involved. There’s so many random people that are going from Iceland that are just there to support, and they can influence your process. Normally, you go to a competition alone and just do your own thing. But since it’s so big, there are so many other people who could interrupt you. You have to try to focus on your own goals and not let other people around influence what you’re planning to do.

​​We’ve had a couple of meetings with the Icelandic Olympians over this year. They were originally a much larger group, but not everyone made it to the Games. A lot of people were super, super close — a few were just two or three places away from making it. It was kind of heartbreaking. I’ve gotten to know people, but not that much. We have a group chat with the five Icelandic Olympians. It’s fun sharing and talking about your experiences.

The cost of Olympic dreams

When it comes to funding in sports, Iceland could do better. We don’t get paid as athletes. There’s not a lot of money from the government for sports in general. There’s not much money for athletes just to live and do their sports. Most people are forced to get a job in order to support themselves and do their sports. There are some changes happening right now, so it might be a possibility for athletes to compete full-time, but for most people, it’s really hard. If they want to do it full-time, they’d rather go outside of the country for lower living costs and because they can work with more people that are doing their specific sport.

Now, I get a little bit of grants from Iceland Athletics, but I have been doing a lot of random jobs this year — I worked at a pizza place, I’ve been working security jobs, I worked for the government, helping kids with autism. I was also coaching and doing small things that I could find just to earn a little bit of extra money to support myself.

Throwing days and lifting days

Ahead of the Olympics, I’ve been keeping the same schedule. I train about two or three hours a day every day, switching between throwing days and lifting days. I usually do one longer session a day, but sometimes, I split it in two, doing one session in the morning and one in the afternoon. I also lift on Saturdays. Sundays are for active recovery — that’s when I usually do cardio exercises.

“You’re watching really big people spinning and jumping and doing ballet moves to throw things really far.”

I don’t ever take long periods of off time — maybe up to one or two weeks after the season ends. Last fall, I did manage to travel. I took two weeks off training and went to Dubai, which was really fun. But the longest time away from training was during Covid, when there was no access to any training area, so I was off for a month. That’s the longest I’ve ever been away from it.

The line between my training and personal life is a bit blurred. There’s a lot of people that I train with, so there’s a little bit of socialising. It’s kind of like a job — you just go to your training and then you come home and have family and friends. I’m grateful that I don’t have to work like a [regular] full-time job, so I have the ability to have time for socialising after I’m done training.

I like taking walks, watching shows, reading and baking. I bake a lot of bread.

Follow Erna’s journey to Paris on Instagram @erna_soley