Erika Anna Kristina Kinsey (née Wiklund; born 10 March 1988) is a Swedish

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er. She was European Junior Champion in 2007.

Biography

Wiklund was born in

Nälden Nälden is a locality situated in Krokom Municipality, Jämtland County Jämtland County ( sv, Jämtlands län, ) is a county or ''län'' in the middle of Sweden consisting of the provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen, along with minor parts ...

on 10 March 1988. She took up sports as a child, playing

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

in addition to competing in

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

; she did not start concentrating on the high jump until she was 14. She was a leading age group jumper, clearing 1.86 m in 2004; the jump ranked her fourth on the world

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...

list that year, and second among athletes born in 1988 or later. In the following years her development stagnated, and she did not improve her personal best again until the 2007 indoor season; she placed fifth at the 2005 World Youth Championships and eighth at the 2006 World Junior Championships. In addition to the high jump, she occasionally competed in the long jump; she won both events at the 2005 Finland-Sweden youth international. Wiklund won gold in the high jump at the 2007 European Junior Championships in

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the international Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service. Popu ...

. In a very close competition, the top four all cleared 1.82 m; Wiklund later said she did not realize she had won on

countback In various sports, a countback is used to break ties. Field events High jump and pole vault World Athletics, the international governing body for athletics, uses the following criteria to break ties (rule 26.8 in the 2020 edition of the World At ...

until a photographer told her. Wiklund improved her personal best to 1.91 m in 2008, but concentrating on athletics exhausted her mentally; she dropped the sport in 2009 and moved to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, where her brother lived, taking up ice hockey again. She had a brief comeback in 2011, winning bronze with a jump of 1.82 m at the Swedish championships. In 2013 Wiklund decided to make a second, more serious comeback; she resumed high jumping in 2014, now as a student at the

University of Central Missouri The University of Central Missouri (UCM) is a public university in Warrensburg, Missouri. In 2019, enrollment was 11,229 students from 49 states and 59 countries on its 1,561-acre campus. UCM offers 150 programs of study, including 10 pre-profes ...

. In the summer of 2014 she married Daniel Kinsey, an American, and changed her name to Erika Kinsey. She attempted to qualify for the 2014 European Championships in

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, but failed to reach the qualifying standard of 1.90 m; she had a season best of 1.88 m both indoors and outdoors. Kinsey's results improved in 2015; she was

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

champion in the high jump both indoors and outdoors, and in the

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

indoors, helping the Central Missouri Jennies win their first team titles. She unexpectedly cleared 1.97 m at the European Team Championships in

Cheboksary Cheboksary (; russian: Чебокса́ры, r=Cheboksáry, p=tɕɪbɐˈksarɨ; cv, Шупашкар, ''Şupaşkar'') is the capital city of Chuvashia, Russia and a port on the Volga River. Geography The city is located in the Volga Upland reg ...

, improving her personal best from the MIAA outdoor championships by five centimetres; the jump moved her to third on the Swedish all-time list (behind

Kajsa Bergqvist Kajsa Margareta Bergqvist (; born 12 October 1976 in Sollentuna, Stockholm) is a Swedish former high jumper. She won one bronze medal in the Olympic Games, one gold and two bronze medals in the World Championships in Athletics and one gold and ...

and Emma Green), and exceeded the qualifying standard for the 2015 World Championships in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. She debuted in the

IAAF Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

in July 2015 in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, jumping 1.94 m and placing third.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kinsey, Erika 1988 births Living people Swedish female high jumpers Central Missouri Jennies track and field athletes Sportspeople from Jämtland County World Athletics Championships athletes for Sweden Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Sweden Swedish Athletics Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics