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SPIEGEL editor Neumann, athlete Stäbler in a converted chicken coop in June: suicide mission
Photo: Sonja Och
Frank Stäbler said shortly before Christmas that he lasted a few weeks after winning the Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo, but then he "fell into a brutal hole." The hype about his person had become too much for him: "I only worked." Stäbler danced at parties, sat in TV shows, talked at receptions - in the first 60 days after the Olympics alone he had 55 appointments, the wrestler lists . Again and again he should tell: How did he do it?
Stäbler, 32, from Leinfelden-Echterdingen, has fulfilled his lifelong sporting dream in Japan: an Olympic medal in the last international competition of his career. In a dramatic duel with a Georgian opponent, he secured bronze. Then Stäbler took off his shoes on the mat and left them in the middle of the ring. It was the end of a long journey. He has meanwhile handed over the shoes to the German Sport & Olympia Museum in Cologne.
I had accompanied Stäbler on his way to Tokyo for more than two years.
Sometimes his mission seemed like a suicide mission to me, and Stäbler himself kept talking about wanting to "make the impossible possible" with a final participation in the Olympics.
His weight class had been canceled before Tokyo, which is why he had to lose weight radically, from his normal weight of 75 kilograms down to 67. In autumn 2020, he fell ill with Covid-19, suffered from long-term effects on his lungs, and injured his shoulder.
The three-time world champion temporarily completed his preparation in a former cowshed on his parents' farm, most recently in a converted chicken coop.
"In order to live my dream, I have to go through hell," he had already said in 2019, at the beginning of the long-term project, "and then I still don't know whether it will be enough".
It was enough.
And the marginal athlete became a popular figure in German sport.
Only once before was he briefly recognized more often on the street - after he appeared on private television in 2016, on "Celebrity Big Brother".
Now finally a broader public is also interested in the competitive athlete Stäbler.
"Big companies come up to me and ask me for their management training," says Stäbler, "that has never happened before." He has been booked as a speaker around 30 times since the Olympics, and at listed companies he spoke to board members and managers , told anecdotes about his odyssey: "Olympia opened many doors for me."