Owen Ansah made athletics history in 2024. The Hamburg native was the first German sprinter to break the magical 10-second mark – and was then exposed to racist hostility. But the HSV athlete kept a cool head and even found motivation for the new year.
“Thankful” was recently emblazoned in large letters in an Instagram story by the fastest German 100-meter sprinter ever since records began in 1911: Owen Ansah is grateful for the chapter of German sports history that he opened this year wrote.
A performance by sports history dimension
It was a warm summer day and the best weather for sprinters when the native of Hamburg became the first German to crack the magical 10-second sound barrier at the national championships on June 29th on Hamburger Straße in Braunschweig. An achievement of sporting historical dimensions like the hand-timed 10.0 seconds achieved by Armin Hary in Zurich in 1960.
9.99 seconds: a bang, a cracker, a sensation – and a German championship title for Hamburger SV. “What happened there definitely still gives you goosebumps,” the 24-year-old tells NDR and is still euphoric six months later. Especially when he watches the video. “It was definitely a very, very nice feeling,” he remembers the historic moment in the Eintracht Stadium.
Great comeback after a long one Injury break
Ansah is grateful and humble. Because he experienced completely different times. Long months in which sprinting wasn’t even an option. And then, after numerous doctor visits and rehabilitation sessions during the year-long injury break, a first test competition in May 2024 in Leverkusen: 10.11 seconds – what a comeback!
“You know that things usually don’t go so well when you come back from an injury. I’m even happier that it wasn’t like that for me. I never really lost sight of my goals,” reports the protégé the former world-class long jumper Sebastian Bayer. And when he did see that coming, “I wrote a lot of Post-it notes with my goals and hung them up all over the apartment so that I wouldn’t lose sight of them. That helped me a lot.”
Racist hostility after the record
In his second competition after a forced break due to pubic bone edema and a stress fracture in his foot, the devout Christian ran straight into the European Championship final in Rome and came in fifth place and also secured bronze in the sprint relay. Just three weeks later, the German record finally followed in a sensational 9.99 seconds.
A bang with which the sports soldier of the Bundeswehr sparked storms of applause – but for which he also earned intense envy and resentment on social media. He, the Hamburg boy, was not only denied his German nationality and identity. The son of Ghanaian immigrants, who was born in Germany, was subjected to so much racist abuse that the German Athletics Association then entered into cooperation with a special public prosecutor’s office in order to put a stop to the numerous hostilities.
“There are two options: You can read through all the stuff and get ruined by it. Or you don’t pay attention to it and your life goes on exactly as before,” says Ansah, who chose the second option – and even grew stronger because of it. “That made me even tougher. Unfortunately, this racism and hidden everyday racism still exists. I’ll use that as motivation to set another German record or something else in 2025 and show them ‘Hey, the German Owen Ansah has it again did!'”
Paris “simply great” despite disappointments
It doesn’t get any easier. Because with the most successful year of his career, expectations of the 24-year-old have increased. The fact that they can become a burden was already shown in the summer at the Olympic Games in Paris. Ansah started in the preliminary run right next to the US star and later Olympic champion Noah Lyles. One shot, one small stumble, 10.22 seconds – it was all over very quickly and we missed the semi-finals.
“I’ve checked that off,” Ansah assures. “I wasn’t happy with the 10.22, but that was just big. I was standing next to Noah Lyles, the showmaker through and through. This is definitely different than a race in Germany without offending anyone .”
Everything for the season – and injured again
Things didn’t go quite well on the Seine with the relay either. In second position, the fastest German of all time managed the process perfectly, but at 50 meters the muscles on the back of his thigh began to act. Ansah pulled through. Against the pain. For the team. One for all, his motto in the quartet. “Keep running, pass the baton to the next person and in the final you will simply be replaced,” is how he approached it, says the HSV athlete.
But in the end it wasn’t enough, and what was nominally the most promising men’s sprint team in German athletics history was eliminated in the preliminary round in fifth place. Only later did it emerge that Ansah had once again been seriously injured during his fight for the relay. He had to recover from the torn muscle bundle by autumn.
2024 will be the most successful year in Ansah’s sporting life
But what remains of 2024 is the most successful year of his athlete’s life. German record in 9.99 seconds, the European Championship medal with the relay, in front of 57,000 spectators in Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion, Ansah is honored on the sidelines of a football game between the HSV professionals. His parents, who came to Germany from Ghana three decades ago, are also there.
The fact that they can experience this together with him is as valuable to him as Olympic medals: “It means very, very much to me. My parents came to Germany with nothing, with a backpack and then built something like that for themselves.” His father’s haunting words have stuck with him: “My dad always told me: ‘Hey, you have to think about your future. I don’t want you to suffer like that or have to experience what I experienced. You are in Germany born, use this privilege!'”
Honors and gratitude
Ansah’s record jersey now hangs in the HSV Museum in the Volksparkstadion; his signature, like that of his teammate Lucas Ansah-Peprah, who conjured up 10.00 seconds on the track in the summer, adorns the Golden Book of his native Hamburg. The First Mayor Peter Tschentscher invited people to the town hall in October 2024. HSV is extending its contract after problems with the main sponsor. “I am grateful for the things that have happened in my life,” says Ansah. Some very important ones happened in 2024.
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Sports current | 12/31/2024 | 11:17 am
