Sarah Wellbrock: From the swimming pool to the courtroom

This day in November began like every single morning in her old life. Although “back then” was just a few months ago. But there are worlds in between. After Sarah Wellbrock dived into the chlorine water of the swimming pool in Magdeburg that morning and later got out of the pool, she said: “It feels strange.” No training plan that she followed strictly, no trainer giving instructions at the edge of the pool, no inner whip driving them. And: no contact lenses in her eyes, thanks to which she could previously see the seconds clock on the edge of the pool.

“I don’t see my times – and that’s okay. This means I don’t have any internal stress,” says Wellbrock. Just swimming for the sake of exercise – that was a change at first and not easy. “There is still a bit of sadness, even recently when the World Cups took place. But I don’t want to go back.”

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Sarah Wellbrock, who was a Köhler before marrying open water Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock, was Germany’s model swimmer for years. The hopes in the female field at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo rested on her alone – she withstood the pressure and won bronze. And it shouldn’t be the end by any means, coach Bernd Berkhahn still saw a lot of potential, everything was geared towards the 2024 Games in Paris. Everything? Not quite. Wellbrock had been studying law for a long time and was now focusing on his first state exam. That’s exactly what made the sporting drama that hardly anyone knew about easier for her: pain forced her to end her career in June. Tears flowed. Even after that. Now she is pursuing other goals.

Sleepless from pain – then the bronze in Tokyo

Review of summer 2021, Tokyo. At this point, it has been 13 years since a member of the German national swimming team, Britta Steffen, last stood on the Olympic podium. The Berliner won double gold in Beijing. When Wellbrock finally reached the final of the 1500 meter freestyle in a German record time of 15:42.91 minutes, she ended this dry spell. She sheds tears of happiness and relief.

At the goal of her dreams: Sarah Wellbrock raises her fist to the ceiling of the hall after the Olympic final over 1500 meters

Quelle: picture alliance/dpa

“Winning an Olympic medal was always my childhood dream,” said Wellbrock. She had already won European Championship gold over this distance in 2017, then World Cup silver in 2019. She also held the short course world record and celebrated a World Cup title with the open water relay. Olympic bronze was the crowning achievement. It goes without saying that success at this level is hard-won, but even her coach didn’t know how hard it was for Wellbrock at the time.

After the Olympic medal she so longed for, the emotions burst out of her

Quelle: picture alliance/dpa

Even during the preparation for the Olympics, she was plagued by pain in both shoulders. Doctor visits, injections, physiotherapy, osteopathy – she tried everything. It provided relief, but the training load and was too great for it to truly heal. “The worst thing, especially before Tokyo, was that I couldn’t sleep at night or woke up because of the pain,” she says. “It’s very psychological.”

Even Berkhahn didn’t know exactly how hard she gritted her teeth. “Because I really wanted to have this medal,” explains Wellbrock and adds: “That definitely wasn’t smart.” But after Tokyo, when the training was supposed to continue, she had to tell her coach: It’s no longer possible. “I should have said something much earlier, but when the Olympic Games are around the corner you don’t want to be left out.”

A decision of reason rather than of the heart

Everything was inflamed, the entire joint, the tendons, the bursa, and water in the bone. Rest and therapy helped, but the strain that soon began again caused inflammation to occur again and again because her tendons were torn. Wellbrock took herself out, took her first state exam, then continued trying in the water – and in June she made the decision to end her career. Her body couldn’t handle it anymore. And: “I don’t want to live in pain for the rest of my life.” A decision of reason, less of the heart, and a decision that resulted in many tears.

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“When I finally said it out loud to Flo, it was also a relief,” she says looking back. “In the end, when everyone knew it, a burden was lifted from me, even if there were one or two emotional moments afterwards.” The World Championships in the summer, when she saw her husband, former team members and the competition fighting for medals, brought her many a flashback.

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“But it’s okay now. “I don’t regret anything,” she says. Nor the missed opportunity for another Olympic medal. “I have one. And the health risk was too high for me, so it wasn’t worth it to me. In my opinion, I did everything I could have done and I achieved everything.”

And then these flashes of thought came

Wellbrock is at peace with himself and his completed career, even if it was a forced end and not easy at the beginning. Her shoulders are slowly recovering and she can now cope with everyday life without any pain. Swimming in a relaxed manner – sometimes once, a maximum of twice a week – also works, but crawling too fast, too much or with large paddles wouldn’t be a good idea. “It still takes much, much longer until everything has completely regenerated,” says Wellbrock, who keeps herself in shape with short runs and in the gym. “But I can do anything.”

That’s the main reason why she doesn’t regret her decision at all, even though the question arose at the beginning as to whether she should start again. “Those were little lightning bolts that shot into my head. But then I immediately thought: No, I actually don’t want to do that anymore,” she says.

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There was a reason for these flashes: after Wellbrock quit, she took time for herself, visited friends, and went on vacation with her husband. She couldn’t do anything during her studies at the moment because the state exam was over and her traineeship wasn’t due to start until September. Finally free time, you might think. Or: When is the waiting finally over? “At times I thought: ‘Now something new could start, I need something to do, a challenge,’” she says. And then these flashes came. “In retrospect, I think,” she says with a laugh, “that a little time without stress is actually okay.”

Today: More freedom, despite a high workload

For 18 years, sport determined her everyday life, defined her goals and clearly structured every day. Suddenly that stopped – a change that took some time. But now she is well into the middle of her new everyday life, which doesn’t give her more free time than the life of an athlete, but does give her more freedom. For her two-year legal traineeship, she is employed at the Higher Regional Court of Saxony-Anhalt, assigned to the regional court in Magdeburg and completes individual training at a district court.

The 29-year-old is also completing a master’s degree as a certified mediator at the Open University in Hagen. And later? “I could imagine becoming a judge,” she says. “But there are a lot of things you can do with your degree outside of the traditional legal professions.”

Power couple of German swimming: Sarah and Florian Wellbrock

Quelle: picture alliance / Geisler-Fotopress

A decent workload that Wellbrock has taken on herself – although she doesn’t see it as a burden herself. Nor that the weekends are now filled with seminars or file work instead of training. “Things have to be done,” she says, “but I have much more freedom in how I spend my time.” Going on a skiing holiday? Wouldn’t have been possible before because it would have been in the middle of the preparation period. In the evening at a wine festival with friends – like recently? Impossibly earlier, there was training the next morning. Today she treats herself to something like that.

Her husband then stays at home; after winning the Olympics in Tokyo, his big goal is to be successful in Paris too. The two of them enjoy going out to eat together, but he forgoes other things. But this does not create a reason for disagreement. “But I don’t think he’s jealous, he doesn’t want to swap either,” she says. “And I’m the last person who doesn’t understand that.” Once an athlete, always an athlete. Sarah Wellbrock’s approach to challenges hasn’t changed either. “The ambition I had in sport,” she says, “definitely spilled over into my studies.” Anyone who wants to become a judge needs exactly this ambition.

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