Justus Oeckl: A triathlete goes his own way

It’s not every day: he was 14 years old when he decided to move out of home – and put sport at the center of his young life. Justus Oeckl is a triathlete, and his new home is the “House of Athletes” in Nuremberg, a sports boarding school. Affiliated to the Bertolt Brecht School (BBS). A huge step that requires a lot of courage at this age. Justus attended the Gregor-Mendel-Gymnasium in Amberg and had trained at CIS Amberg. It wasn’t a quick decision to go to Nuremberg: “I really wanted to go there. But I’ve already thought about a few things. For a month or two, and then I said yes,” explains Justus Oeckl. The sports coordinator of the BBS, Uwe Köberlein, became aware of the triathlon talent at various competitions. “He saw that I was quite good. Then after a swim-and-run in Würzburg he asked me if I wanted to come to Nuremberg,” says the 16-year-old. His parents had given him a free hand: “They said I can decide what I want. You will support me in any case.”

The attitude is not by chance: Father Rouven Oeckl (51) is himself a triathlete and three-time Hawaii finisher. But at first his son Justus didn’t follow in his footsteps: He started judo at the age of seven and trained with Bushido Amberg for five years – until the club dissolved. Station two was swimming training, followed by running – until he realized: “This is the right thing to do.” And he does believe that he inherited the triathlon genes from his father: “I’ve always been there, when he ran, I rode my bike. In the beginning we trained a lot together.” At CIS Amberg, in the triathlon division.

Then came the request from Nuremberg in spring 2020, in September the move to the boarding school and the change to the grammar school of the Bertolt-Brecht-Schule, and to his new trainer Stephen Bibow. Justus Oeckl has not regretted his step. “I feel really good, but at the beginning it was difficult to coordinate sport and school. Now it’s going really well,” he explains. At first he found it difficult to leave home: “For the first six months I went home every weekend, and I was homesick.” After half a year that changed, everyday life at the sports boarding school, his buddies and the environment determined and determined his “new” life.

Long days

“I like the spirit in the training group, everyone is motivated, they have fun in the triathlon, but also the necessary bite,” says Oeckl, happy about the environment in Nuremberg. Although everyday life was tough at first: “We train every day in front of school, from 7 am. Either we meet at this time at the edge of the pool or while running. I get up at 6:15 am,” explains the 16-year-old. He had to get used to it first. School started at 9.45 a.m. in the first year and lasted until 3.45 p.m. This was followed by another training session. Justus always trains in a group on his bike in and around Nuremberg. And he has a good device: “It normally costs 7,000 euros, which I got from the Cube store in Weiden,” he says happily. The young triathlete came home around 7 or 8 p.m. In the “house of the athletes”, in his single room. “That’s the way it is because of Corona, we normally share a room for two,” says Oeckl.

Cooking on my own

“The hardest thing for me was the change in diet, we had to cook ourselves. For Monday I always took something from home with me, and on Tuesday we had to do it ourselves,” Justus remembers the first few months. The boys stood in the communal kitchen and prepared their meals. Always high in carbohydrates, as it should be for endurance athletes. Pasta or rice, with various sauces. “I’ve been a vegetarian for three months. But I haven’t noticed the training effect yet.” He is by conviction and has read that meat requires a lot of energy in the body when it is digested. In the long term, not eating meat should have positive effects. “Jan Frodeno, the three-time world champion, said that. I look up to him,” explains Justus.

This year everything is a little more relaxed because he is in the upper grades at the grammar school. “In elite sports schools, you do the upper school over three years instead of two, which means you have fewer exams,” he explains. But the day is still long, and learning often takes place until 9 p.m. One advantage of the upper level: Tuesday is no school. But Justus Oeckl uses the little free time with his friends at the boarding school. “I didn’t take the Playstation with me to Nuremberg because I don’t have time to gamble anyway. It stayed in Amberg.” 35 young athletes are accommodated in the “House of Athletes”: triathletes, badminton players, golfers, cyclists, wrestlers and basketball players.

His diligence in training – not only since he was in Nuremberg – has paid off, among other things he reached 8th place in the overall ranking of 60 participants in the 2021 German triathlon triathlon championship, in the 2005 class this even meant 4th place. The Bayern team with Moritz Göttler (born 2004), Ben Kaufmann (2005) and Justus Oeckl (2005) won the day ahead of Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia. The reward for these successes: I was recently appointed to the national triathlon squad, the German national team, so to speak. There are three age groups here, Justus Oeckl belongs to age group A, one of eleven triathlon talents from all over Germany born in 2004 and 2005. There are a total of 25 girls and boys in all three age groups.

Destination Hawaii

His goal: Hawaii, the world championship in Ironman. 3.8 kilometers swimming, 180 km on the bike, then a marathon over 42.2 km. To where his father first went at the age of 19. Justus wants to focus on the short distance first: swimming 750 meters, cycling 20 kilometers, running 5 kilometers. “I don’t want to switch to the long distance until I am in my early to mid-30s. If you start too early, you lose your basic speed, you first need a good foundation.” He receives it in the “House of Sports”.

“I didn’t take the Playstation with me to Nuremberg because I don’t have time to gamble anyway. It stayed in Amberg.”

Justus Oeckl