The strong-willed
The fact that Maryse Luzolo can even start at the Olympic Games is already an achievement that would have deserved gold - for perseverance. In June 2017, the long jumper sustained a serious knee injury in the gym - through no fault of her own because the device was set incorrectly. She was helplessly at the mercy of the machine, which overstretched her left knee too much: the anterior cruciate ligament was then torn as well as the outer ligament, and the rear one was torn. There was also a capsule rupture. “I never thought of giving up,” said the athlete from the Königsteiner LV. The biology student fought her way back, using willpower and physiotherapy. Two years after the accident, she jumped into a sand pit for the first time. And although she still can't fully bend her left leg, she has achieved her goal.With a personal best of 6.69 meters, the 26-year-old is not one of the favorites, but being there is almost everything in her case.
The team player
Achim Dreis
Sports editor.
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Johannes Golla became a fixture in the national handball team at a young age.
The circle runner with the number 4 is equally ambitious as it is team-oriented.
An ideal partner who stands his ground in the turmoil, but doesn't make a big fuss about it.
The Rheingau started out with TG Eltville.
Via Wiesbaden, Wallau and Melsungen, the Hessian moved a little further away from his homeland with every career step before he succeeded at SG Flensburg-Handewitt and became a national player.
With a fighting weight of 112 kilograms, spread over a height of 1.95 meters, the massive athlete is predestined to give the rock in defense.
Even a broken foot and a corona infection could not throw him off track.
The European champion
In China he is one of the most popular Germans, in Germany he is at least occasionally noticed in public as the only representative of his sport: Timo Boll, table tennis professional from Höchst in the Odenwald.
Thanks to his clever way of playing and tactical sophistication, the left-hander is one of the few non-Chinese who have ever made it to the top of the world rankings.
But above all, the now 40-year-old Boll is admired for his fairness in all game situations.
He has been one of the top performers on the old continent for twenty years; between 2002 and 2021 he was eight times individual European champion.
At world championships and the Olympic Games, however, it was never enough to win a gold coup, because mostly a Chinese got in his way.
The Fighter
She was only 16 when she caused a stir in the volleyball Bundesliga. As Libera with the jersey number 1, Karla Borger swept the ball off the floor at VC Wiesbaden that it tore the audience from their seats. However, she did not see a future for herself in indoor sports. She moved to the beach - following a family tradition, because her mother Cordula Pütter was European champion back in 1995 when beach sports still enjoyed exotic status. The woman from Heppenheim has now been one of the defining figures for a decade.