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– Money had not been my motivation.
In 2020, a record number of people have been laid off and much of the business community is facing a major restructuring in which many employees have to find new career paths. In this series of articles, Nettavisens focuses on profiled people who may find something completely different to do. The first to leave is Stine Lise Hattestad.
SANDVIKA, BÆRUM (Nettavisen Økonomi.): – Yes, Stine! Quick and nice! Haaaa!
Commentators were delighted when Stine Lise Hattestad (53), now Hattestad Bratsberg, secured gold in the freestyle branch shot put at home during the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.
Check out a video interview with Stine Lise Hattestad Bratsberg at the top of the box!
With that, she became the first Norwegian woman to win individual Olympic gold on skis, and the only Norwegian athlete to win gold during the Lillehammer Olympics.
She achieved legendary status after this feat, but both she and the Norwegian people could have been tricked into experiencing this jubilee day in 1994.
– I had planned to post after the Olympics in Albertville to complete my studies. But I felt like I should have won, so I decided to drive more and that the Lillehammer Olympics would be my last race, he tells Nettavisen today.
Fortunately, he decided to continue. He wanted more than the bronze medal he brought with him from the Albertville Olympics in 1992.
Everybody wanted a piece of her
The Olympic gold in Lillehammer was the first and the last. After ten years as an elite athlete, I was tired of all the travel. There were too many travel days a year.
However, it was not in the bids after the Olympic gold, because everyone wanted a piece from the Norwegian gold winner. Bratsberg says the sponsors “threw” money at her, but she was not tempted.
– Money had not been my motivation in the sport and therefore the offers did not change my plans, he says.
Although there were many interesting offers, he had decided to complete the master in economics that he had already started.
Bratsberg spent a total of six years studying for a master’s degree in economics, with the last three years being just two years after his resignation.
– At the same time I was studying, I also worked 40 days a year for K2 in the United States and Japan. The job consisted of testing skis, working on ski design, and doing commercials in the United States and Japan, he says.
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I would be successful with anything else
The choice of the masters in economics was a bit random, as only the Business Academy, now BI, made it possible for top athletes to combine their careers with education at the time.
– The day I put the skis on the shelf, the goal was to see if I could be successful with something other than skiing, using my head on something other than sports, he says.
At the same time, Bratsberg felt that he had shown what he wanted on the ski slope.
– It’s about finding out how good you can be and what you master. That is what drives us. I didn’t have much more to go on, sorry, he says.
Bratsberg has been in the media little since he resigned. It is a conscious choice. He said not so much to “Skal vi danse” as to “Mesternes Mester”. She doesn’t have time, and it’s not the sports career she wants to focus on either, that’s the work she does with sustainability now.
Also read: Egil (49) and a quarter of a million Norwegians will not receive holiday pay next year: – Dønn unfair
Focuses on sustainability
She has never had doubts that the new career path has been the right one for her. Since April this year she has been a partner of KPMG and leads the sustainability work in the consulting department.
Among other things, Bratsberg works to help public and private companies large and small, but also municipalities, to become more sustainable, such as Hurtigruten, Aker and Grieg.
But before starting at KPMG, she had been involved in the start-up of two companies, both run for ten years each prior to their sale. He was first one of three Creo Communication partners and then founded Pure Consulting, where he worked in sustainability consulting.
However, interest in sustainability has been emerging after graduation.
– I believe that the companies that will succeed in the future are those that manage to take care of their own people, the interests of society and climate and environmental problems, while at the same time running a good store, he says.
Bratsberg believes that companies that manage to solve some of the challenges we face will make a lot of money and attract good people. The goal now is to create growth in the department that she leads at KPMG.
– I think I will work with sustainability for the rest of my career, he says.
In the video below, Bratsberg explains why sustainability matters:
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Dare to try and fail
Something that she brings from her life as an elite athlete into her career as an entrepreneur and now the leader of KPMG, is the mindset.
You have to work hard and endure defeat and adversity, you just have enough faith in what you do, he says.
– No one is successful unless they can also bear having one on their face. But it is about being able to continue working and functioning properly. You have to believe that you can achieve something even if it seems demanding, says Bratsberg, who notes that ten years ago few cared about sustainability.
Everything is so safe in sports, and many have a whole support system around them.
– You must dare to venture into something new and “be completely naked” until you are just as good at something else. The best athletes know that it takes a lot of work to achieve their goals, he says.
However, having only one goal is not enough. It is important to find something that you are passionate about, so that you can get the same adrenaline rush and commitment in your work life as on the ski slopes.
– Nobody is as angry as I am when we lose a project. I am cursed. But then comes the sports approach: what can we do differently next time, for the customer to choose us, he says.
– I feel ridiculously happy when we win an offer or an assignment. I have a silly winning instinct that never goes away, he says and laughs.
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Continue with your own challenges
Despite the shot put on the sidelines, Bratsberg certainly hasn’t given up on restlessness and desire for tough new challenges.
– I ski as much as I can, but now I’m randonee. It can be a little steeper, because I like to drive and have a tingling in my stomach, he says.
She likes a challenge and is probably tougher than most 50-year-old women. Among other things, she tells when she was going to be tough on her youngest son.
– We live in Nesøya, and one day we sat and looked at the diving tower at “Kadda” in Sandvika. So I said that the ten meters seems very high now, but I think we have to go and jump, so I continue like I used to, he says.
They pulled the boat out and the former shot putter took off and jumped.
– I don’t think it’s that tough, and neither are those around me, but compared to other women in their 50s, I probably have slightly different limits, she says.
Hattestad Bratsberg tells about the cliff and how the son reacted:
What he misses most about his sports career is going out and training all he wants.
– I miss him especially when the weather is nice. “It’s cruel to sit inside when I see good weather and I know there is a lot of snow, but I can’t go out because I have to work,” he says.
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– Great great moment
Traveling is what he least misses in his sports career. Neither bad hotel rooms nor airports are something you long to return to.
Bratsberg still brings back many fond memories of life on the slopes, and especially the Olympic gold at home in 1994 tasted great.
– It was a very nice feeling. I was incredibly happy, but I also felt a kind of emptiness. What happens now? Therefore, I am very happy that I planned to study more, he says.
The victory at Lillehammer was one of his most important sporting moments. The second big moment was gold during the junior world championships in France in 1985.
– It was a great sporting moment. A little Norwegian was not expected to win there, so it was really important, she says.
The online newspaper also interviewed Hattestad four years ago, and you can read this interview here: What are you doing now, Stine Lise Hattestad?
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