Lilli Schwarzkopf on way to win in Ratingen (© Getty Images)
Finishing eighth in Beijing was not quite what she had hoped for but next year’s World Championships have more or less the same significance as the Olympic Games for Lilli Schwarzkopf. This is because they will be staged in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. So it will be a home game for Schwarzkopf and all the German athletes. It is the ideal chance to make up for any Beijing disappointment.
Travelling posse of fans
The support for the home athletes will be enormous but hardly anyone will get the sort of extra attention that Schwarzkopf will receive. With the exception of far away countries where and whenever the 25-year-old heptathlete competes, it cannot be overstated because Schwarzkopf has her personal fan group accompanying her.
Dozens of people dressed in special shirts and with caps start shouting ‘Lilli, Lilli’ supported by drummers when she appears at a run-up or prepares for the start of a race. While Beijing was too far away for the supporters Berlin will be just around a four hour bus trip for them.
Schwarzkopf lives in the village of Siebenstern, which is in central Germany near Paderborn and has less than 500 inhabitants. In the past the production of glass was what Siebensterners were most proud of. But for a couple of years now they have also boosted the best German heptathlete. With international success Schwarzkopf has become the most prominent person in the local area.
Dancing her first love; coach is her father
As a child, dancing was the favourite hobby of Schwarzkopf and it is still something she likes doing in her spare time today. At the age of 14 she then turned to athletics and to the multiple events. This was somehow an obvious choice since her father Reinhold was a decathlete. He took over as a coach and still guides her today.
“If I am asked if it is not somehow strange that my dad is my coach as well I answer: No one knows me better than my father. I know that I can absolutely rely on him and that pays off year by year,” explains Schwarzkopf.
As an 18 year-old she started her international career very well, taking fifth place in the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. Two years later she took the national championship at senior level for the first time and broke the 6000 points mark with 6161. In 2005 she was second at the European Junior Championships in Erfurt (U20). Additionally, Schwarzkopf qualified for a major championship at senior level for the first time: At the World Championships she was 13th.
Already one year later she took a surprising bronze medal at the European Championships in Gothenburg with a fine improvement to 6420 points. That was followed by a fifth place in the World Championships in 2007 and her eighth position in the Olympic Heptathlon this summer.
Travel to China or too intense national qualification the problem?
“It was not as good as I had hoped. I am disappointed with my points’ score since I know I am able to do much better,” said Schwarzkopf, who had to be content with 6,379 points in Beijing.
Earlier in the season, when she had won the IAAF Combined Event Challenge Meeting in Ratingen for the second time in a row, improving her personal best to 6536 (scoring above 6500 for the first time).
“These were my first Olympics. So I have to learn from that and do better at next year’s World Championships in Berlin,” said Schwarzkopf, who has personal bests of 13.50 (110m H), 1.83 (HJ), 14.61 (SP/14.83 indoor), 24.78 (200m), 6.34 (LJ/6.35 indoor), 54.81 (JT) and 2:09.63 (800m).
Schwarzkopf says that she did not feel at full strength in Beijing. As with other German athletes she partly blamed the national federation’s training camp in Japan. It was from there, where the athletes travelled to Beijing a couple of days before competition. And it took them up to day of travelling to the Olympics.
“You constantly had to adapt to the situation and because of this some tension got lost and some strength was missing in the end.”
“With her Ratingen score she would have taken fourth place in Beijing. But for some reason she and the other German heptathletes were not able to push themselves enough at the Olympics,” says Klaus Baarck, the national coach for the Heptathlon.
“I am not sure if this has to do with the day they had to travel from Japan to China. I assume that one factor probably was the hard qualification for Beijing, which has to do with the tough national competition. Lilli and the others had to give everything in Ratingen. And after that it is difficult to build up for the actual highlight of the season,” explained Baarck.
Room for improvement - speed endurance
But the national coach believes that Schwarzkopf, who is a sports student and competes for her local club LC Paderborn, has the potential to further improve in the future.
“She can definitely improve her speed endurance. And if she gets faster in the 200 metres then she will also be better in the Long Jump,” said Klaus Baarck. “So I think 6,600 points are possible for her next year. To be in for a medal she will have to get more stable in regions of 6,500 to 6,600 points.”
He describes her as an athlete who is robust and able to stand high training loads. So if she remains healthy Schwarzkopf could well delight her fans in Berlin next summer.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
