Animated by Anni Friesinger

Created: 01/23/2022, 1:00 p.m

Medal hamster: Andreas Häusler was German champion nine times in his career.

© Johann Kalteis

He has collected many medals at the shooting range.

That's why Andreas Häusler is included in the list of Erding's 100 best athletes of all time.

Erding – In recent years he has climbed many difficult peaks as a mountaineer and ski tourer, but he was denied the peak as a top athlete, Olympic Games.

It would have been his "absolute dream".

Nevertheless, 40-year-old Andreas Häusler from Aufkirchen can look back on a very successful career as a marksman.

Nine times he was at the top of the podium at German individual championships, twice in a World Cup final and once he qualified for the European Championship.

It is none other than Anni Friesinger, three-time Olympic champion in speed skating, who inspires Andreas Häusler to become a professional athlete.

The young shooter from Immergrün Thalheim tore his cruciate ligament in a moped accident and is recovering from his serious injury in a rehabilitation clinic in Bad Wiessee.

There he is the table neighbor of the German speed skating icon and a member of the sports promotion group of the Bundeswehr.

"That would also be something for me," thought Häusler.

And the thought won't let him go.

Andreas Johannes Häusler, born on March 19, 1981, started shooting at an early age. No wonder, since his father has been chairman of the Immergrün-Schützen in Maria Thalheim for many years. He was already allowed to fire his first shots at the local shooting range when he was around ten years old, almost as a treat when he accompanied his parents to Sunday mass: "If you go to church, you can shoot afterwards." Of course only under the supervision of experienced shooters . It soon turns out that little Andreas has a lot of talent for sport shooting. At the age of 13 he was nominated for the Gau squad. "This is where the wheat was separated from the chaff for the first time," says Häusler. At first only three to four young shooters remained, "in the end I was alone".Since sociability is also very important to the riflemen, he spends a lot of time with the friends from Kirchasch.

Thanks to his now considerable successes, he skipped the nomination for the district squad and switched straight to the Bayern squad. The first major test is the sighting for the Bavarian Cup: "I was young and still carefree - and I won straight away." The top results are piling up. The first highlight is the title of Bavarian Junior Champion. The appointment to the junior national team is the logical consequence. Through the state squad, he finally made it into the national squad. Now he wants to know how far an athlete can get if he can fully focus on his career as an athlete, as a professional. The meeting with Friesinger provided the impetus for this.

In 2004, Häusler signed up for four years in the Bundeswehr and became a sports soldier. "It's an amazing success when you can suddenly practice your sport like a professional," explains Häusler. At the same time, you have to look at marksmanship as a fringe sport, because unlike football, for example, you can't earn a living with it. Up to now, he was only able to train after work, but now he has to turn his everyday life upside down.

Although his employer generously supported him as a trainee at Orthopädie-Schuhtechnik Seeßle in Erding and he was released for competitions, he can now fully concentrate on his sport. Now training during the day. "Suddenly I had more free time and was able to cultivate friendships and social contacts again." In contrast to other Bundeswehr athletes, he is not barracked in a sports school, but lives at home.

But that also harbors dangers. "I'm the type who sometimes needs to be slowed down," says Häusler. Sometimes he was over-motivated and did too much. On the other hand, athletes who live at home also run the risk of not training enough. But this has consequences at the latest for the tests that are carried out regularly. "Anyone who does not perform the required services loses their status as a sports soldier," explains the Aufkirchener. Every athlete has a probationary period of two years. He has to make the leap into the national squad and once into a higher-class final. "It's not easy, because there are many athletes for not so many places." If things had always gone well in sporting terms, a career as a professional soldier might even have been an option for him, the father of three looks back.

Häusler's favorite discipline is the three-position fight with the small caliber rifle, mostly an outdoor competition. "That was the most fun for me, because you are not only challenged by your shooting technique, you also have to take the weather and other circumstances into account." Nevertheless, Häusler celebrates the greatest successes with the air rifle. And that's not a few. At the World Cups in South Korea and Milan, he made it into the final of the top eight and finished seventh. He also takes part in international competitions in Brazil, Norway and London. "The years 2004 and 2005 were my most successful time, I was great together, everything went well."

