Even without the Olympics, the competitive year is packed for swimmers. The German top favorite doesn’t let that stress him out. He sees a crisis in the association.
As a double world champion and Olympic champion, Florian Wellbrock travels to the swimming world championships. At the title fights in Hungary, which were only added to the competition calendar in February, the 24-year-old from the strong Magdeburg team of national coach Bernd Berkhahn is once again the greatest German hope.
Wellbrock wants to start over four individual distances and has chances of medals everywhere. In an interview with the German Press Agency, he talks about goals, the lack of ambition of some of his colleagues, and his friendship with a Ukrainian competitor.
Question: The World Cup was included in the program at relatively short notice. How did you feel?
Florian Wellbrock: For me it’s positive stress. It was a bit short-term and unforeseen, but you always look forward to a World Cup. We also have a short journey to Budapest, so it’s not really a problem for us.
They swim the individual races over 800 meters and 1500 meters in the pool and over five kilometers and ten kilometers in open water. Is there a special focus on one of these races?
Wellbrock: Yes, definitely. I’m going to start over 1500 meters and over ten kilometers as the defending champion. That doesn’t mean that the other two races would be less important, but I’m looking forward to the ten kilometers and 1500 meters a little more.
Four starts – three medals?
What do you reckon?
Wellbrock: Otherwise I always had three individual starts and brought back two medals. Maybe this time it will work with four starts and three medals.
How do you look at the individual races?
Wellbrock: I hope that the 800 meters will work a little better this time. At the last World Championships in Gwangju I was eliminated in the prelims and at the Olympics in Tokyo it worked out in the final, but I missed the podium. Maybe I can make it onto the podium now. That is my claim. I am the defending champion in the 1500 meters and 10 kilometers. The five kilometers will be exciting, but of course I want to reach for the medal there too. But to say from the outset that you’ll win four medals after four starts: that’s always easier to say than it is to put into practice in the end.
Does that mean you still have a score to settle with the race over 800 meters?
Wellbrock: Yes, definitely. I actually have very good prerequisites for this. But I’ve never swum an 800 meter race that I was really happy with. I always had something to complain about and I hope that this time I can be satisfied.
“See crisis in the association”
The German Swimming Association is with a very small contingent at the World Cup. Do you see a crisis in the association?
Wellbrock: Yes. I see a crisis in the association, but it’s been a bit longer. The fact that the team is now so small is also due to the standard times. We had very strong Olympics in terms of world level. Therefore, many relay times were no longer so easy to crack. In recent years, the DSV has always had many relay teams with it. We haven’t had many individual starters in recent years. This time the relays have broken away. However, this will not limit or disadvantage the team on site. The people who qualified are established and know each other. The team will harmonize. For us athletes on site, it will not look like a crisis.
What is the main impact of the crisis for you?
Wellbrock: From my point of view, a big point is the mindset of the individual athletes. For example, some are already satisfied if they qualify for a European Championship. Then, after the qualifying period, they put their feet up and say: “I’ve done everything that’s possible and that’s enough for me now.” That’s something that we Magdeburg residents don’t know at all. The qualification is a through station for us and after that it really starts. Then we get involved again and want to fight for the medals. In personal conversations with other athletes, I also notice that some of them simply don’t have this wishful thinking. With such a mindset you will of course never establish yourself at the top of the world.
Why is it doing well on the long haul but not on the short haul?
Wellbrock: I can’t answer what needs to be done in the short-distance area so that you can also swim at a world-class level there. In the long-distance area, I know that we work with the right training methods in Magdeburg. This includes altitude training camps or altitude simulations. But we and a few people from Heidelberg from the German Swimming Association are the only ones who go to the high-altitude training camp. That could be a reason why things don’t go so well on the short distances. Back then, Norbert Warnatzsch always went to the altitude training camp with Franziska van Almsick and Britta Steffen. I don’t think there is a lack of talent. However, I believe that talented people are not encouraged or challenged enough on short-haul routes.
The Ukrainian Michailo Romantschuk is currently swimming in your training group. How is it for you to train with him?
Wellbrock: It’s a lot of fun. Fortunately, he is a person who comes into the hall in a good mood every day, no matter what time it is. Our whole team benefits from this. Mixed with his strength in the water, Lukas (Märtens, editor’s note) and I do that very well.
To what extent do you notice that there is currently war in his home country?
Wellbrock: That varies and is also due to what’s going on in the news right now. I admire his mental strength and how well he handles it. 95 percent of the time he doesn’t give a damn and does his training consistently.
Do you talk to him about the war in Ukraine?
Wellbrock: I offered him from the start that he could talk to me about anything and come back to me at any time. Thank God he didn’t do that, because I wouldn’t even know how to react to that. What he is experiencing right now and what his family members and friends are reporting are things that, thank God, none of us have come into contact with. So I don’t even know how one should or can help a person emotionally on that level.
How did it come about that he came to Magdeburg?
Wellbrock: He was in Ukraine at the beginning of the war and, after consulting Bernd Berkhahn, I offered him that we still had capacity in our training group. His final decision was made when his last training hall with a 50-meter pool was bombed to pieces.
They train together, but they are also competitors. How would you describe your relationship?
Wellbrock: We have a good friendly relationship. Otherwise I wouldn’t have made him the offer. We in Magdeburg live from the fact that our training group harmonizes so well. In the beginning, Michailo had no contacts here and couldn’t get along in the supermarket because the products here look completely different and he doesn’t understand the language or the writing either. Of course he needed help and I offered to help. We sometimes go out for dinner or for a walk in the evening. If I go to the hairdresser, I take him with me.
About the person: Florian Wellbrock was born on August 19, 1997 in Bremen. The freestyle swimmer is currently one of the best long-distance athletes in the world. Wellbrock lives and trains in Magdeburg and is married to another successful swimmer, Sarah Wellbrock (formerly Koehler).
Source: Stern
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