They were unusual pictures: Florian Wellbrock, Olympic champion over ten kilometers, finished distantly behind in 29th place over the same route at the World Championships in Doha in February. The five-kilometer race, also one of his parade routes, went only slightly better. Then the lead-out in the pool over 800 meters before he brought a sigh of relief with silver over 1500 meters. And of all things in the Olympic year. One factor for the open water result was quickly identified: the harbor basin, which was cold at 19.9 degrees Celsius. As of today, the 26-year-old will be in the spotlight once in the hall: at the German Championships in Berlin – and he took time for a detailed conversation beforehand.
WELT: Mr. Wellbrock, how many ice baths have you taken in the past few weeks?
Florian Wellbrock: A lot – often three, sometimes four ice baths per week. But I have to admit that I’m still not a fan of it. In Magdeburg we have an ice basin in which there is no physical ice, but the water is cooled down by a generator. At the altitude training camp in Spain, where we were in March and will be again before the Olympic Games in Paris, we use a pool into which you simply run cold water and then pour bucketfuls of ice into it. I can really imagine something nicer, but there’s a reason for it.
WELT: Namely, getting used to cold water, because the temperatures in Doha were giving you problems. You had certainly prepared for this, right?
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Wellbrock: Sure, I had taken ice baths before and tried to get used to cold water, but more sporadically and nowhere near as intensively as we’ve been doing since Doha. Now let’s see that routine and regularity come in. I usually stay in the cold water for two to three minutes, then I briefly go into the warm water and then back in again. Then I’m served…
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WELT: Let’s look back. Not just in one, but in several major events, your frustration and joy were closely linked. You can’t do it with a little less drama, can you?
Wellbrock: Actually I don’t have to have that, but apparently it can’t be avoided somehow. On the one hand, of course, I wish it were different, but looking back, I always find it interesting to see how close frustration and joy can be. It’s also part of sport. When you look back at the big picture at some point, your career may look great and successful, but I think every athlete has fallen on their face at some point – and that’s probably a good thing.
WELT: However, your ups and downs within a competition were extreme: between triumph and elimination, between being at the top and being left behind. What was new at the World Championships in Doha was that you experienced a debacle in the open water. How did you perceive it when the collapse came in the ten-kilometer race?
Wellbrock: I noticed at mile six or seven that something wasn’t going according to plan. At kilometer eight I was completely exhausted with my physical strength and noticed from move to move how the others were swimming away, how I was completely powerless and had no control at all.
WELT: As an Olympic champion, how do you deal with something like that in the middle of a race?
Wellbrock: In a way, I stopped running because I realized: ‘The body can’t. And I can’t do anything here anymore.’ It was just a matter of swimming to the end and not breaking off. Because that would be out of the question.
Guarantee of success who recently stumbled: Where is Florian Wellbrock on the way to Paris?
Those: picture alliance / Laci Perenyi
WELT: On site they cited the temperatures and the choppy water as the cause. With some distance – will it stay the same or will something be added?
Wellbrock: With more analysis and distance, I can still say that it was mainly environmental conditions. This is open water swimming and you have to be prepared for everything. Unfortunately, cold and waves are the two factors that don’t really suit me. And when the two come together, it’s a deadly combination for me in terms of sport. On competition days like this you have to admit defeat in the moment and then work to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
WELT: So no worries about Paris, where the Seine should at least be flat but not warm?
Wellbrock: You can definitely rule out waves, which is a good thing. And I’m working on adapting to the cold – so to answer your question: No, don’t worry about Paris. Doha was a lesson to me. I just have to make sure I can cope with slightly fresher conditions. I also hope that it won’t be so cold in Paris in midsummer. Nevertheless, we will probably have water temperatures somewhere around 22 degrees, which would be two or three degrees more than in Doha. And if the outside temperature is a little higher than in Doha, then that’s a lot better for me. It is also worth considering increasing your weight a little to have more fat deposits.
WELT: Can’t that be a risk, even if it’s just a slight weight gain? After all, you also have cymbal competitions and little time until Paris to test it out.
Wellbrock: I didn’t mean to say that I should add a few kilograms, it would really only be one kilogram.
WELT: Where is your body fat percentage?
Wellbrock: When I’m in top shape during competitions, I have a body fat percentage of eight to nine percent. If I go up to eleven or twelve percent, that might make a difference, but I wouldn’t go from 77 to 83 kilograms so that I might start freezing a little later.
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WELT: Back to the open water disappointment of Doha over ten kilometers. How did you deal with it afterwards and how does that help Paris?
Wellbrock: The disappointment was initially great, no question. But I just kept going. I could have also said: ‘After the disappointing ten kilometers, I won’t swim the five kilometers again because I don’t feel like falling on my face again.’ But that’s not my mentality, not my approach. I wanted to take on the challenge again – especially with the idea that the water in Paris could also be a little fresher. So I went back in and faced the difficult conditions.
WELT: Things went a little better. Then you went into the pool – and you were eliminated in the 800 meter heat. Matter of mind?
Wellbrock: I have to admit, I didn’t talk to my coach about the 800 at all. I’m actually still having a bit of a hard time with the route, for example when it comes to the race division. In the 1500 meters I have a really good feeling about what I have to do, but I don’t have that in the 800. I could use another tutoring session.
WELT: Was there any consideration of omitting the 1500 meters in order to avoid the risk of disappointment in Doha for the fourth time – so shortly before the Olympics?
Wellbrock: No not at all. Even if I had missed the final again in the 1500 meters, I would have somehow managed to draw a meaningful conclusion from four disappointments. It really would have been against my nature not to compete. If I plan to make four starts at a world championship, if my health allows it and I don’t take any unnecessary risks, then I’ll go through with it. Come what may. The fact that I managed to get this time and silver in the end was of course a confirmation and extremely important for me.
World champion, Olympic bronze medalist and recently runner-up at the World Championships: the 1500 meters suits him
Those: picture alliance / Laci Perenyi
WELT: How did you flip the switch? In 2019, you managed to do this after the 800-meter heat by stepping back and writing everything down.
Wellbrock: I withdrew this time too, and apart from that I just carried on. That’s how simple it sounds. I’m not at all a fan of saying: ‘It didn’t work today, then it won’t work tomorrow either. Or: Then I’ll let the other one be better.’ It doesn’t matter whether it’s about sport or something else. Tomorrow is a new day, a new opportunity. Everything is open again. You can try anything and then see what comes out.
WELT: That sounds so simple – but for many people the implementation is not.
Wellbrock: Of course, this is something I have learned over the years. I learned that it makes sense to act the same way and have proven this to myself again and again. I see a lot of parallels to my father. Although he has never competed at a world-class level, he comes from cycling, from very ambitious popular sports. And he thinks in all situations and circumstances in the same way as I just described. Get up, straighten and move on. That shaped me. And Doha has once again proven me right that this approach is correct. That giving up is never an option – and I certainly learned that from my father.
WELT: Her parents will be there at the games in Paris. The medal fight will be tough. How has the top changed in open water and over the long pool competitions?
Wellbrock: There has been little development, particularly on long-haul routes, in recent years, but a gap has now closed. Of course that makes it much trickier and harder to win medals, but I’m glad it’s happening because it makes the sport more interesting. The 1500 meter race at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka was the most exciting in a long time. And that happens when there are several people swimming head-to-head with almost world records. The days when Paltrinieri simply jumped into the water and won his gold medal, as he did in 2015, are over. And that’s also the case in open water, even if the ten kilometers are still a bit behind in comparison, but there too the level has increased significantly in width.
