Kim Lea Müller didn’t know the answer at first. The first German medalist at the European Championships was asked whether she was a professional. The 20-year-old laughed shyly and said quietly: “Maybe now? But I would say no.” Of course she is in the national squad of BMX freestyle riders, and yes, the scope of training is correspondingly large. Back flips with the BMX bike should also be properly trained. In October she will start at the World Championships in Abu Dhabi, followed by a World Cup in Australia, and then the qualifying phase for the Olympic Games in Paris begins, where BMX is once again an integral part of the competition program. All of this sounds like a professional competitive athlete.
National coach Tobias Wicke defines professionals as those athletes who can make a living from their sport. And after her second place at the European Championships, he found that Kim Lea Müller was at least well on the way there: “You can work with silver at the European Championships.” Wicke was also somewhat speechless, because he hadn’t expected this success. Müller still had the competition at the Munich Mash in June best trick won, but this is an invitational event where the show plays a big role. After her success, Müller said that she was still in awe of the world leaders at World Cups, and on Friday afternoon she landed in front of 6,000 spectators in the middle of the same.
Already in the first of her two runs she had indicated that she was to be reckoned with, of course also because all three favorites had made a mistake. English Olympic champion Charlotte Worthington slipped off the pedal and fell on landing after a double spin high in the air, while defending champion Nikita Ducarroz suffered the same mishap during a backflip. Because both of them took risks again in the second run and had to get off their bikes again due to their maximum difficulties, the way was clear for the supposed outsiders. The title was won by the only 16-year-old Iveta Miculyčová from the Czech Republic, while Laury Perez from France secured bronze.
There’s the thing: Kim Lea Müller with her EM trophy.
(Photo: Eibner/Imago)
Lara Lessmann, who came second in the last two European Championships, was also highly valued, especially as she entered the final in third place behind the two top favourites. The 22-year-old Berliner by choice, who, unlike teammate Müller, clearly has the status of a professional driver, finished both runs without a fall. But her nerves played a trick on her, the duck in front of the home crowd was obviously too big. In addition, she was the only top rider who did without the backflip – and after third place in the first run, she fell back to the thankless fourth place.
“I actually only intended to have fun in the competition, a medal was never my goal.”
The disappointment was so great that she left frustrated and unnoticed, the national coach took over the explanation for the failure: “You don’t have to talk about a low now, Lara is one of the best drivers in the world, I think maybe her requirements were too big on herself. We will build her up again now and she will rock the next competitions again,” he’s not worried. “Rebecca Gruhn, the third German to make it to the final, was on the other hand with her seventh place satisfied: “I had fun and showed what I set out to do. Couldn’t do more.”
What Kim Lea Müller could also say about herself: “I actually only intended to have fun in the competition, a medal was never my goal.” But she managed the second run perfectly: Everything was exactly how I wanted it to be. It was such a cool event, cheering on the many spectators, the cool location here on the Olympiaberg, I don’t even know what to say.” National coach Wicke did, he thought it might have been an advantage that Müller was not on the list, but he already knew what the “shy and cheerful” Oldenburg native was capable of: “She can do a lot more, she will definitely show that in the future.” But then as a professional.