Fitness Training
The art of reinventing yourself with Tobias Forsberg
A life-altering accident saw Tobias Forsberg go from professional ice hockey player to life in a wheelchair. Having taken charge of his new life, he now teaches others to do the same.
One second is all it can take for your life to change. Yet, it can take years for you to change your life. Just ask Tobias Forsberg. One accident on Boxing Day 2018 changed everything and forced him to seek new perspectives in life. But see, the thing he’s since discovered, is that it’s perfectly possible to reinvent yourself whilst remaining true to who you are. His journey has neither been simple nor easy, but today, five years after the accident, Tobias lives a new life with many elements from the past: it’s full of hockey, limelight and loved ones.
As he sets out on yet another mission, this time as ambassador for the Wings For Life World Run, Tobias continues to inspire people with his brave story of loss and love, aims to reduce stigmatization around wheelchair users and teaches us that: “you don’t have to break your neck in order to change your life”.
Acceptance, motivation and family are vital tools when changing your life
© Emrik Jansson
Run for those who can't! Participate in the event on May 4th 2025 at 13:00 - register here. 100% of entre fees go to spinal cord research.
What is Wings For Life World Run?
01
Living the childhood ice-hockey dream
Like a lot of Swedish kids, Piteå-born Tobias Forsberg started playing ice hockey as a youngster. Together with his brother and his friends, he honed his skills on the ice and quickly found that he had a talent for the fast-paced and challenging sport. Following his dream, he moved away from home at 15 to study ice hockey at a sports-oriented high school in Örnsköldsvik.
He successfully turned his childhood dream to reality when getting a spot in the Swedish elite series SHL playing for Modo. “I was playing with my idols – it was a dream, it felt insane”, he remembers. Around the same time, Tobias was selected for the Swedish Junior National Team, who went on to winning silver at the World Championships in 2007. After two years at Modo, Tobias moved on to play in Västerås, and after another two years, he ended up in Leksand. A place that became home:
“Straight away, I just felt right at home. Everyone talked ice hockey: at lunch, in restaurants, in changing rooms. Everyone was just like me, everyone loved the sport. Also, there was this calmness over the town and a way of being… I guess I just fell for it.”
Five year's later Tobias is back at Leksand's hockey club as a board member
© Emrik Jansson
For eight seasons, Tobias played for Leksand hockey club. He found a home, a town and a club he loved. Everything was going right, that is, until it all went wrong.
02
When life changes you
It only took a couple of seconds for the accident to happen. It was in front of his home crowd and live TV cameras, just moments before the end of the second period between Leksand and Almtuna, that Tobias accidentally got stuck in an opponent’s arm, lost his balance, and crashed headfirst into the dasher board. A freak accident. But one than changed his life forever. Breaking his neck and injuring his spinal cord meant that Tobias went from a professional ice hockey player to a life in a wheelchair.
Being paralysed from his armpits down has changed Tobias life drastically: a new career, a new hometown and new daily routines. Yet, whilst things are different today, five years after the accident, many things also remain the same: “Me and my wife Filippa still love the same things as before; doing sports, watching a movie, eating out, striving towards future goals and, of course, ice hockey. It just looks a little different than before”, Tobias explains.
"Life looks very different, yet also very much the same"
© Emrik Jansson
His love for sports is just as strong and the gym has become a go-to place both for physical rehab and mental well-being. Instead of playing hockey, Tobias works within the hockey bubble: first as an expert commentator for Cmore and more recently as a board member of Leksand’s hockey club. And instead of sliding out on the ice, he slides out on stage and lectures about his journey and the new perspectives it’s given him. Because if there is one thing that this unfortunate twist of events has taught him is that you can either let life change you, or you take charge and change your life.
03
When you change your life
Tobias lectures about finding new perspectives in life. About daring to change and reinvent yourself without having something as life-altering happen as breaking your neck. “You shouldn’t wait around for something bad to happen to realise that you need a new direction in life”.
Inspiring to say the least, Tobias outlook on life is optimistic and driven, yet he’s very much a realist and doesn’t shy away of telling it how it is. “I accept that what happened to me was an accident. That doesn’t mean I accept that I sit in this wheelchair, but I accept that something happened and now I have to make the best of it”.
The couple got married in 2021 and currently live in Stockholm
© Emrik Jansson
You shouldn’t wait around for something bad to happen to realise that you need a new direction in life.
If you ask Tobias what the single most important moment from the past five years has been, it is finding acceptance. It’s also been the hardest part of the journey. That and adapting to his new reality. “We humans are very adaptable, and that’s both good and bad. It’s easy for us to get comfortable, even lazy, to think that this has happened, and this is it. You let your setback become an excuse to not do something. It’s only human but that’s why I like to push myself out of my comfort zone”.
