At 38, Elisabeth Brandau became German cycling cross champion. Now the mother of three wants to go to the Olympic Games – even though she is on her own financially.
Exhausted but full of euphoria and endorphins, the winner stood in the snowy landscape after crossing the finish line. Elisabeth Brandau from Schönaich in Swabia triumphed at the German Cycling Cross Championships in Radevormwald (Bergisches Land, North Rhine-Westphalia). Her 17th championship title – at the age of 38, just eight months after the birth of Annabell, her third child.
The conditions were harsh. Not just because of the weather and the demanding route. The Swabian didn’t feel completely fit before the race. In the days before, the Brandaus’ house resembled a military hospital; the husband and children were ailing. And the cyclist was afraid of becoming infected.
Age does not protect against performance
But in the race she showed it to the competition, especially 22-year-old Julia Krahl, who was the defending champion. Brandau pulled ahead, especially uphill, and at the finish she had a clear lead of 59 seconds over the runner-up. “I didn’t expect that,” she said in an interview with SWR Sport and immediately gave the reason.
“I think I was superior not only in terms of strength, but also mentally. I was a little scared at first, but then I had to think about my children’s training program.” The little ones became role models for them.
The children go out in any weather and are not afraid. They just do it. They think it’s cool to slide, fall and get back up. Then I thought: Okay, now you have to be a little kid again.”
Elisabeth Brandau
Brandau’s current form is amazing. Because of her maternity leave, she hadn’t competed in “any real competitions” for a year and a half. After the birth of daughter Annabell in April, the athlete started training again in August, initially just for an hour a day. She is even happier now that she has reached a really good level again.
Multiple loading for Elisabeth Brandau
Brandau is a mountain biker by training. As she did after her two previous pregnancies, she uses the winter break to get back to her old performance level by taking part in cross-country races.
For outsiders it is hard to imagine how Brandau shouldered all of this. The 38-year-old is not just a competitive athlete with a huge training schedule. She is also a mother of three children. The sons Maximilian (8) and Alexander (6) as well as little Annabell (8 months) need their mom, and she also works as an independent health coach and alternative practitioner. Furthermore, as a trained refrigeration and air conditioning system builder, she supports her husband in his craft in the organizational area.
The family as a great support
She can only cope with this multiple burden because the Brandau family is well structured and sticks together. When the boys are at school, the athlete gets on her bike to train, works in the office or coaches her clients. She tries to be home when the children get home from school. Shared meals are fixed points in the family’s daily routine. Elisabeth Brandau and her husband are a well-rehearsed team. Only together can they manage the tight program.
And then there is the almost 92-year-old grandma who lives nearby. She looks after Annabell, the baby, touchingly and joyfully. “The children are in good hands,” says Brandau happily. Grandma was even in Belgium for five days when her granddaughter was racing. The old lady looked after Brandau’s offspring in the mobile home.
Social media post on Instagram: Grandma’s support for Elisabeth Brandau
Everything this power woman tackles she does with passion: her sport, her training and her current job as a health and life coach. People come to her (such as a reigning Olympic champion) who are in poor health or in an energy slump. “When you meet these patients six months later and see that they are fit again, that’s nice,” she says.
She herself was already in a darker valley. Around the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, she was physically and mentally burned out. Although she had a cold and suffered from cardiac arrhythmias, she continued to fight for world ranking points and to take part in the Olympic Games. She went beyond her limits. “It took me a long time to get out of there,” she remembers.
Olympic ticket allocation as a lottery?
The Olympic Games in Japan were disappointing for the mountain biker in the cross country discipline. The ailing Brandau was lapped in the race and not counted. The athlete is still upset today that she couldn’t be in the Olympic Village because of the drastic Corona measures. “This wasn’t the experience I imagined.”
She wants to do that again this year at the Summer Olympics in Paris. It will be a long, hard road until tickets are awarded. The Association of German Cyclists (BDR) only has one starting place available for mountain bikers. It seems unclear according to which criteria this starting place is allocated. “They didn’t even advertise qualifications,” says Brandau, irritated. “It’s like a lottery game.” The last World Cups and the German Championships will take place in June. But she doesn’t know whether she must have reached the top 15 or the top 7.
Passion and financial effort
Will her age play a role or the fact that she is not in the national squad? She thinks about that too. But then the fighter in her comes through: “I’m doing my best. If I achieve good World Cup results and do well at the DM, I’ll be happy.”
She doesn’t seem to expect much from the sports associations anyway. “I’m completely on my own financially,” she says. She receives no funding, no sports aid and also has no sponsors. She pays for her physiotherapist and her travel expenses out of her own pocket, as well as the expensive materials. She will soon have to buy four new bikes. Cost: around 40,000 euros. “I haven’t extrapolated any of this. I don’t even want to see the total.” Nevertheless, she invests everything, especially her passion. “That’s what’s worth living for. Why should I do something I don’t like and don’t want to do? After all, I only live once.”
“In the end,” she says, “I trust God a little.” A little trust in God can’t hurt. Little Annabell will be baptized next Sunday.
