In 2019 came the sad news that Skarstein and then-boyfriend Martin Sletten had broken up. The two have been lovers for four years, and engaged for two. Birgit had even prepared her wedding dress.

Two years later, love blossomed again. In 2021, the rower revealed that she was not single anymore. The news emerged during an interview with in Levanger.

– My boyfriend is going on a rotation in a few years and I’ve pitched the idea for him to apply for a rotation spot at Levanger – and he’s no stranger to the matter. So it is being discussed whether it is appropriate to move house again, he said in an interview with the newspaper.

It’s been a while since Skarstein lived in Levanger. He moved from there in 2009, but in 2021 when the news came that he had a girlfriend, he opened himself up to move back in.

Share sad news

Now, however, he’s confirmed that he’s still single.

– I love what I do and feel that life is full of meaning and love. So I’m happily single, enjoying the independence it brings me when I travel a lot. Sport and work take up a lot of space in everyday life, and this year the goal is to have more time for friends and family. wrote Skarstein in a text message to Se og Hør.

It was then that he became a guest on the NRK radio program “Saturday Council”that he first shared the news that he was single.

Birgit Skarstein lives with professional dancer and friend Helene Spilling, 26. They formed a friendship when Skarstein took part in “Should we dance”, for which Spilling was one of the professional dancers.

Until the two friends created a book collective together, Helene Spilling lived at her parents’ house in Gjerdrum. Along with the moving load is Helene Spilling’s little dog, Bobby.

Paralyzed after a swimming accident

In 2008, Trønder’s life actively changed. A swimming accident with a badly broken leg in Malaysia ended in a bacterial infection and a series of surgeries when Birgit Skarstein returned to Norway. During one of the surgeries, the epidural was not inserted properly. He becomes paralyzed.

While many could go straight to the dungeons, Skarstein was determined that he would succeed.

– Being paralyzed doesn’t have to be the end, we are much more than a pair of legs. We discussed, me and mom. I immediately started learning to drive a wheelchair, working my upper body, testing how I could do something in the new conditions, she says, adding that it was a short time before she accepted that she was paralyzed — but years before she came to accept the consequences of that.

After gold in Tokyo, he spoke with VG about how his thoughts tore him to pieces after the accident.

– It’s been a long journey for me personally. Now in September it will be 12 years since I became paraplegic. “How is life?”, “what does the future really look like?”. The questions are many. The key to solving this is recognizing what I am good at and what I am not so good at, what is smart for me to do alone and what is smart for me not to do alone. What should I get help for and what should I contribute to others, he told the paper.

Skarstein continues to do what a person with two functioning legs does – without asking for help.

– It’s probably worse for those around me that I don’t want help than if I ask for it all the time. My greatest strength is also my greatest weakness. I will be exhausted, I am very tired, he said.