Angelina Köhler won World Cup gold. For the first time in 15 years a German was at the top. Her success was hard earned – a low blow made her stronger.
Angelina Köhler struck, looked at the scoreboard, put her hand to her mouth and burst into tears. She couldn’t believe it. The 23-year-old was the first swimmer to win World Cup gold for Germany after Britta Steffen in 2009. She triumphed in the 100 meter butterfly. Almost half a year before the Olympic Games in Paris, she showed that she is among the best in the world.
Things looked completely different three years ago. However, her sporting low point became a turning point in her career.
“The most dramatic experience in my career”
Review: In April 2021, a few months before the Olympics in Tokyo, the last qualifying competition for the major sporting event in swimming will take place. Angelina Köhler wants to get her ticket for Japan. But the swimmer falls ill with Covid-19. She can’t go into the pool and therefore not go to Tokyo. The dream bursts.
“Missing the Games in Tokyo was probably the most drastic experience in my career so far,” said Köhler looking back in “Swimsport Magazine”.
In a post on Instagram shortly after her exit from the Olympics, she wrote: “It was a very big setback for me not to take part in the Games in Tokyo. That’s why I needed a little time for myself to process it. But exactly this Time has shown me that it’s not a bad thing if you don’t achieve a goal.”
The 1.80 meter tall athlete announced at the time: “I will now start the new season stronger and better and fight even harder so that my big dream of the 2024 Olympic Games comes true!” A plan that Köhler made come true little by little.
Moving to Berlin made Köhler a better swimmer
After surviving the corona infection, she was crowned German champion in 2021. The athlete, who was competing for Hannover 96 at the time, said after her race: “This has been my goal for a long time and it means very, very much to me.”
Her career took off. Also because after changes in her training group in Hanover in 2022, the young swimmer decided against moving to the college system in the USA and in favor of a new start in Berlin at SG Neukölln. She explained to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “The individuality with which the training is tailored to me does not exist in the USA. I just don’t believe that.”
The “clumsy” world champion
Together with her trainer Lasse Frank, Köhler worked on her weaknesses and became faster and faster. Last year it wasn’t enough for the podium at the World Championships in Fukuoka. At the European Short Course Championships a few months later, she swam to silver in the 100 meter butterfly in a German record time. She even became European champion in the 200 meters.
Köhler said at the time: “I hope to maybe break 57 at some point, that would be a dream.” She now made this come true. In the World Cup semi-final of the 100 meter butterfly, Köhler finished in 56.11 seconds. In the final after 56.28 seconds.
And Köhler encouraged young athletes after their World Cup victory: “It means so much to me that even someone like me, who is sometimes a bit clumsy and forgets things, can also be a world champion.”