Since her resignation on Wednesday it has been clear: It will be Laurien van der Graaff’s (34) last season. But the Davos woman does not know in what form she will go into her last winter.
The reason: a corona shock in summer. Van der Graaff: «I lost a month in August because of Corona. But I still feel it now and then. It is therefore a little difficult for me to say where I am at the moment. “
It happened in the summer training camp in Livigno, Italy. The vice world champion in the team sprint is infected. “I had a hard time getting back into training afterwards,” says the Davos native with Dutch roots. But she bites her way. She continues to train in August and September and also takes part in various roller ski races.
“After good days you get tired”
“I got back in and then drove the races, even though I wasn’t in the necessary shape,” she says. Van der Graaff’s plan for this phase, which of course was discussed with the doctors: not to let too much training time pass with a view to the winter. She says about the last few weeks: “I have good days, but then the next day I am very tired. But whether it is really still due to Corona is difficult to say. “
Symptoms that athlete Selina Rutz-Büchel (30) and Schwinger Remo Käser (24) know in a much more severe form. Both suffer from Long-Covid and missed many competitions, Rutz-Büchel even missed the Olympics.
Van der Graaff, on the other hand, will start at the end of November at the World Cup opener in Finland. Your doctors do not assume Long-Covid. On the subject of vaccinations, she says: “I recently recovered. However, together with my doctors, I am dealing intensively with this topic. “