She is ready for vacation, says Lena Kreundl. Probably more ready for vacation than the swimmer has ever been. This is partly due to the dwindling European Championships in Rome, where the native of Steyr finished twelfth (100 m freestyle) and 13 (200 m individual medley) in her first semifinals in international long track title fights. But as exhausting as that may have been, that’s just why looking back over the past few months feels good and meaningful to the 24-year-old.
“This season had everything,” says Upper Austria’s most successful swimmer in recent years. It started last year when she was struggling with breathing difficulties for around six months after contracting Covid. “They came in waves,” says Kreundl, who consulted several experts. They disagreed, spoke of Long Covid or, given the unremarkable findings, of a disturbed physical sensation. The burning in the lungs in combination with missing the Olympics in Tokyo made Kreundl, who completed training as a police officer, even think about ending her career around the turn of the year. “One Olympic cycle was over, and competitive sport doesn’t go hand in hand. The question was, do I still want to do it?” Kreundl remembers. The fun of sports and competitions made her shelve these thoughts.
Danger area Bindermichl
Then, in March, a moment of shock: in the Linz Bindermichl tunnel, a vehicle coming behind her almost stopped. “My car broke down and I had whiplash.” As if that weren’t enough, two herniated discs in the cervical vertebrae area were diagnosed during the MRI. Kreundl treated it with physiotherapy, but continued to train. “I had no other choice. My opponents don’t give a damn if I had an accident, they don’t swim slower because of that. That’s why I didn’t want to make it a big issue.” In the meantime, the after-effects are manageable, but the tension in the tight swimsuits promotes neck pain.
When she was sure that she had left her breathing problems behind, Kreundl contracted Covid again in the spring. “I was pretty scared at first, but the second time it wasn’t so bad,” says the ASV Linz athlete, who passed her final exam with the police in April and did an internship at a police station in Linz. “Even though my colleagues said it wasn’t that eventful anyway, it was a lot of action for me,” she says with a smile.
The training is so flexible that you can travel to your Swiss training group at SC Uster. In Upper Austria she can complete the program of her trainers on the Gugl, where she finds shelter with her grandparents. The fact that she never spent more than three weeks at a time in one place this season also took a toll. She will now also be on the move on vacation: “A group of swimmers will stay here in Rome and then we will continue to Naples.” Her anticipation was huge – understandable. (pue)
Source: Nachrichten
