Show jumping world champion Simone Blum is working towards the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
However, the Zollinger skipped the German championship.
Zolling
- She had to do without major tournaments this year: Show jumping world champion Simone Blum from Zolling caught the Corona crisis and its effects ice cold.
The 32-year-old, who became a mom in February, actually wanted to start preparing for the Olympic Games in spring.
But the pandemic changed everything.
“Nobody could say whether tournaments would take place that year at all,” recalls the exceptional athlete.
After her sensational World Championship victory with mare DSP Alice at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon in the US state of North Carolina in September 2018, the big dream was so close: to participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
They should have started on July 24th.
Due to the global corona pandemic and the associated risks, the organizers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) canceled the games for this year.
The major sporting event will now be held in Japan from July 23 to August 8, 2021 - definitely, even if the pandemic should not be over by then.
And there she will be there, promises Blum.
Many season highlights canceled due to Corona
Many other highlights of the season have also fallen victim to the Corona crisis this year.
This applied to international five-star equestrian events, such as Global Jumping in Berlin and the Nations Cup in Aachen, as well as to tournaments in Italy, where Simone Blum would have liked to put her DSP Alice to the test in the spring .
There is still intensive training at the parents' estate in Zolling.
Not only Alice is saddled, but also other show jumpers such as the geldings Cool Hill and Qualibro and the mares Ciara and Cellvista.
But training on the farm cannot replace what horse and rider would work out under competition conditions on the course, says Blum.
In August, the world champion took part in a three-star test for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic: at the show jumping competition in Munich-Riem, where she promptly won the three-star test with jump-off.
The flawless ride and the fastest time she achieved with the ten-year-old Cool Hill.
In September she was placed at the Global Champions Grand Prix in Valkenswaard, the Netherlands.
DM in Riesenbeck was "simply too late" for Simone Blum
However, the exceptional athlete from Zolling did without the German show jumping championship, which took place last weekend in Riesenbeck in the Sauerland: The tournament, which was originally supposed to take place in May, had been postponed to September and then to November due to corona after all, it wasn't held until the beginning of December.
"It was just too late for me," she explains, a little disappointed.
The uncertainty of the situation, that was what weighed them down this year.
In Tokyo, she will definitely be there next year, the 32-year-old is sure of that.
Even if Alice "lost" a year in her show jumping life by then.
She is still in top form.
The restart next year will be heralded with training in the south of Europe.
"There are opportunities to do this in Spain," reveals Blum.
There is of course a lot of hard work ahead of them.
However, husband and show jumper Hans-Günter and daughter Hanna make the difficult time easier for her.
"When I lead the horses from the riding arena to the field, the little one always looks at me with great interest," says mom.
"When she herself enjoys riding, she will of course get our fullest support."
Maria Martin
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