Knitting helps to calm down: Biathlete Magdalena Neuner gives an insight into professional sports and her life afterwards

Created: 11/17/2022, 2:00 p.m

By: Magdalena Hoecherl

Gave exciting insights: Magdalena Neuner with moderator Michael Antwerpes.

© Lehmann

Approachable, down-to-earth and honest: This is how ex-professional athlete Magdalena Neuner presented herself at the Sperrer-Bank in Freising.

And she had good advice for the 120 listeners in her luggage.

Freising

– In February 1998, a blond girl with mom and dad is sitting in front of the television at home in Wallgau.

The Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, are being broadcast there.

When biathlete Uschi Disl from the neighboring district of Bad Tölz won bronze and her parents cheered in front of the TV, the eleven-year-old understood the emotions that sport can bring to living rooms around the world.

And she knows she wants that too.

Full house: Christian Sperrer from the private bank of the same name in Freising (right) welcomed around 120 guests to the Marriott Hotel who had come to see ex-professional athlete Magdalena Neuner live.

© Lehmann

24 years later, Magdalena Neuner smiles as she recounts this special moment from her childhood at the Marriott Hotel in Freising in front of an audience of 120.

The private bank Sperrer has invited the top athlete to talk to her about the topic "Different tones - how to achieve special performances in special times".

The approximately 120 guests are enthusiastic about an approachable and down-to-earth Magdalena Neuner with a lot of charisma and private insights.

"I asked myself: What's next?"

In a dialogue with ARD moderator Michael Antwerpes, she openly describes why, as the most successful German biathlete of all time, she ended her career too early in the eyes of many: “I started biathlon when I was nine.

At the age of 25, I had achieved everything.” At the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010, she twice fulfilled her dream of Olympic gold through years of hard work.

Back in Bavaria, she was really burned out.

"I asked myself: What's next?

That's when I realized how important a goal is in order to have motivation.” She soon realized that there had to be something else in her life than professional sport, which is often more appearance than reality.

After the home world championship in 2012 in Ruhpolding, Neuner puts down his skis and gun and fulfills the second wish she always had: she marries the sweetheart of her youth and starts a family.

She is now the mother of three children and is fully immersed in her role as a mother, while working on the Magdalena Neuner brand at the same time.

But at 35 she is decidedly too young to be “just” a well-known personality for the rest of her life.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

"I'm currently doing distance learning.

Because I said when I was 16 that I'm going to be a professional athlete, I don't have any proper training." That's why she's convinced: "I'm a mom right now, but then there's something else to come." Possibly a biathlon trainer for children?

"Maybe.

I already have a coaching license.”

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"I understood early on how important this is - even though I was laughed at for years, saying 'Now she's only 19 and she needs a psychologist'." But she knew early on that it can never be wrong, anything to do for yourself and grow from it.

The pandemic has shown how important a positive attitude to life is.

With a good attitude, crises can be mastered more easily.

That was also the advice that Neuner gave the audience: be aware of your strengths and focus on the beautiful things - no matter how small they are.

"I highly recommend knitting to calm down," she said, laughing.

You can find more current news from the district of Freising at Merkur.de/Freising.