Jannis Wolff experienced his “sporting low point” in a parking lot.

In the middle of winter 2020/21, in wet and snowy conditions, the then German U-23 champion in the decathlon sweated while jogging on asphalt and circuit training on damp mats.

The sports facilities were closed to non-cadre athletes, and the German Athletics Association rejected those who asked for help.

After the first year of the pandemic, the funding continued to benefit those who had previously provided the necessary services.

Wanting and not being able - that was a hard blow for a determined athlete who, as one of the first in his guild, had just felt the long-term consequences of a corona disease and was itching to get back into it.

Only the Frankfurt Eintracht, to which Wolff had just switched from Aachen, but where he was not yet able to practice because he completed a three-month internship in Cologne after completing his bachelor's degree in psychology and neuroscience, opened doors for him in Leverkusen.

The tired body lacks strength

A year later, the 23-year-old is sitting in the Kalbach athletics hall. He got off to a good start in the season, which should end under the roof with the national title fights at the end of the month, at the Hessen Championships. 13.70 meters as second with the ball and 7.09 seconds in the lead over 60 meters without any ambition to reach the final meant new personal bests. After a hard training phase, the tired body lacked the strength for larger increases.

It should continue in the summer, up to the World Championships in the United States (Eugene) or the home European Championships in Munich. In 2021, after only two and a half months of training with successful coach Jürgen Sammert in Ratingen, Wolff had set a new personal record of 7,831 points and was well on his way to the title and a first 8000m at the German championships when the third-place finisher "fell over a hurdle". and botched the discus throw with a bruise on his knee.

The potential for more is there.

Development should not fail due to diligent training.

"I can give a lot if I enjoy something," says Wolff, who spent hours on tricky tasks as a child.

The all-around is his passion.

For a long time it looked as if the son of a former heptathlete was not suitable as a model athlete.

Even as a 16-year-old, Wolff, who is now 1.87 meters tall and weighs 84 kilos, was a slender little fellow, the smallest everywhere and at the North Rhine-Westphalian championships among 25 participants just not last because another failed at a station.

"Is that why I should switch to a sport I didn't feel like doing?" the former soccer player asks rhetorically.

Patience was rewarded.

In 2018, after a proper shot up, Wolff gained positive attention as national champion for the first time.

At the meeting in Ratingen in 2019, the debutant qualified for the Thorpe Cup, the international match between Germany and the USA.

The former amateur athlete now enjoys professional conditions on the Main and can work on his master's degree at Goethe University after his bachelor's degree in Maastricht.

Corona disease is just a bad memory.

Wolff, who had hardly ever had a cold before, was "knocked out" in November 2020, was not resilient for weeks and caught an inflammation of the stomach and an infection in his ear with a weakened immune system.

Endurance was over after 400 meters in February.