Learning to accept and realising his drive to push himself has taken him far, but not without a huge chunk of motivation. Like the athlete that he is, one of his main sources for this is progression itself - every step forward a win that makes him feel empowered. His biggest motivation, however, has been to show others and, most importantly, himself that he can have a meaningful life. Something he didn’t believe at first lying in hospital after the accident.
There has been plenty of pitfalls along the way. Like comparing himself to old “Tobias the hockey player”, what he could and couldn’t do before the accident, and having to reinvent his identity after a life in sports. “It might sound pessimistic, but the next setback is always luring around the corner. Being prepared and having the tools to handle them makes all the difference”, Tobias explains. Today he makes sure to stop and enjoy the moments when everything just feels good in life: “those moments give me strength to go after the next step”.
04
Family first
Tobias is not alone on the journey of reinventing his life. So are the people closest to him, his wife Filippa and his family especially, and this is something Tobias finds is often forgotten about. “It’s affected them just as much, if not more. For them life changes but the lines are blurrier. A feeling of helplessness: what should they do? How much should they help? What should they help with? What should they not help with?”.
In one way, Tobias explains, he has gotten much closer with his family since the accident. They’ve joined forces and learned a lot about each other they didn’t know before. But also, every setback has left a trace. They are in it together and that topic is one that Tobias wants to keep exploring and highlight to the world.
Back in Tegera Arena in Leksand
© Emrik Jansson
The impact the accident has had on my family is often forgotten about
05
Educate rather than alienate
His ambition to educate and communicate with people isn’t a new-found direction for him. It’s always been there, ever since high school, but only recently did he decide to act on it. Before the accident he dreamed of lecturing about nutrition, now, he shares the lessons he’s learned instead. “But there are so many topics I want to further explore: the impact on relatives for example. Also, my brother studies sports psychology which I find super fascinating”, he says.
In one way, lecturing has given Tobias back the rush of having to perform. Although not on ice, it’s a pretty cool feeling talking in front of a big crowd: “Of course there’s nerves involved, but only in a good way – it’s something I look forward to every time”. It’s also taught him to open up and be vulnerable, to talk about what happened to him. “But it’s never been difficult to do so, the opposite, it’s given me so much in return”, he says.
Wings For Life World Run is a charity event for spinal cord research
© Emrik Jansson
In another way, it gives him the opportunity to teach people about paralysis and spinal cord injuries. Aiming to educate, rather than alienate, to make people understand it better. “Paralysis and spinal cord injuries are very complex”, Tobias explains. “It’s not just about not being able to walk or not having any function, there are so many other aspects to it with your stomach, bowels, bladder, pressure sores, nerve pain and infections. Things I had no idea was a part of having a spinal cord injury.”
Paralysis and spinal cord injuries are very complex. It’s not just about not being able to walk or not having any function.
Like when his legs become spastic and start jumping, its’ not because he can suddenly move them, but because of the spinal cord injury: it’s signals and reflexes that he can’t control. Making people understand what’s going on reduces bias and prejudice.
06
Bringing awareness to spinal cord injuries
For Tobias, breaking the stigmatization around people in wheelchairs is super important. “It’s easy to look at someone in a wheelchair as someone who can’t”, Tobias says and continuous, “rather than trying to understand how much they can and how much power and knowledge they keep”.
That’s the main reason why Tobias has joined forces with the Wings For Life World Run, to help raise awareness and to help educate people about it all. “The event includes everyone: runners, wheelchair users, walkers, young and old, and I find that amazing. Also, the goal of the event is not to win it - it's to participate and I find it very fitting that the finish line moves, because that's how it often feels in my life",
All proceedings from the event go towards spinal cord injury research to help find a solution. It means a lot: “The fact that people are working on finding a solution for spinal cord injury gives me a lot of hope. And I have learned that hope is a very powerful thing”, he says.
Join Sweden's Tobias Forsberg and his wife Filippa
© Emrik Jansson
Hope is a very powerful thing.
Spinal cord injuries are extremely complex, but there is constantly new progress being made. Tobias is always on the lookout for the next new thing: “There is a lot happening around electrical stimulation at the moment”, Tobias says and explains that he’s got a new bike at home that he can attach his legs to, and it automatically sends out electrical signals to build up muscles in his legs. “In the end, I want to live a long life and it's not optimal to sit all the time”.
07
The future
From ice-hockey player to lecturer and board member, Tobias has managed to reinvent himself whilst remaining true to who he is. And five years after the accident he looks to the future with plenty of goals in mind. For one, lecturing is something he hopes to keep doing for a long time. But there is more too: “Maybe I will write a book, and it would be fun to make a tv-series or film.” The most important goals, however, are the private and social ones: to nurture moments with family and friends.
If anything, Tobias’ journey shows that you can come along way if you dare to step outside your comfort zone. If you dare to change your perspective.
Join Tobias in the Wings For Life World Run on May 4th 2024 at 13:00. Run at one of our organised app run events or simply open the app and run from your doorstep. Register here!
