How Frida Formann Is Mastering Basketball and Business
Basketball is in (EvnSt’24, MBusAn’25) DNA.
Her parents met in the gym, and her father coached her mother when they were dating. “I don’t know how they made it through that, but they did,” Formann laughed.
Fast forward four kids and several grandchildren later, and the whole family is in on the game back in her homeland of Denmark. Her sister and brother even started a team called Baby Sharks for 2-to-5-year-olds. Formann’s mother, at 60, still plays once a week.
So, there’s that family legacy, and one other thing: Formann, a guard now in her fifth year on the team, also happens to be good at the game. Really good. Last year, she became Colorado’s all-time 3-point leader. Headlines regularly followed her success, like March Madness’ “Colorado’s Frida Formann lit up LSU with 7 threes” and ESPN’s “Frida Formann sinks it from downtown.”
CU’s BuffZone.com featured a quoting the team’s assistant coach Shelley Sheetz: “It’s really cool to have a front row seat watching Frida. … I see her work ethic. I see her getting extra shots up. I see her being a student of the game.”
Formann foresees basketball playing a role in her life for a “very, very long time.”
“My plan after graduating is to enter the draft and see what the options are, and then definitely continue with a professional basketball career, in whatever country that might be.”
Boosting confidence
Formann isn’t only a student of basketball. She returned to CU for a fifth year to earn her master’s in business analytics, a program now in its tenth year at Leeds. It appealed to her for the ways it could complement her bachelor’s in environmental studies, bringing in the business lens of “what is valuable to a company and where they might not want to spend as much time or money.”
“The business analytics program has taught me how to be able to talk to executives, how to develop a strategy that they can use,” she said.
Through that she’s gained something she can take onto the court and equally into the boardroom: confidence.
“I think I came here and kind of was trying to hide a little bit,” she said. “I've learned now from the American culture that it’s OK to really think highly of yourself—as long as you put action behind it, and as long as you’re still kind and a good teammate. It’s OK to know that you’re one of the best.”
“It’s OK to know that you’re one of the best.”
Frida Formann (EvnSt’24, MBusAn’25)
Formann has found parallels between excelling in sports and succeeding in business. Working with big datasets has given her an even deeper appreciation for small details.
“It reminds me of going back and watching film on a game or going back and looking at a scouting report and figuring out what are the little key moments where you could change something. What are little things that were good or bad, and then trying to figure out together how to implement new strategies. I can do that with data, and I can do it with basketball.”
Building a sense of community
For Formann, developing a fluency in data, as with basketball and English, is ultimately underpinned by the universal language of culture and community.
“My parents always preached building community and showing up not just for kids, but for everyone who needed it. That’s something I try to apply to being a leader on the team. Everyone is deserving of a spot there and everyone needs to feel valued,” she said.
Although this year’s team includes 10 new teammates, Formann is optimistic about the season. “With a new team, it just shows what culture we’ve built here at CU—that it’s a culture of consistent work, and no matter what players come in, we are true to CU and to basketball.”
Cultivating a culture of care
Formann knew nothing about CU when she applied, but she wanted to get into a bigger market for basketball, fell in love with the school and was thrilled to get a scholarship. She arrived in 2020 during the pandemic. Between that and being an international student, she knows what it’s like to feel out of place.
“It was very isolating, you know, coming from Denmark and not knowing anyone. I only had my teammates and my coaches that I actually could interact with,” she said. Due to COVID, all her classes were on Zoom, and she ate all her meals alone.
“It was hard to navigate socially, but I was so focused on just coming here and playing basketball and doing the best I could. And luckily, I could do that. I could play a full season and actually perform,” she recalled.
“I think culture is everything because, you know, when someone gets injured or you have things that don’t go as you want them to go, the culture is really what carries you through,” she said.
Taking her best shot
This year, Formann wants to focus on leaving her mark and helping others as a team veteran, a leader, and as a female athlete. She’s passionate about advocating for women’s sports, particularly advancing salaries for women athletes and increasing media visibility to promote growth. She believes women athletes work equally as hard as men and are equally as inspirational.
As this year’s gains momentum, Formann knows when she steps on the court, her hours of training and studying all come into focus.
“Every time a game is about to start, it’s always exciting. It’s what you work so hard for,” she said.
“Knowing that I’ve put in the work, that I’ve had great preparation, makes me relax and just feel the joy in the moment.”