At the World Cup in Rio, Olympic champion Darja Varfolomeev from TSV Schmiden wants to underpin her exceptional position in rhythmic gymnastics.
Darja Varfolomeev has already had the hardest exercise of the year. A few weeks ago, the first German Olympic champion in rhythmic sports gymnastics passed the exams for the secondary school leaving certificate, for Varfolomeev a week -long learning ended that “took a lot of time”, as she says.
Darja Varfolomeev top favorite for the 2025 World Cup
Now that school stress is out of his head, the 18-year-old wants to deliver again from Wednesday. At the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Germany’s athlete of the year is the defending champion in all five individual competitions – and top favorite.
Complicated Double load
Even though their preparation was massively affected. Last year, Varfolomeev had paused with the school, and all the attention was paid to the Olympic Games. After the Gold Coup from Paris She returned to the classroom and then had to cope with a complicated double burden.
“I was very focused on school and less than usual on training and competitions,” says Varfolomeev. “This also contributed to the fact that I did not show better performance in the competitions.”
A statement that shows the perfectionism of the Russian native. Because when she was in the middle of the examination phase at the beginning of June, she will be in Tallinn European champion with the band. In the all -around she gains bronze. At that time, Varfolomeev sees itself at 40 percent at the time – and yet it shows her world class. Around two months later, she wins five out of five possible gold medals at the German Championships in Dresden.
Varfolomeev in time for the World Cup in top shape
“I would say that I am now 90 percent,” she says afterwards. A huge leap in performance within a few weeks, just in time before the World Cup. “It was definitely easier for me to only concentrate on sport,” explains Varfolomeev with a view to her school leaving certificate, “that’s why I was able to take such a big step forward.”
Varfolomeev does not call an official goal for the World Cup – she prefers to measure herself from her own expectations. They have not gotten smaller in recent years, despite their enormous success: “Since the Olympic victory, I want to show all the more what we have trained,” she says.
“I always had goals and still have them”
Even then, at the age of 17, she had already achieved everything in her sport. But Varfolomeev says: “I always had goals and still have them. Until now I can’t imagine my life without the rhythmic gymnastics.”
She takes on the pressure of expectations – she can hide it, for example, when watching action films: from the Fast & Furious series “I saw every film,” she says.
Darja Varfolomeev is also ambitious apart from sport: after the junior high school, she strives to graduate even higher in order to be able to study later. At the same time, she does everything she can to the fact that it continues furiously in her athlete career. The home World Cup in Frankfurt am Main will be coming up in the coming year. Therefore, the school must now wait again.
Broadcast on Wed., 20.8.202.2025 6:00 a.m., SWR Current in the morning, SWR Current
