Johan Backstrom: The true student-athlete

 Oxford, MISS.- Ole miss tennis player packs up and leaves Sweden for a chance for a better education and career in athletics.

 Johan Backstrom is a member of the Ole Miss tennis team from Uppsala, Sweden. He has been playing tennis since the age of nine and he struggled early with the decision of continuing his career in college.

                “I still wanted to play tennis and get an education at the same time,” says Backstrom, “which is very hard to do in Sweden, so I decided to try to go overseas.”

Backstrom says that there are not a lot of opportunities in Sweden that include both a higher education and sports. Most children at a young age, where he is from, know that to do everything they want to do they will have to come to the United States.

Ole miss contacted Backstrom through his assistant coach and Sweden and a week later he was on a 10 hour flight to Oxford. He said that after a day on campus he knew Ole Miss was where he wanted to be. 

It was hard for Backstrom to decide to leave everything he knows and come to a completely different country. The hardest things he says are leaving friends you have known your whole life and making new friends that he may not ever see again when he leaves college.

There are other member of the Tennis team from Sweden such as William Kallberg and Stefan Lindmark. The Swedish trio help one another not to be home sick and also to work hard on and off the Tennis Court.

                “It is always nice having someone that is from the same place as you are,” says Backstrom, “especially when being in a different country completely.”

Johan is finance major which is part of the reason why his schedule is very busy. He barely has time to think about how home sick he is. When a free minute comes a long it is hard for him to not think about the family and friends he left in Sweden.

He can sometimes contact his friends but the international calls are sometimes too expensive so he does not talk to them as much as he wishes.

                “I can tell he gets homesick, we all do,” says Caroline Rohde-Moe, one of Backstrom’s closest friends on the Tennis team. “It’s easiest just to stay busy so you can’t sit and think about it.”

Johan has accomplished many things on and off the tennis court. He was named the ITA scholar-athlete in 2011, been on the SEC honor roll every year at Ole Miss, as well as making the Chancellor’s honor roll.

“Johan is the smartest guy I know here at Ole miss,” says Kallberg, “we all make the honor roll but he does it without even trying.”

Johan will be playing in the SEC tournament that is hosted by Ole Miss starting Thursday and lasting through Sunday. He hopes to continue his tennis career professionally and travel the world.