In 2006, Norwegian BASE jumper Karina Hollekim survived an horrific crash in which she suffered 25 fractures in both legs. But, now convalesced, Karina is still very much involved in the scene, and much else besides, as she tells us in the first part of our exclusive interview.
After your accident, you famously said, “It’s ironic how I’ve spent decades of my life trying to be someone special, and now, suddenly, all I want is to be normal.”
Yes, isn’t it interesting how we all want to be special and outstanding? And suddenly you come to a point in life which changes your perspective on everything and all you want is normality. Ironic in a way, but that’s what happened to me…
Franz Schuh, the philosopher, recently said, “Where there is a hero, death is not far away.” Do you agree?
I guess… People whom we regard as heroes are out there getting around death, tricking or even fooling it. They’re survivors and they keep putting their lives at stake, so I think, unfortunately, that he’s right.
'You can’t show your strength if you’re not smart or wise'
Do you you agree that ‘a being at the height of its strength is rarely at the height of its wisdom’?
I don’t agree with this one – especially in the sports that I come from, freeskiing and BASE jumping. You can’t show your strength if you’re not smart or wise about what you’re doing. The crucial thing is to know your limits and to act within them.
After your crash, have you continued to follow what’s going on in the BASE scene?
I still have lots of friends who are BASE jumpers, naturally, and they keep me updated on their projects and share their tales with me, because they know I don’t want to feel left out, despite what happened to me. And I love to listen to their news, because it keeps me a part of the scene. I can still evoke the intense feeling of a jump and feel the joy it gave me. It’s something that’ll stay with me forever and nobody can take that away from me.
Who impresses you most as good all-round BASE athletes?
Espen Fadnes and JT Holmes are two guys who are really taking the sport to a new dimension. It’s breathtaking to witness and it hurts me sometimes that I no longer can take part in it, because that was my dream. But on the other hand, I’m still here, right?
Isn’t it scary for a BASE jumper to think that, somewhere in the equipment, there could be a little string, switch or buckle that can end, or at least change, your whole life?
You can’t start thinking that way, because it would drive you crazy. There’s a certain amount of trust that you have to have in your equipment. It’s the same as driving a car, which has even more small parts that can be defective. You don’t wonder if your brakes will work each time you drive a car, right? Otherwise you’d never drive it.
'My body will always miss the adrenalin rush… but my urge to do it again is not that great'
Is there a promise you gave to someone to never take up skydiving again?
Skydiving? No. BASE jumping? Actually, yes [gives a wry smile]. I had that request many times, but I can’t make a promise that I might not be able to keep. But the thing is: for this sport, you have to trust your body 100 per cent, and I can’t trust my body in the condition it’s in right now. My body will always miss the adrenalin rush from the flying experiences, but I must also say that my urge to do it again is not that great any more anyway.
Are you a person who can accept help easily?
No, not at all, and I never did. I’d rather be helping others. I did learn, though, to accept help, but asking for it is still difficult for me. In the course of my rehab, I met a woman, another patient, who poured her heart out to me, and what I could give her was my attention and a long hug. It was the first time I could be there for somebody else after my accident. And it made a big difference. So, I’m working on it.
Did you suffer bouts of depression during the last three and a half years?
Four months into my rehab, I took part in a group meeting with other injured people – I weighed 47kg [103lbs] back then, 20kg less than my normal weight. The theme of the meeting was how to cope with our disabilities. My mind was just not made up to ‘cope’ with the fact that I might never walk again, so I became desperate being among the others, asking myself what I was doing there at all. I had no energy left and cried for a week.
Find out how Karina dealt with her injury blues in the second part of our interview tomorrow, and keep up with all the latest news in her blog at karinahollekim.com
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