Alessio Murrone has the Olympic Games in Paris in his sights in 2024

He estimates the last year in the U21 age group as “moderately good” due to the corona. At the first national performance tournament, Murrone compares this competition in terms of the quality of the fights with a German championship, in Mannheim in November 2019 the Werler still won. At the second in Sondershausen-Straussberg, Thuringia, Murrone came in 3rd place – here in an intense weekend of competitions, many fights were repeatedly pushed to the limit. At his last German championship in the U21 age group shortly before the lockdown in spring, the architecture student finished in 4th place after a semi-final defeat and the lost duel for 3rd place.

“That was really bitter because I was in a really good mood,” says the judoka with roots at JC Welver. So the time in this age group ended without a top placement in the “Germans”, because in the years before the Werler “Sportsman of the Year” for 2019 missed these title fights twice due to injuries and illnesses.

The 20-year-old sees the transition to the men’s area under corona conditions more difficult for himself and his peers. “In terms of sport, it is the wrong time. Usually a lot is decided in the U21 area, but we had the bad luck that we didn’t have any more tournaments, ”says the martial artist. The German-Italian saw winning the German runner-up with his Witten team from the Sport-Union Annen at the end of October as a gesture because of the tournament character with seven clubs on one weekend. The title is there, but it was more about showing that the sport is still alive, “says Murrone about these special Corona championships. “There was a lot of criticism about it, which I could understand”, some thought that this competition could become a spreader event. “The Bundesliga is important and good. But the focus is on the individual competition, ”explains the student who completed his Abitur at the sports boarding school in Cologne a year ago.

In addition, all international comparisons were canceled last year. Murrone was all the more pleased when he was invited by the men’s national coach to a tournament with five other squad athletes in October 2020 – and was able to convince with a second place. “That was a chance for me to show myself,” explains Werler.

It is better to have done a thing a thousand times than to have done a thousand things just once.

The fights, called Randori in judo, are immensely important for the 20-year-old. “There is nothing like a Randori training. Nowhere do you train judo better than with judo fights. It is important to have as many partners as possible to fight against. It doesn’t matter whether they are stronger or heavier. And it’s also important to measure yourself against the best, ”says Murrone. For example, he regularly takes to the mat against the former German champion and EM participant Moritz Plofky (JC Hennef).

Murrone is fortunate that he can train regularly as a squad athlete in Cologne even during the lockdown – albeit with restrictions. “We are already privileged,” says the 20-year-old, even if he currently doesn’t have that many changing competition partners because of a fixed training group.

A typical training week with the evening units includes the following elements: Mondays technique and Randori (fighting), Tuesdays only Randori, Wednesdays reinforced exercises on the floor, Thursdays Randori and Fridays individual technique training. In addition, strength, technique, circles, intervals with mountain sprints and endurance with runs are trained in the mornings.

Even if he is currently in “off-season mode” without competitions, judo is a sport due to its complexity in training, in which you can quickly get back into the rhythm and quickly find your way back into the sporting duels.

His studies, which he started at the Technical University in Cologne at the end of November, helped him manage the time for judo training, especially since the TH is a “top sports sponsor”. The fact that he is allowed to continue working as a student trainee at the HKR + architecture office in Cologne after his basic internship for his studies fits well into his daily and weekly schedule. “I’m flexible. I can still train in the morning and start at 9 a.m. That suits me very well, ”says Murrone. In the office he works with various materials for building construction and uses the special computer programs in times when the lectures are held virtually as zoom conferences and student life is completely idle. “There I have my two passions. That fits very well, ”says Murrone, satisfied as an architecture student and top athlete.

Murrone sees his sporting strengths in the fights, which are held for a maximum of four minutes – he describes judo as “tuned up wrestling” – in “good shoulder throws. I also have a good feeling with my feet and the thigh throws have become my second special technique, ”reveals the 20-year-old. Since judo as an individual sport is also a matter of feeling, he says: “The basis and understanding of many things is good. But it’s better to have repeated one thing a thousand times than to have done a thousand things only once. ”Murrone says he’s more of a technician than that he has the strength. But at the beginning of 20, the body also gains strength – that’s why Murrone said that it was now starting for him in the men’s area.

And again and again a look at the wall reminds of his big goal “Paris 2024”.