Triathlon: Abrupt resignation: Anne Haug just can’t

Anne Haug’s voice trembles slightly. The difficult moment when the 42 year world-class triathlete has to see that her head and body simply no longer not take part in as usual. “I could no longer imagine running the marathon,” she says in retrospect to the German press agency: “I have never had that in my life and it was actually clear to me that something broke somehow in my head that could no longer be repaired.”

The mental batteries are exhausted

So broken that Anne Haug now surprisingly, but consistently and with great openness explained her immediate resignation. “The willpower was simply not enough and the mental batteries are simply exhausted.” She always lived for her sport, but through the race in Spain she knew: “The point has now been reached, I’m ending my career,” she told the “world”.

One of the great successes of the Bayreuther is the 2019 World Cup triumph. Anne Haug is still the only German Hawaii winner. A year ago, Laura Philipp triumphed in Nice. A duel between the two will no longer occur in Big Island this October.

Due to her task at the race in Spain, Haug also missed the necessary validation of her starting place. As a former world champion, she would only have had to end another Ironman. At first it was planned to try this in Calmar in Sweden in mid -August. She doesn’t want that anymore.

Quiet and workmanship on your favorite island of Lanzarote

At the moment Haug is working on the end of what has always shaped the life of the 1.64 meter tall and around 50 kilogram athlete, on her favorite island of Lanzarote. “Everything is still very fresh, and you probably don’t realize what it really means now,” she says the dpa: “For half a life, my coach told me every day of the year what I have to do, and now you don’t really know what’s coming.”

With her, a German golden generation leaves the triathlon stage. After the 2023 season, the three-time Hawaii winner Jan Frodeno (43) and the world champion from 2014, Sebastian Kienle (41), stopped. Behind Philipp (38), however, are already moving promising talents over the longer distances.

Your parade discipline: running

Haug shaped the scene with its determination, its will, its combat power. Her parade discipline came at the end, after 3.8 kilometers swimming and the 180 kilometers on the bike. At her world’s best time of 8:02:38 hours last year in Roth, she ran the 42.2 kilometers on the undeveloped route in 2:38:52 hours. For comparison: The German marathon record is 2:19:19 hours for women, in 2008 set up on the super fast route in Berlin by Irina Mikitenko.

The past two years have been shaped by “very strange diseases”, says Haug. “I just had no consistency in training at all, and of course that makes you doubt.” In addition, thrombosis in her eye was diagnosed at the beginning of the year. She had previously developed diabetes after a Corona infection.

The fear of your own body

“I was also afraid of my body,” she explains her abrupt end of career. “I always had this rule for myself that if my willpower is no longer strong enough to get over my body, the time has come to stop.”

After the disappointment at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Haug switched to the longer distances with 36th place. In 2012 at the games in London, she had ranked eleventh. The successes then occurred on the longer distances.

She had a podium subscription at the World Cup for over five years: In addition to the 2019 victory, she was third in 2023, 2018, 2021 and 2022. At her home race in Roth, she triumphed in 2021, 2022 and 2024 with the world’s best time and waved the fans at the finish line in the legendary target stadium. At the time, she hadn’t even thought that it was the last time as a professional triathlete.