Anna-Maria Wagner is doing well these days. This is very good news for her because after the 2021 Olympics she fell into a big mental hole. The judo world champion herself questioned the continuation of her career.
In the meantime, however, Anna-Maria Wagner has found new sporting motivation. She will compete in the Grand Slam tournament in Tbilisi this week.
sports show: After the hustle and bustle about their Olympic successes in 2021 they withdrew from the public for a long time. How did they fare during that time?
Anna Maria Wagner: It was clear to me relatively quickly after the Olympics: you don’t want to see judo at first. I was listless and didn’t really want to get out of bed.
I didn’t really want to do sport, which is actually my life, my job. I was often in a bad mood, very sensitive, built very close to the water, sometimes for no reason.
sports show: Even in earlier years, they had to struggle with emotional fluctuations. How difficult is it to deal with?
Wagner: I knew it would end at some point. But you can’t control it. That bothered me the most. You’re actually just waiting all the time for things to get better, but you can’t change it yourself. It was always a bit of a vicious circle.
sports show: Was there a point where you thought you got over it?
Wagner: At the turn of the year I was on vacation in America and went running a lot there. I had a lot of fun doing that. But then my corona infection came right after my return, exactly on the day my first training camp was supposed to start again.
That really pulled the ground out from under my feet again. I had to be in quarantine for 14 days and was home alone. I didn’t get out of bed and wondered if that was fate. I’ve been thinking a lot about getting back on the mat.
sports show: Before the Olympics in Tokyo, they focused on this event for years. For a long time there was a close duel for the one German starting place, plus the postponement due to the pandemic. What role did that play?
Wagner: There was constant pressure the whole time. Especially in the last six months before the Olympics, my stress level was enormous. It was always about proving yourself, showing that I’m the stronger one. That was very exhausting.
The only thing that really kept me going the whole time was the Olympics. I want to go there, I want to stand up there and make this childhood dream come true. Basically, I see pressure more as a kind of motivation: I go there, I get gold, I want to win.