Of course, Anna Elendt had to tell the story about the cut. The plaster next to her left eye, which she had already worn in the semifinals of this swimming world championships over 100 meters breaststroke in Budapest’s Duna Arena, was noticeable. But the 20-year-old has been given a gift that is not unimportant: the verve to just start talking about topics that would probably have left other members of the German team speechless. So:
“I was tidying up my room at home and I didn’t know that the mirror wasn’t fixed in the wall. It was just standing on a dresser, I moved the dresser and then the mirror fell in my face. Laceration on Monday morning.” And pretty stupid, a few days before the World Cup.
The spot still hurt on Monday evening, as Elendt admitted, but at the same time she had this silver medal dangling around her neck. With Cut on Monday evening she just won World Championship silver in 1:05.98 minutes raced, as she would put it herself, just five hundredths behind Benedetta Pilato of Italy, but ahead of the greats of their sport like World and Olympic champions Ruta Meilutyte (Lithuania, bronze) and Lilly King (USA, fourth). Secretly she must have even thought: man, if I had come a few hundredths closer to my German record from spring (1:05.58), then it would have easily been enough for gold. In any case, she had emphasized that a few days before the World Cup: that she wanted to try to get close to her best times.
Anna Elendt changed schools, lived in a swimming boarding school, graduated from high school
Elendt still didn’t struggle with silver, why should he, it’s her first precious metal at a world championship, also the second for the DSV in Budapest after second place for Lukas Märtens in the 400 meter freestyle on Saturday – and the first world championship medal on this one Stretch since Jana Dörries’ silver in Perth in 1991. For a long time it looked as if Anna Charlott Darcel Elendt – her two other first names come from the Caribbean roots of her maternal family – would be a good breaststroke swimmer, but world class?
Two men (aside from her family; parents were there live in Budapest) are involved in her rise even before she transferred to the University of Texas in 2020 to join the 25-person swim group of respected coach Carol Capitani: Alexander Kreisel of the Darmstädter Schwimm- and Water Sports Club 1912 – and Marco Koch.
Also because of cook to the German breaststroke swimmer, who was already training under Kreisel at the time, Elendt moved to Darmstadt in 2015. In the same year, Koch became world champion. “He swam series with Anna, gave her a lot of tips, that helped her a lot,” Kreisel told the SZ on Tuesday. And Elendt saw how many circumferences Koch was willing to swim. She had done gymnastics as a child and was good at coordination, but in the pool she came to Kreisel as a recreational swimmer who trained a maximum of three times a week. “We then tried to increase the volume, I already knew what was slumbering in her,” says Kreisel: “She’s a competitive type who shows no fears, and I’ve never seen someone so powerful in breaststroke.” In 2017, Anna Elendt was German short course champion over 50 meters breaststroke.
She changed schools, lived in a swimming boarding school, graduated from high school – and then went a path that led away from the German association and about which the national coach Bernd Berkhahn said before the start of the World Cup, not exactly enthusiastically: “We follow him with enthusiasm, he belongs But not to the DSV system. It shouldn’t be the case that the DSV and its national associations train swimmers who then go to the USA, come back and swim successfully at a World Cup.”
But that’s how it was with Elendt: Under Capitani she broke three German records this spring, over 50, 100 and even over the 200 meter breaststroke, which she didn’t appreciate very much because it was too long. And Elendt talks about the conditions over there in Austin that sound like paradise: “It takes four minutes to walk to the swimming pool and ten minutes maximum to the lectures, the physio is right there, the food is healthy, there are lots of vegetables at the buffet.” And in the huge training group, it is also easier to motivate yourself and get up at 5:30 a.m. for early training. The sports management and business student has just moved into her own apartment on campus with a roommate. Her parents helped her move – and buy a car. “I’m freer now,” says Elendt. And she’s training harder and more often than ever before, including on turns, which she sees as her biggest sporting flaw.
National coach Berkhan says that the training in Germany is good, “but there is a bit of a lack of being able to lead the athletes to the absolute top”. Her former trainer Kreisel replies that the athletes have to be encouraged individually. “And for Anna, this step was exactly the right one, also because of her mentality.” She radiates enormous happiness, whether at the award ceremony or before the interviews, she shows a natural self-confidence that is actually more typical of US athletes, she makes sure that the nail polish color is perfect for the bathing suit fits. But she doesn’t take herself too seriously: When she was asked after her 100-meter lead if she had heard anything about the victorious Chinese, she said: “No, but I’m not really familiar with the swimming world. “
She then approached her final very cautiously, almost losing contact with the top, but she had previously said that she would rather be the hunter than the hunted. So she gained tenths by tens, passing King and Meilutyte, and if it had been a 110m breaststroke, she would have won it.
After dinner with her parents, she was back in the water on Tuesday with the 4 x 100m medley mixed relay – and qualified for the final. Anna Elendt did not reveal later whether she looked in the mirror in the hotel room on Margaret Island, it is said that there were no other broken pieces. She just said: “I still have a lot to do.”