Geretsried / Sachsenkam - For some, the world is collapsing, for Thea Heim everything remains the same: the Olympic cancellation does not change the goals of the long-distance runner.
Norman Feiler is under stress. The 50-year-old long-distance runner and trainer from Geretsried also feels the corona crisis up close. Thank God not with cough, fever and shortness of breath. The head does not glow, only the mobile phone in his hand. "I don't really like the word stress," explains Feiler, "but there is currently a lot to talk about and to coordinate." Feiler is responsible for around a dozen runners of the TNT Eibl team Isartal, which he founded. The group's flagship is Thea Heim. The top athlete from Sachsenkam has specialized in half marathons and marathons in the past years and is ranked eighth on these two long distances in the 2019 best list of the German Athletics Association. Since the 42.195 kilometers are on the Olympic program, the 27-year-old had justified hopes to start at the "Tokyo 2020" games.
Video conference with DOSB President Alfons Hörmann
The events in world sport have been going on for days. Gradually, all major and minor sporting events were canceled or postponed: Champions League, Formula 1, European Football Championship and last Saturday the ice hockey world championship in Switzerland. The last of the major events not yet affected were the Tokyo Olympic Games (July 24th to August 9th). Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was keen to hold onto it; not least because Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refused to postpone it. The Olympic flame had already reached the north of the country. The front line of Olympic supporters has been crumbling since the weekend - especially because of the global corona pandemic, the two major Olympic nations Canada and Australia have ruled out sending an Olympic team this summer. Tuesday afternoon the bang: now for the first time in the 124-year history of the Olympic Games, this world's largest sporting event will be postponed to the summer of 2021.
Norman Feiler is a coach of Thea Heim and a long-distance runner himself
On Saturday evening, Alfons Hörmann, President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) together with Max Hartung (President of the German Athletes Association) and Britta Heidemann (member of the IOC Athletes' Commission) invited around 200 top German athletes to the video conference to attend the To probe the mood in the athletes' camp. Also included is Thea Heim, who is on the so-called long list of the DOSB, i.e. that list of promising candidates whose final qualifications are still pending. "There has never been a scenario like this before," reports Feiler, "that is primitive democratic and sends a strong signal to the athletes that you do not make decisions behind closed doors."
At any rate, Feiler's impression was that Hörmann's annoyance at the delaying tactics of the IOC could be clearly heard. "But maybe it was also a political move." Politics, chess - now the postponement is official. "The now quick and clear decision to postpone the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a correct and enormously important step for international sport and the entire global community," said Hörmann in a statement by the German Olympic Sports Confederation. "This helps the athletes in particular by relieving the pressure on training and qualifications in this difficult phase."
Home on Instagram: running the games would be "irresponsible"
There is also great relief at Thea Heim, who had already flagged the implementation of the Olympic Games as "irresponsible" on her Instagram account two weeks ago. "Everyone was laughing at me. But this decision was long overdue, after all, it's about the health of the athletes. In addition, some nations had already canceled. Germany would soon have followed suit. We received a questionnaire from the DOSB, which was used to sound out the mood among us athletes. It was not necessarily pro Olympia, ”announced the 27-year-old from her home office yesterday afternoon. The IT specialist works full-time at Allianz Germany in Unterföhring and heads a 15-person project team for digitizing the group. Her professional sports career is practically on the side. It will, despite the forced competition break. The European Championship in Paris at the end of August has not yet been officially canceled, but everything points to it. "So we are now planning for a marathon in autumn," Coach Feiler says pragmatically.
But how do you fill a lack of motivation when an event that you've trained for years suddenly breaks down? "I have no motivation hole at all," assures Heim. She needs running to compensate for her job, and the warmth of the runner community at the competitions gives her a lot. Coach Feiler seconded his athlete: “The drive is always to run a top time in the marathon. That is why we are not fixated on the Olympics or any other major event. ”
Thus Heim can calmly bridge the non-competitive time. A little fear drives them anyway. "I hope that there will be no rigorous curfew, where you can no longer go outside the door. A life without running and without a treadmill in the apartment - the horror. "
Also read:
How athletes train in Corona times: online and at home
