“Like a warning signal for me”
Franziska van Almsick fights with eating disorder
Updated on 13.08.2025 – 2:51 p.m.Reading time: 1 min.
“The Franzi” was celebrated for its successes and their failures were oked. 21 years after the end of her career, the successful swimmer sees her eating disorder as a warning signal in stressful situations.
Swimming legend Franziska van Almsick is still fighting with her eating disorder. “When I get into situations in which I ride, I may start eating less or thinking about what I eat,” said the 47-year-old of the “Gala”. “Back then I got into this eating disorder because I felt that I no longer have my life under control myself.”
Van Almsick won silver over 200 meters of freestyle at the 1992 Olympics – the first of her ten Olympic medals. In the time of reunification, she became a female sports idol. At the age of 26 she ended her sports career. Today she lives with her partner and two sons in Heidelberg.
“Today the disorder is something of a warning signal for me: if it doesn’t work so well with the food and if I realize that I don’t have it under control, then I have to step on the brakes a bit. And think more about myself and look that I will come back on track,” she said. “I’m trying to get something good off the whole thing.” In 2000, the Boulevard press Van Almsick missed the ridicule “Franzi van Speck” after a sporting failure.