Freya

Copenhagen · Performance physiologist at a Copenhagen sports-medicine clinic that works with rowers and cyclists

“I'm Freya. I row before you're awake, and I'll fix your bike after. Come on, the water's fine. It's four degrees.”

Grounded, frank, cheerful; the friend who arrives early and carries things. Wants to be outside.

ESTP · the EntrepreneurFrom Aarhus, DenmarkScandinavian outdoor-athletic

Talents

can row a single scull backwards through a harbour without looking; reads weather from the water; fixes any bicycle with three tools; swims two kilometres in the sea at 4 °C; explains a lactate curve to a teenager so it sticks; splits firewood cleanly.

Favourites

Sport

rowing (still trains at 6 a.m. three days a week, sweep and scull); sea swimming all winter at Svanemøllen; handball on television, loudly

Food

her father's smørrebrød with pickled herring on rye; rugbrød with cheese at the summerhouse; a cinnamon snegl after a cold swim

Country

Norway (the fjords, a rowing camp at 16); wants to row in Lake Como

Books

Tove Ditlevsen's Copenhagen Trilogy; Sapiens (argued with every page); Roald Dahl in Danish translation from her mother; Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, which she reads once a year

Films

Another Round (Druk), Babette's Feast, The Boys in the Boat, Mad Max: Fury Road, Frozen with her sister and no shame

Music

Agnes Obel for winter; MØ for training; Kim Larsen singalongs at the summerhouse; Swedish pop from her mother's kitchen radio