The spring images were not repeated. Carolin Schäfer seemed relaxed and relaxed when she packed her sports bag after her appearance at the Eintracht Frankfurt Summer Cup. The heptathlete recorded a pleasing 13.55 seconds in the hurdles sprint, 1.73 meters in the high jump and 13.64 meters in the shot put on the facility on Niederräder Hahnstrasse. It had made the European Championship third more exciting than expected. In the throwing discipline, she had only catapulted the four-kilogram metal twice laterally over the defined zone before the 29-year-old managed a valid attempt on Saturday. That did not change the fact that Schäfer passed the Olympic test before the Games in Tokyo that began this Friday.
"I'm really relieved," said the sportswoman. Although the values were correct in training, “great uncertainty” had accompanied their start. The athlete was urged not only to confirm to herself that she had the necessary form in good time before her competition in the Japanese capital on August 4th and 5th to hold on to her goal: after World Championship silver 2017 and European Championship bronze 2018 the Fifth of Rio 2016 will also add Olympic precious metal to their collection.
There had been doubts about it in the past few months. When the Eintracht track and field athlete entered a home competition at the beginning of May, she broke it off after two disciplines, seriously disappointed. Less than a week earlier, she had received her second vaccination against the Covid-19 pathogen. For the two-time German champion, the first felt as if they had "injected gold into the veins" because they connected it with supposed security on their way to the season highlight, this time they felt severe aftermath.
After a few days after the headache and body aches, the Frankfurt resident realized that she could no longer get up the stairs to her apartment on the third floor without any problems and that she was also straining other everyday routines. An exercise test on the treadmill showed high blood pressure values. In addition, her nervous system was "paralyzed"; she could no longer control her muscles as is necessary for her exercise program. Schäfer and her team of supervisors, accompanied by doctors, adapted the loads exactly to their daily form.
They found that it was possible to ask the body to do things like a powerful shot put from a standing position that didn't work right away if the nerves and muscles involved were triggered beforehand. That is, activated with exercises, in this case medicine ball throwing. A tightrope walk began, which Schäfer described in retrospect as "one of the greatest challenges of my career". She didn't want to tick off her Tokyo dream, but neither wanted to damage her health in the long term. The training partner of decathlon world champion Niklas Kaul had to be convinced time and again by her environment at the Mainz location that there would be enough time. She kept in contact with the German Athletics Association to find outwhether they would be proposed for the Olympic nomination at the all-around meetings in Götzis or Ratingen despite the waiver of the required proof of performance.
The local hero saw the performance at the weekend as proof that she was rightly allowed to travel to Asia. “There are only three weeks left, but there are also three weeks left,” says Schäfer. “And everything is back.” Concentrating on her own complicated situation has distracted the police superintendent from the discussion about the controversial major event. “It made me feel calmer,” she says. “I'm just glad that the games are taking place at all” and that she will get the chance to collect the wages for the past five years. “A medal,” says Schäfer, “happens.” But her first big fight of the year, “I've already won it”.