The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Tobias Potye: Corona disease after EM silver medal

2022-09-01T05:34:10.341Z


Tobias Potye: Corona disease after EM silver medal Created: 09/01/2022, 07:20 By: Patrik Stäbler The greatest success of his career as a high jumper so far: Tobias Potye from Aschheim wins silver at the European Championships in Munich. © Sven Hoppe/dpa Shortly after the greatest success of his career, the European high jump silver medal, Tobias Potye caught the corona virus. An interview with


Tobias Potye: Corona disease after EM silver medal

Created: 09/01/2022, 07:20

By: Patrik Stäbler

The greatest success of his career as a high jumper so far: Tobias Potye from Aschheim wins silver at the European Championships in Munich.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

Shortly after the greatest success of his career, the European high jump silver medal, Tobias Potye caught the corona virus.

An interview with the track and field athlete from Aschheim.

Aschheim

– Shortly after the greatest success of his career, Tobias Potye caught the corona virus.

Instead of starting in two more competitions as planned, the high jumper from Aschheim, who competes for LG Stadtwerke München, has to end his season prematurely.

And yet the 27-year-old looks back with great satisfaction on a year in which he not only crossed 2.30 meters for the first time, but also won silver at the home European Championships in Munich.

Mr. Potye, in the Olympic Park of all places, where you usually train almost every day, you jumped onto the podium at the European Championships.

Where is your silver medal now?

My certificates and medals have so far been with my parents – even after I left home.

But the success at the European Championships finally gave me the opportunity to set up a small display case in my apartment.

And that's where the silver medal from Munich now has its place.

Which probably helps to realize this biggest success of your career?

Yes, I think I have now.

In any case, it's a very nice feeling and also makes me a little proud when I see this medal in the display case in passing.

After your silver coup you were in the public eye, including dozens of interviews and television appearances.

Was that nice or annoying?

First of all it was very nice.

What made me particularly happy was how well these European Championships were accepted in Munich.

Finally there was life again in the Olympic Park and in the Olympic Stadium – that was what was missing.

At your competition, you cheered on more than 30,000 spectators.

Do you get that as an athlete at all?

Yes of course.

I enjoyed that and tried to absorb it.

That definitely helped me in the competition.

Their silver medal came as a surprise to many outsiders - similar to 2013 when they became European U20 champions in Italy.

In terms of feeling, it was quite comparable.

However, the success at the U20 European Championship came as quite a surprise to me.

This time, on the other hand, my goal was to win a medal in Munich.

Especially since you had just shortened your best performance to 2.30 meters at the German Championships.

I had two goals for the European Championships in Munich.

One was a medal, the other a new personal best.

Unfortunately, I only achieved one of the two goals, but in the end it doesn't really matter that much.

Because at international tournaments it's all about placement.

What else do you have in store for you after the EM?

Actually I wanted to compete in two competitions at Lake Garda and in Berlin this week.

But now the corona virus has caught me, which is why I unfortunately have to cancel it.

It's a pity, of course, because I would have loved to have jumped in Berlin.

But maybe that's also a signal from my body that it needs a break now.

And will you give it to him?

Yes, for me it's time to go on vacation...

Before looking ahead again.

What are your next goals?

As a sports soldier, I have a military course to do in the fall.

And in November I'll slowly start preparing for the indoor season, which I'll put in brackets this time.

Because in winter I want to dedicate myself primarily to my knee.

That has been giving you trouble for years.

I will assemble another competence team in autumn to work out a strategy for my knee together.

And then I will take my time, also because there are no international championships coming up for the time being.

The next goals are then the World Cup in Budapest 2023 and of course Paris.

So the Olympic Games in 2024.

Paris would be a dream for me and of course that's my big goal.

But I don't want to think that far ahead just yet.

To person

Through his older brother, Tobias Potye came to athletics and high jump at FC Aschheim in 2008, where the youngster quickly celebrated his first successes.

In 2012 he was German U18 runner-up, before a year later - largely surprisingly - he won gold at the U20 European Championships in Italy with a jump of 2.20 meters.

As a result, Potye improved continuously, switched from FCA to LG Stadtwerke München in 2015 and won the first of three German championship titles in 2021.

This June, the 27-year-old student and sports soldier sailed over 2.30 meters for the first time.

Two months later, in his hometown of Munich, he celebrated the greatest success of his career to date by winning the silver medal at the European Championships.


His recent performances came as a bit of a surprise as Tobias Potye has been struggling with knee problems for several years.

In 2019 he did not compete in a single competition, and this year the 1.98 meter lanky had to do without technical units completely due to the complaints in training.

(ps)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-01

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.