Sports discus Olympic champion
Harting reveals depression – “It was an absolute mental breakdown”
Status: 06.07.2023 | Reading time: 2 minutes
Christoph Harting had to take a long break from competition because of his depression
Source: pa/dpa/Michael Kappeler
In an interview, Christoph Harting speaks openly about depression. The discus Olympic champion gives depressing insights into his illness. Now the 33-year-old wants to return to the discus ring.
Christoph Harting has spoken openly about his depression and announced a return to competitive sports. “I had to pull the ripcord. It was an absolute mental breakdown. I was in the clinic, received psychotherapeutic and psychological care, and medication was used,” said the 33-year-old discus Olympic champion of the “Berliner Zeitung”, “nobody is immune to it.” After his break of a year and a half, Harting is now aiming participation in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The Rio 2016 gold medalist did not have his own home after separating from his wife from April 2021 to August 2022. In addition, he had been removed from the performance squad. “Sport was the only thing that still gave my everyday life some structure – but on a level that you can’t call competitive sport,” said Harting.
Despite the reconciliation with his brother Robert shortly before, the relationship between the two athletes was still too distant to move into quarters with the Olympic champion in London in 2012. “He would probably have allowed it if I had asked, but I was still too proud to ask,” said Christoph Harting. He has been a squad athlete again since the middle of last year. On Sunday he would like to move into the final of the discus thrower at the German Athletics Championships.
Christoph Harting at an event in June. The 33-year-old wants to go to the Olympics in Paris
Credit: pa/CHROMORANGE/Axel Kammerer
With a best distance of 63.22 meters this year, Harting does not expect to start at the World Championships in Athletics, which will be held in Budapest from August 19th to 27th. That is “unrealistic. The norm is 67 meters. There are still four meters to go,” said Harting.
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“For me, a World Cup is unlikely, which is a shame because I would like to be there because it’s in the body. But it doesn’t come out in daily work,” said Harting. He wants to keep looking ahead. “That’s why I focus on the long term: the goal is Paris 2024. The coach says we’re right on schedule. But then I get impatient: I want to do something this year too. That is in conflict right now.”
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