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Stuttgart (AP) - A small candle costs wrestling world champion Frank Stäbler the last strength.
From a little more than a meter away, he tries to blow out the tea light that breathing trainer Yasin Seiwasser is holding on his outstretched hand.
It only flickers three times, it works on the fourth try.
It is one of many exercises that Stäbler has discovered for himself in the past few weeks and that illustrates how much patience it takes to return to old strength.
After his corona infection in October, the 31-year-old is fighting for a comeback - and for his dream of Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games in the summer.
"If you want to see it positively, Corona has made me even more sensitive to my body, made me listen more into it," said Stäbler of the German press agency.
The Swabian is not the only German sports ace who has struggled with the virus.
Handball world champion Johannes Bitter and national soccer player Ilkay Gündogan are just two of other prominent examples.
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Exceptional, Stäbler suffered extremely from his infection.
After a test in November, he reported that he had lost more than 20 percent of his performance.
He refused any drug treatment, instead he hired his old buddy Seiwasser as a breathing trainer.
The former MMA fighter put together a program for him, the first results of which are quite remarkable.
"I am back to almost 100 percent of my performance, so almost completely restored," said Stäbler after he stood on the treadmill again last week at the Olympic base in Heidelberg.
The lung function values are good, and in terms of stamina he was even as strong as last in autumn 2018 when he became world champion for the third time in Budapest.
“But we will only see how my body can cope with the stress of a competition on the mat,” said Stäbler.
"It's different to wrestle four or five times for six minutes within a few hours instead of just running."
But for now, Stäbler is rid of the greatest worries about a successful end to his career.
In the past few weeks he has added more than an hour of breathing training a day to his normal program in the training center on his parents' farm.
The exercises, through which the lung muscles, diaphragm and immune system are to be strengthened and his bronchi are to be expanded, were initially unfamiliar for the martial artist.
This includes push-ups or bench presses with your mouth taped shut.
Or holding your breath, which Stäbler initially only managed for 24 seconds, but later for two minutes.
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Through so-called power breathing, in which Stäbler breathes 180 per minute, he even lost two kilograms.
“It's like going for a jog,” said Coach Seiwasser, who is surprised that “special breathing training is not yet too widespread in high-performance sport”.
In any case, it helps Stäbler.
Mentally too.
"Breathing has a direct relationship with emotion," explained Seiwasser.
The more balanced, the better.
"The confidence to regain my old strength or possibly to become even stronger is there," stressed Stäbler.
He wants to prove it at the European Championships in Poland in April.
It will be his penultimate tournament.
At the Olympics, he wants to crown his successful fight against Corona and his career.
Other examples in addition to Stäbler showed that the virus does not leave top athletes unscathed.
Footballer Gündogan complained of fever, pain in the limbs, sore throat and headache, and loss of taste after his infection in autumn.
"It was extremely physically demanding," he reported at the time.
I had the feeling that my immune system was going down completely. "
But the Manchester City midfielder has long been back.
Just like handball player Johannes Bitter.
The goalkeeper from TVB Stuttgart fell ill two months ago.
On Friday he will start the World Cup in Egypt with the German team.
The substitution of Bundesliga footballer Marin Pongracic from VfL Wolfsburg against Union Berlin on Saturday caused a stir.
"He had big problems with the air," said coach Oliver Glasner about the Croat, who suffered from glandular fever at the beginning of the season and from corona in November.
Before returning to the game and training operations, Pongraic had been checked through, said Glasner.
He is obviously not 100 percent fit.
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The possible long-term corona consequences for top athletes have been controversially discussed for some time.
Doctors warn of permanent heart damage.
A recently published study from the USA, for which more than 50 student athletes tested positive, can be seen as a slight all-clear.
One way or another, Stäbler and Co. serve as an example of the dangers of the virus.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210111-99-986230 / 4
Stäbler on Instagram
Corona study from the USA