Hannah Neise is actually afraid of speed, she came to skeleton more by accident – and yet she made history in Beijing.
Suddenly Hannah Neise was an Olympic champion in skeleton, the first German and the youngest in history. It all sounds “pretty funny,” admitted the 21-year-old – and gave a few reasons. Because at least at first glance, Neise’s gold medal is a completely unlikely success.
Basically, she has “fair problems with speed, I’m a very anxious person,” said Neise. Having just slid down an ice canal at 130 km/h, head first, on a sled with no steering gear.
“It doesn’t quite add up,” she said, laughing, “I can’t explain it either.” Everything is different on sports equipment. However, the woman from Sauerland had to find that out first, as she doesn’t see herself as the “chosen one”. She stumbled into the sport rather by accident.
Ten years ago, when she was spotted at school, she simply wasn’t in the mood for the upcoming English lesson: “I wanted to avoid him, so I pushed myself into it.”
Neise dominates at the Olympics in Beijing
Talent showed up quickly, Neise even became world champion in the juniors, but the step to the adults still seemed too big. The woman from Winterberg has been competing in the World Cup for two years, and she only ever saw the podium from afar. She narrowly qualified for the Olympics.
And then dominated a race in China that seemed a bit too big for the German skeleton racers for many years. From the third run she was right at the front and suddenly spent a lot of time in the leader box, where the leaders are filmed continuously. “I didn’t know how to stand there,” Neise said with a grin.
On the sled, however, she got along very well. Neise is “quiet and reserved,” says national coach Christian Baude, “but also determined. If she wants something, she’ll do it.” And somehow further successes no longer seem so improbable.