Emelie Forsberg's Second Act | Motherhood, Mountains, & Reprioritizing Elite Competition

The Freetrail Podcast with Dylan Bowman

Dylan Bowman

Running, Sports

4.8 • 866 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Emelie Forsberg is one of the great trail runners of the last two decades. In the early 2010s, Emelie was a dominant force on the racing circuit, accumulating wins and podium performances at some of the sport's most important races. Emelie was part of the early Salomon trail running team that, in many ways, ushered in the modern era of the sport and she became one of the most impactful athletes during that time.

While she's remained around the community all along, Emelie de-prioritized running for several years to focus on starting and building a family. Now a mother of three, Emelie is ready to re-prioritize racing again, starting at Transvulcania a few weeks ago where she finished on the podium with a very strong third-place performance.

Emelie has also been a key contributor to two ambitious startups in the sport, Moon Valley Nutrition and NNormal. This is her first appearance on the podcast.

Chapters:

02:43 – What makes you you?
05:17 – How Emelie's relationship with running has changed over 15 years
09:46 – Why Emelie is committing to a new 3-year competitive chapter
11:52 – Parenting, racing & what the kids think about their parents' careers
13:41 – Early Salomon team memories & trail running's formative years
16:53 – How the early Salomon era shaped modern trail running
19:22 – Moving from Chamonix to Norway & building a quieter life
25:02 – Motherhood, sacrifice & stepping back from racing
28:17 – Learning from our children
31:55 – The evolution of trail running & the current racing landscape
34:42 – Moon Valley, NNormal & lessons from entrepreneurship
37:07 – Balancing family, business & elite training
40:13 – Returning to Transvulcania after nearly a decade away
43:21 – Racing again without pressure & embracing the present version of herself
46:03 – Lessons, mistakes & rediscovering joy during Transvulcania
48:14 – Anna Frost & Lucy Bartholemew
52:56 – What's next?
55:14 – Hardrock dreams & memories from Diagonale des Fous
55:56 – How Emelie & Kilian balance racing schedules with family life
58:53 – Who is one person you admire?

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Freetrail Experts | https://freetrail.com/freetrail-experts/

Dylan Links:

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/dylanbo/

Twitter | https://twitter.com/dylanbo

LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-bowman-06174380/

Strava | https://www.strava.com/pros/1596921

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, fam, welcome to the free trial podcast. It's me, your loving host, Dylan Bowman, here today with one of the all-time greats.
0:20.3	Emily Forsberg finally making her debut on the show
0:23.6	and the timing couldn't feel any more perfect to me. Emily is one of the great trail runners of the
0:29.2	last two decades in the early 2010s for those who weren't around in that period. Emily was a
0:36.3	dominant force on the racing circuit, accumulating many wins and podium performances
0:41.2	at some of the sports' most important races.
0:45.0	She and a lot of her teammates at the time really defining an era of the sport.
0:51.1	She was a key part of the early Solomon Trail Running team that in many ways ushered in the modern era of this sport. She was a key part of the early Solomon Trail Running team that in many ways
0:55.5	ushered in the modern era of the sport in ways that we talk about here in today's show.
1:01.2	And while she has remained around the community all along and has been a highly influential
1:06.6	voice the entire time, Emily, by her own admission, deep prioritized racing for several years to
1:12.7	focus on starting and building her family. Now a mother of three, Emily is ready to reprioritize
1:19.2	racing again, which made it a great time to have her on the show and catch up as she begins a new
1:24.8	chapter of her career. And that new chapter actually started a few weeks ago
1:29.1	at Transvaucania, where she finished on the podium with a very strong third place performance,
1:34.1	remarkably almost exactly matching her winning time from that same race way back in 2015.
1:40.9	Emily Forsberg is officially so back. And what a great story for us to follow this season and into the future.
1:48.5	I'm super grateful to have her here on the show to talk about it. Some other things that we discuss,
1:54.3	the formative years of her career and how the early days of that Solomon team really did shape this current era of the sport. We talk about
2:01.9	motherhood, sacrifice, and that period of racing deprioritization. We talk about what we
2:08.8	learn from our children. We talk about returning to Transvaucania after a decade away. We talk
2:14.8	about her three-year project, recommitting the high-level competition,
	...

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