The Bundesliga fights in the Germania Prittlbach team are always a great experience, for which he has been at the shooting range for around eight years.

"I'm more of a team player anyway." Cheering on the Prittlbach fans with cowbells doesn't just give him goosebumps and emotions.

This was also the case in the 2004/05 season, when he became German team runner-up with Germania in Waldkraiburg.

For HSG Munich, he mainly contests the individual championships and wins many titles.

The best result in the Bundesliga is 397 points out of a possible 400, and 597 out of a possible 600 points at an international competition in Dortmund.

However, he only achieves the maximum of 400 rings in training.

Fully concentrated: Andreas Häusler at the shooting range.

He managed the perfect number of rings once – but only during training.

© Private

His first German individual championship title is unforgettable for Häusler. In the final he duels with Hubert Pichler, coach of Olympic shooter Sonja Pfeilschifter. He wins the championship with 299 points against his idol and role model. This DM title is joined by eight more. Five vice championships and seven third places are Andreas Häusler's other successful results in the national individual championships. He no longer remembers exactly how many top places he has achieved with the Bundesliga team from Prittlbach.

But what characterizes a successful marksman? "In addition to talent and accuracy, above all perseverance," enumerates Häusler. In order to achieve the sporting goal, it also takes “an incredible amount of self-discipline as well as a certain amount of perfection and nervousness”. This increases the tension in the athlete. Häusler says that he was so nervous in his first Bundesliga fight in Prittlbach that he was mercilessly inferior to his opponent. "It was hell for me." A lot also happens in my head. "You have to grow into the competitive mode, concentrate on the key points and automatisms." He himself sometimes needed a kick in the ass. "But I worked hard for my performance and had to put in a lot of effort."

Häusler is aware that the results that are being shot today "I could never have achieved back then". Not only the improved material, especially for the small caliber, but better training methods are responsible for this. Now more training is being done in groups, because “group dynamics are spurring on”. When he was a sports soldier at the Sports Shooting Association, he "reminds him in vain". He would have needed this too, but little had happened in this regard. There was therefore more and more "crisis" between the sports soldier and the German Shooting Federation. One of the reasons that he retired from professional shooting in 2008 and is looking for a new professional challenge.

Häusler found this at the professional fire brigade in Munich. At the age of 27 he passed the recruitment test. "My absolute dream job," he enthuses - despite the 24-hour shifts. But when he was diagnosed with diabetes in 2012, he was no longer able to perform emergency services (e.g. with a breathing mask) and switched to the control center. With around 2,000 calls per deployment time, the job is "very stressful, but it's a lot of fun when you can actively help someone".

Another milestone in Häusler's résumé is the year 2010, when he and his wife, who works at the Ministry of Agriculture in Munich, build a pretty house next to his parents-in-law's property in Aufkirchen.

Both want to take over the farm later and run it as an arable farm.

"As a sideline, because we are civil servants and we don't want to give that up," says Häusler.

Bergfex: Andreas Häusler (right) with his national team colleague Michael Winter on a ski tour on the Cevedale.

© Private

Since 2008, the man from Aufkirchen has only been at the shooting range as a leisure shooter and now aims over the guns for Immergrün Thalheim just for the fun of it. However, thanks to his marksmanship, experience and routine, he is still an important member of the team. He also brings his knowledge and experience to the club as a youth coach. However, you rarely see him during your own training. And when his "four-girl house" (wife and three girls) can do without dad, the mountains have been calling for around ten years. In winter he straps on his touring skis, enjoys the silence of the mountains and leaves his tracks in the deep snow on untouched descents: "Alpine skiing is just not my thing."

If there is no snow, he climbs the peaks in the Alps.

Just last year, he “did some great things” with his 62-year-old father, who is also a keen mountaineer.

Among other things, they are on the Grossglockner.

"A real highlight.

That wasn't mountain hiking, but alpine climbing with the right level of difficulty," says Andreas Häusler proudly.

He also goes on mountain and ski tours from time to time with Michael Winter, a “specialist from the early days of shooting” and colleagues from the national team.

But he also emphasizes that caution is the top priority, according to the motto: "It's better to turn around once more than to be dead for a lifetime."

Andreas Häusler is ranked 64th in "Erding's Top 100".

BY JOHANN KALTEIS