I was able to fulfil my dream of the Olympics

I didn't learn to swim until I was 20 and did my first triathlon after trying tennis, skiing, volleyball, badminton and many other sports as a kid. When I was studying sports science at the Technical University of Munich, I met Dan Lorang as a fellow student, who offered me to write training plans to see whether he could improve my performance. By consistently working with him, I continuously improved every year. After completing my studies, I decided to take the risk of becoming a professional triathlete and achieved numerous titles and podium placements in the sprint and Olympic distance. In 2012 I was able to fulfil my dream of the Olympics and became vice world champion. In 2013 the world championship bronze medal on the short distance and the team world champion title followed. In 2016 I managed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio again. In 2017 I dared to jump over the longer distances and was able to finish my first 70.3 race victoriously. This was followed by further podium placements and in 2018 the bronze medal at my first 70.3 World Championships. In 2018, I celebrated my long-distance premiere with 4th place at the Ironman European Championships in Frankfurt and immediately qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. As a rookie, I was able to win the bronze medal there. 2019 was initially characterised by massive injury problems and running training was not possible for over 6 months. At the Ironman Copenhagen, which I had to complete for my qualification for Hawaii, I surprisingly finished victorious with a new course record and a German record in 8:31:32 hours. The highlight followed in October when I was the first German woman to win the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. In the crisis year 2020, I was able to win the vice world champion title at the PTO CHAMPIONSHIP 2020 as part of the Challenge Daytona despite a 2-minute time penalty. As a native of Bayreuth, I have been training at the Olympic base in Saarbrücken or at Club La Santa on Lanzarote since 2013.

Anne Haug