Elisabeth Seitz is entering the world championship stage for the tenth time at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool. For Anna-Lena König it is the World Cup premiere.
Elisabeth Seitz is sitting relaxed in the training quarters of the German gymnasts in Frankfurt am Main. She has a single room there. “At my age, I can do that,” jokes the 28-year-old. Training, interviews, training again, departure – all done a thousand times. The Gymnastics World Championships from October 29th to November 6th in Liverpool is practically a routine affair for the Stuttgart native – it is already her tenth World Championship.
The current European champion on the uneven bars talks casually about her new role as “by far the oldest and most experienced gymnast” in the still young team. After Kim Bui’s career ended and Pauline Schäfer-Betz dropped out, Seitz is something like the team captain. “I’m looking forward to the task of taking the youngsters with me to this World Cup event and being able to show and explain everything to them a bit.”
World Cup premiere for Anna-Lena König
Anna-Lena König, on the other hand, seems a bit tense. The 16-year-old from TV Bodersweier qualified for a gymnastics world championship for the first time in Rüsselsheim in mid-October. “I’m excited, but I’m looking forward to the time.” In Frankfurt she concentrates on her exercises. The thought of doing gymnastics in Liverpool in front of a maximum of 11,000 spectators on Sunday is still a long way off: “I don’t think I’ve really realized that it’s going to be so big, but I’m looking forward to the competition.”
Then not cramping and bringing the exercises to the mat just as cleanly and concentrated as in training is the big difference between a talent and a champion. Elisabeth Seitz has shown several times that she is capable of doing this. She wants to pass this knowledge on to the team if possible: “I always offer that the younger ones are welcome to ask lots of questions. They’re welcome to ask me as many questions as they want. I’ve seen and experienced so much that I too I would like to report about it. In the hope that they will be at the end of the competition and simply much more relaxed and much calmer, because a lot of questions – perhaps also by me – could already be answered in advance.”
Seitz asked as a mentor at the World Gymnastics Championships
Anna-Lena König feels in good hands in this atmosphere: “She supports us a lot in training, cheers us on and also helps us outside the hall.” Seitz returned the compliment immediately: “I think that Anna-Lena in particular, but also the other girls, are playing their role well and doing their stuff really well here in training and they are very concentrated and focused. You don’t notice that much , that the world championships will start soon. And that’s why I have the feeling that it’s going to be really good.”
In any case, Seitz doesn’t faze him that easily. Not even a corona infection a few weeks before the tournament. At the end of September/beginning of October, the virus put her out of action for nine days. She then had to deal with the after-effects for another week. “The schedule was pretty tight. That’s why it was relatively uncertain whether I could still do it all before the World Cup.” But the few days are enough for Seitz to be in shape at the World Cup: “When it comes to competition, it is often the case that my body and my body surpass themselves. Until the beginning of last week, I was still quite unsure whether I could do it. Of course I’m not at my fitness peak, but I definitely feel good, healthy and looking forward to the competition.”
Top performance and many new impressions
König primarily wants to “do my exercises cleanly” at the World Championships. Seitz also wishes that for the rest of the team, which consists of Emma Malewski (TuS Chemnitz-Altendorf), Karina Schönmaier (Blau-Weiss Buchholz) and Lea Marie Quaas (TuS Chemnitz-Altendorf) as substitute gymnasts in addition to Seitz and König. “We want to perform optimally as a team and, above all, appear self-confident. I think that will be a challenge, because there are many new impressions for our younger gymnasts.”
In her first big tournament after triumphing at the European Championships, Seitz wants to show again, especially on the uneven bars, that she is one of the greats: “It’s always difficult to say what comes out of it, because it always starts from zero. I have there no European champion bonus.” Otherwise, she just wants to enjoy her tenth World Cup: “I’m happy to be able to continue to be on the big stage and to show that I’m still there and that I can still perform at my best even after so many years.”
