Würzburg Leonie Beck: Luck swam

Created: 12/27/2022, 6:36 p.m

By: Nico-Marius Schmitz

You have to be able to assert yourself here: Leonie Beck (2nd from right) in the open water.

© Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto via www.imago-images.de

The move to open water has paid off.

25-year-old Leonie Beck is Vice World Champion and European Champion.

But the road to success was rocky.

Munich – At the Lido di Ostia, a seaside resort on the outskirts of Rome, Leonie Beck did something in August that she doesn't normally do - cheer.

Not because Beck wasn't successful.

"But usually I'm more and more happy inside," she says.

But after the 10-kilometer race at the open water European Championships and the gold medal, Beck raised his fist in the air after the attack.

Her first gold in a single race.

And the next highlight of a career that has sometimes been bumpy.

Beck swam in the pool for years, was always able to qualify for the most important competitions, but never got her best performance there.

The 2016 Olympics, eliminated in the heats of the 800-meter freestyle, were a turning point.

"Rio was the highlight of my series of defeats, so to speak," says Beck: "Of course, if you have a lot of failures, the feeling is no longer good, you put more and more pressure on yourself.

After Rio, I thought to myself: Either I'll stop now, or I'll have a look at the open water."

But it wasn't just a sniff.

More of a hardship.

Open water swimming takes either a lot of experience or a lot of talent, says Beck.

And continues: "I didn't have either." Pools and open water cannot be compared.

Beck had to work everything out again.

The first races went badly.

"I always had elbows in my face, I came out of the water with bleeding eyes, somewhere in the back." But the Würzburg native (native from Augsburg) improved from competition to competition and was able to win two silver medals at the European Swimming Championships after just one year.

At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Beck finished fifth in the 10km.

At the World Championships in Budapest this year there was gold in the relay and silver in the individual.

The 25-year-old has long since arrived in the elite - and also shines outside of swimming.

She wrote her master's thesis on "Body Positivity" on Instagram in two and a half weeks.

It is important to Beck to build up a second mainstay alongside sport.

"Swimming doesn't finance your life," she says.

"It's often even a top-up business." To cushion that, Beck is active again on Instagram, actually she had already deleted the app in 2019 because she had spent too much time on it.

"At the end of the day, you have to pay your bills.

It is important to market yourself, especially in sports that are not in the limelight.

You can't do without social media these days.” Beck takes matters into his own hands.

During the pandemic, she has joined a training group in Italy around swimming star Gregorio Paltrinieri.

"I only trained indoors for a year, didn't see the sun," says Beck.

“The sea is practically on your doorstep there.

Italy is a super beautiful country, the food is great.

Sunshine and dolce vita.

It doesn't get any better than that."

By Nico Marius Schmitz