MSometimes in these Corona times you are grateful as an observer if the other person is not wearing a mask. Not yet. Like Natalie Geisenberger after her ride through the ice canal in Innsbruck-Igls. The Olympic luge champion showed a big smile under her helmet. The 32-year-old Miesbacher did well in the first race after her baby break; 0.119 seconds ahead of teammate Cheyenne Rosenthal and Dajana Eitberger. The 29-year-old from Ilmenau also became a mother in February.
“I’m a bit surprised that it’s going so well again,” said Geisenberger. Last weekend she became German champion, now first in the Nations Cup. “Of course it will be really interesting on Sunday in the World Cup, when Julia Taubitz and Tatjana Iwanowa and the Austrians will also ride,” she said: “I got through the first hurdle quite well.” Dajana Eitberger felt similar. “I didn’t expect to get in this well,” she said. However, she does not hope “that I booked third place this year”. Because she was also in third place in the national championships. Behind Geisenberger and Taubitz.
Natalie Geisenberger and her husband Markus Scheer, whom she married in 2018, dealt extensively with the topic of family planning. “I wanted to go to the World Championships in Winterberg in 2019.” In October she announced her pregnancy. “We are extremely grateful that everything went so well.” She became a mother on May 2nd of this year. Your son is called Leo. Dajana Eitberger didn’t really want to become a mother yet. With her partner Christopher Mayer, she still wanted to enjoy the togetherness and travel together. Just like the vacation in Australia after the end of the 2019 season. Son Levi was born on February 21, 2020.
A maturation process
The two German tobogganers were warmly welcomed after their return, reports Eitberger: “The older female athletes in particular are very happy and ask whether they got back into training well. Perhaps also with a view to daring such an adventure myself. ”With nine months of experience as a mother, she says:“ I notice that in the role of mother I am a little more mature and think about completely different things than the young chickens. “How this adventure mother and sportswoman can be managed in everyday life, they fill in completely different ways.
There’s a big smile on the ice: Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger is back after the baby break.
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Image: dpa
The Bavarian travels from race to race with great entourage. While she pursues her job as an athlete, her husband takes care of the son and also changes diapers. Her father Helmut and his dog Bounty are also always there. “When my husband does his hotel home office, my father takes care of Leo during the time,” she says and admits that the effort is not that easy to manage. “From the ice channel to breastfeeding, then back to the workshop – in the evening I know what I’ve been doing,” she admits. But she also admits: “But I have it exactly as we wanted it to be.” The Thuringian Eitberger travels alone to the courses and the races. She leaves her filius in Munich with her life partner. “Even if Levi is a very relaxed child, he needs his familiar surroundings,” she says in explanation.
“Athletics and a good sled”
National coach Norbert Loch is not very surprised about the performances of his two toboggan mothers on their comeback. “Tobogganing requires a certain athleticism and a good sled,” says the coach, “but it also needs a feeling. And neither of them lost that one year. ”He does not grant his two athletes any privileges. And the areas are also clearly defined. “You play your mum role privately – at home, in the hotel or wherever you are – with your partner or husband,” he says, “on the other hand, there is sport, the railway. No small children and no husbands belong there. “
After Innsbruck-Igls, the World Cup circus will appear on the four German railways in Altenberg, Oberhof, Winterberg and on the Königssee. At the beginning of January a trip to Sigulda in Latvia is planned. Then it’s the first time to say goodbye for Geisenberger. “I can give Geisi a comforting shoulder,” says colleague Eitberger as a moral support. She already had this first separation when she traveled to Sigulda for a seminar in October. “It was difficult,” she says, “I crumpled backwards on the plane and cried for half an hour.” So it was all the nicer to see you again.
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