Paris 2024 Olympics handball: Swedish handball star Jim Gottfridsson kept falling asleep and now he knows why
Sleep. One of the superpowers of life and particularly key for elite athletes. But what if you've been diagnosed with a sleep disorder?
Not just that, but tests reveal you have sleep apnea, which causes breathing to stop-and-start repeatedly during sleep and can also lead to extreme daytime fatigue and drowsiness?
Not just that but you're playing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in just a few months' time, hoping to lead your team to a first Olympic medal since silver at London 2012.
This is the situation Sweden's handball star Jim Gottfridsson found himself in after seeking help for a condition that has severely impacted his life, and not just on the handball court.
"I am practically falling asleep all the time and my children have learned that," said the father-of-two considered one of the best players in the world.
"When we play a puzzle or memory (game) and I lie on the floor, I can just pass out in the middle of it and they grab my shoulder, saying, 'You're sleeping again, Dad'."
Jim Gottfridsson on managing sleep apnea
The 31-year-old had presumed his extreme tiredness was due to being a parent and a professional athlete.
But with encouragement from his wife, the two-time Olympian from Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, decided to get checked out.
So, he went to the doctors at his home in Germany, where he plays for club side SG Flensburg-Handewitt, for tests.
"I've been doing sleep analysis where I sleep at a hospital with sensors on me and they film me at night, to really know 100 per cent how I sleep," he said. "I've been doing those kind of things, most of all for my own future - to know what I should and have to do."
It didn't take the medical staff long to find out the cause.
Like many an athlete, Gottfridsson has been injured many times, but it's the four times he's broken his nose that has caused the issue, he told documentary makers, SVT.
"My nose is a complete catastrophe," he said. "I don't get any air through my left nostril."
He's not attempted to fix the issue just yet.
"If I operate now, I'll miss the Olympics," he said. "If I operate after the Olympics, I'll miss the entire autumn season. You don't take the time for all these quirks you have."
For now, he manages the condition himself.
"I am pretty good at starting to feel when I'm becoming 'tired Jim'," he said, which enables him to adopt techniques that help him learn more about the condition and adapt accordingly.
After all, who better knows their body than an elite athlete.
Sweden men's next match at Paris 2024 is against Croatia on 2 August at 14:00 as the men's preliminary rounds continue.