Lukas Märtens already has the next highlights in mind before the Swimming World Cup in Berlin. The Olympic Games in Paris and the 2024 World Cup in Doha “of course play a role in the back of our minds,” the European champion told “SID”. The competition in the capital (October 6th to 8th) is “an initial form check”.
In the swimming and diving hall in the Europasportpark, the team from the German Swimming Association (DSV) “definitely wants to put on a decent competition” and “present themselves well in front of a home crowd,” said the 21-year-old.
The World Cup debacle no longer plays a major role for Märtens. In Fukuoka, Japan, the man from Magdeburg won the only medal for the German pool swimmers with bronze in the 400 m freestyle. The DSV selection had never performed so poorly at a World Cup.
“It’s a process. You shouldn’t think that everything just works at the push of a button and the medals just rain down,” said Märtens.
“It is always measured by medals and records. But we are still a very young team. There are also inexperienced people who were at a World Cup for the first time,” said Märtens and admitted: “It would of course be nice if “One or two more medals would have been won.”