DLV star hopes for Rome and Paris
Mama Krause is chasing the Olympic ticket with running Lola
April 26, 2024, 5:45 p.m
Gesa Krause is already a two-time European champion and has reached the finals of the Olympic Games three times – and that’s exactly where she wants to go back now. Before her first 3,000 meter obstacle race after the birth of her daughter, the track and field star was optimistic.
Lola runs. Gesa Felicitas Krause’s little daughter is now already running fast. A year after birth, the mother is now making her big obstacle comeback – after 645 days she will be back at the starting line on her favorite route for the first time on Saturday. And wants to pick up the pace for her Olympic dream.
“I would like to be in the top eight in the Olympic final. And of course the dream is a medal. But that is very difficult to achieve. I know that too,” Krause said recently. But the 31-year-old is known to be a fighter at the Diamond League meeting in Suzhou, China (from 1 p.m. CEST/Sky) The mission should now begin properly. Because: “The first step is the norm,” said Krause, who competed in her last race over the obstacles at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene. And the required time for the games in Paris (July 26th to August 11th) is quite impressive at 9:23.00 minutes.
Krause recently fought for her dream at the training camp in South Africa, and Lola was also there. “She’s doing everything really well. The flights and traveling are also going really well,” said Krause, one of the figureheads of the German Athletics Association (DLV). Your days are meticulously planned. There is no other way to cope with everyday life as a young mother and Olympic athlete. She was in the Olympic finals in London in 2012, in Rio Janeiro in 2016 and in Tokyo in 2021, and she now wants to go back there as a mother.
“I think, primarily, you have to want it. And then you just have to create the setup so that you can manage it reasonably well,” said Krause, who is starting in China together with her training colleague and U23 European champion Olivia Gürth: “My secret recipe I always go to bed with the little one as early as possible. Then I have interruptions, but I get enough hours of sleep so far. I have help to look after the little one when I’m training “It doesn’t work at all. We’re very well organized.”
The two-time European champion and former World Cup bronze medalist has until the end of June to break the Olympic standard or qualify for Paris via the world rankings. The European Championships in Rome (June 7th to 12th, standard: 9:37.00 minutes) are also on the agenda beforehand. But the really, really big goal this year is the obstacle final on August 6th in the Stade de France, then Lola should also be there. “A medal is a dream, but there are many other steps that have to be completed beforehand,” said Krause. The obstacle comeback after 645 days is the first of these.