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Most of us are good at one thing; sports or science - Josh Witten is an exception but he may have found his match in Sweden's Elin Ekblom-Bak, who jacks up goals for a professional women's football team and still has time to work in the Department of Medicine at the Karolinska Institute and the Astrand Laboratory of Work Physiology in the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences.
Oh, and she has a 9-month old daughter. As she told Kate Travers at the Science Careers Blog, "They're very similar, these two worlds. At the elite, national level, playing soccer is a competition -- you have to stand out, you have to be tough. Science is a tough world to show off your knowledge and ... you have to dare to do things. It's really helped me being a soccer player at that level to get the mental strength" for science.
No denying it is tough for women in science when trying to juggle a career and a personal life but Ekblom-Bak adding in professional sports makes her achievements so far that much more impressive.
Thanks to the Science Cheerleader for pointing her out.
