The frame was celebratory in spring, they had occupied the Gothic ballroom of the old Munich town hall, looked forward together to the upcoming World Cup season – and of course also back to the European Championships in the Olympic Stadium last summer, this unforgettable experience for Munich athletics. At that time, too, the LG Stadtwerke München got in the mood for the season with such a gala, the first Munich Athletics Night, so now, because of the great success, they had a second gala to follow. And Katharina Trost, lilac-colored dress, high heels, used the festive setting to mark out her personal frame for the summer: “I really want to go to Budapest,” she said several times almost verbatim into different microphones, “I’ve never been to Budapest. “
The Danube metropolis with its magnificent buildings is of course always worth seeing, but Trost, the middle-distance runner from Piding in Berchtesgadener Land, wanted above all to go to the World Championships. It begins this Saturday, however: without Katharina Trost. Although the 28-year-old had qualified and had hoped that she would make it to the final at a World Cup, a few days before the start she had joined an illustrious group of failures within the DLV squad . Not because of an injury, but because of suspected chickenpox infection, as reported by the association.
The suspicion was quickly confirmed. After the first symptoms last weekend, Trost was initially very depressed because she suspected what all this would lead to – and then the illness knocked her out even more thoroughly: headaches and body aches, blisters all over the body, the full program. On Friday she sounded a little more cheerful, but clearly: the disappointment was of course huge, she said. The season is over for her and it will definitely be “really tough” again, she said, watching the 1500-meter heat from Budapest on TV.
In spring, Trost was still the focus in the Old Town Hall, she was one of only three local heroes at the previous home European Championships in Munich, she had reached the final, as had high jumper Tobias Potye, who won silver, and her long-term training partner Christina Hering, who switched to a Berlin training group after the European Championships and stayed away from the gala because of a training camp.
The summer is now ending without her – and Trost has to make a decision
Trost had a very different kind of stress these days. She was just a few days away from a double teaching test for the second state examination, the most important part of her teacher training. This part of her vita clearly distinguishes her from most of her sports colleagues. Her entire indoor season, she said, lasted only two days, by which she meant her participation in the German indoor championships in February, before which she didn’t know exactly where she was in terms of sport – and where she defended her title. Her double burden, she said after winning the title, was tough. A training camp (with some study for the oral exams) followed over the Easter holidays, beginning their build-up for the summer.
Consolation then found it quite well. At the beginning of July she also won the title over 1500 meters at the German outdoor championships, shortly afterwards she made the Olympic norm for the high-class support program for the Diamond League meeting in Chorzow with a time of 4:02.32 minutes in addition to the World Championships Paris 2024 – and improved her own Bavarian record.
You have to call it at least astonishing, after all, a class teacher is part of the second year of traineeship for prospective primary school teachers in Bavaria, and afterwards she was somewhat surprised to discover that such a school year with this responsibility does not gradually creep into the holidays, but until the last day stress. This World Cup would have been all the more convenient for her, in the middle of the holidays, with some time to switch off from work and clear her head for sport. And now?
She is currently dealing with this question. She only looks from year to year, she said that in the spring: “Let’s see how the summer goes.” She has competed in seven competitions, but now, at its peak, the summer is running without her. And the burden will not decrease in the future, on the contrary: Because she also enjoys the job as a teacher, she will start the new school year with a full-time position, she announced back then – which is only part of the truth.
The options left to her are both hard to imagine
Athletics, which is also one of the points, is only suitable to a very limited extent for securing a living in Germany. And her efforts to get a part-time job for the coming year have so far been unsuccessful. Something like that is not planned if you don’t have children, she learned. You probably can’t blame anyone for that, the number of active Olympic athletes in school service should be of a manageable size. “I’m also aware that I’m an exceptional case,” says Trost, “but I was hoping that maybe something could be done with an Olympic standard.” Welcome to German high-performance sport.
Both options that Katharina Trost now have can only be put together with a lot of imagination to create a realistic scenario: Should she – option one – actually try to compete as an ambitious amateur runner in Paris in 2024? Or, alternatively, seriously retire now, at 28 with the norm for your second Olympics under your belt? She will evaluate all of this thoroughly, she says, after the chickenpox in Budapest. The International Olympic Committee was kind enough to ensure that the track and field competitions in Paris didn’t start until after the start of the Bavarian vacation, even if only by a few days. But the Olympic Games as a holiday program?
She would have liked to show what she’s capable of in Budapest, she says, and that sounds a lot like the idea of ending her career in her sickbed isn’t exactly the one she prefers. On the other hand, she found that the past two years had been very strenuous. By the way, she’s already been to Paris. Several times. But still worth seeing.
