Her road to success began in Potsdam

Potsdam. Yvonne Bönisch is still firmly connected to her home country, to her roots. Therefore, the Brandenburg native also supports her former club UJKC Potsdam. As Austria’s head judo coach, she introduced her Olympic bronze medalist from the Alpine Republic, Shamil Borchashvili, to the Potsdamers for this Bundesliga season. He gained competition practice when he was third in the northern relay. From Thursday, Bönisch will send him and the other top Austrian protégés to the start at the World Championships in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent.

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The 41-year-old had become an icon on the mat herself. She won two silver medals at the European and World Championships and, crowning her career, won gold in Athens in 2004 – making Bönisch Germany’s only judo Olympic champion to this day. But the native of Ludwigsfeld has long since made a name for herself on the edge of the mat – above all through her commitment outside of Germany.

“We managed a sensational coup with her”

Since the beginning of 2021, Bönisch has been the female head coach for both women and men in Austria, which means that she plays a pioneering role in the judo world. “We managed a sensational coup with her,” says the President of the Austrian Judo Association (ÖJV), Martin Poiger. In a very short time, a storm of success was achieved under her leadership: two Olympic medals, as well as a podium place at the World and European Championships. Previously, the ÖJV had waited eleven years for a World Cup medal, at the Olympics even 13 years. The “Wiener Zeitung” dubbed her the “mother of success”. Bönisch himself is modest, doesn’t like the hustle and bustle of the media, and doesn’t greedily follow every interview request. She prefers to focus on the assets rather than herself. ÖJV sports director Markus Moser nevertheless emphasizes to the MAZ that the successes in 2021 – including eight medals at the military world championships – had exceeded all expectations and that Bönisch made the difference in development.

In the vote for the 2021 coach personality in Austria, she was among the top 3. In addition, the World Judo Federation IJF nominated her as Coach of the Year alongside four colleagues.

Criticism that Bönisch works abroad

Immediately after the end of her career as an active player in 2009, Bönisch turned to a career as a trainer, and she also trained extensively in sports management and prevention. She formed talents in Potsdam before the unrest caused by the forced reform of top-class sports in Germany made her think. Brandenburg threatened to fall out of the federal judo base system. So she left in 2017. Not just from the Mark, but entirely from Germany, where she had missed the perspective. Export of an expert. It is a sign of inadequacy for German sport when a top coach like her is not kept, many in the scene had criticized. Today it is criticized that they have not been brought back for a long time.

Initially, Bönisch looked after the women of the national team in Israel and was able to record one bronze medal at the European Championships and two silver medals at the U21 World Championships. The fact that Israel, like Germany, won bronze in the team competition at the Olympic Games in Tokyo was also a harvest that she at least helped to seed. At the time of the summer games, which were postponed by a year due to the pandemic, Bönisch was already Austria’s head coach. Giving up the job in Israel before the Olympic mission was completed was not easy for her, she told the “Wiener Zeitung”. Despite this, there was no hesitation in accepting the offer. “You don’t get a challenge like that very often.”

Consistent, assertive and principled

Her aspiration has always been to face up to this. As an athlete with a weight limit of up to 57 kilograms, Bönisch was consistent and assertive, and at the same time principled in her actions, as she proved in 2008 when she boycotted the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing in protest against China’s Tibet policy. All qualities that she also embodies in her role as a trainer. “She is the ideal person for the ÖJV head coach job, both professionally and personally,” says Association President Poiger of the MAZ. He lists goal-oriented, analytical, communicative and passionate as qualities. “As an Olympic champion, she knows exactly what she’s talking about. She is the perfect trainer for me,” said Borchashvili, who won bronze in the 81kg category in Tokyo. And Michaela Pollers, Olympic silver medalist in the limit of up to 70 kilos, says: “She always manages to combine hard training and fun.”

There has been a lot of hard training in the past five months. After all, this year’s European Championship without winning a medal was the first major setback in Bönisch’s time in Austria. The World Cup is the highlight of the season, “then the accounts will be settled,” the head coach then confirmed to ORF. Typical Yvonne Bönisch, always combative.