2024-02-19 03:11:23
Franziska van Almsick ended her swimming career 20 years ago. Now her focus is primarily on the well-being of her two sons.
Former professional swimmer Franziska van Almsick usually keeps her family out of the public eye. But now she has given a rare insight into her private life in an interview.
The two-time world champion has two sons with entrepreneur Jürgen B. Harder: 17-year-old Don Hugo and ten-year-old Mo Vito. “Seeing them every day, how they grow and how they develop and how different they are! I can’t wait to see what happens in the next ten years. And the next 20 years,” the proud mother gushed Interview with “Bild”. “I used to be asked how I imagined life at 50, but that’s no longer important because now it’s no longer about me, but about my boys.”
And they’ve gotten pretty big now. When asked about the end of her career in 2004, she revealed: “At first I didn’t notice anything about these 20 years. The time went by so quickly. I only really noticed it when my eldest son shot over my head his 1.92 m.” She added: “When I stood next to him and had to look so high, I thought I was getting old.”
“I don’t put any pressure on them”
However, she doesn’t want to train her boys to become stars: “The most important thing for me is that my children are happy and that they do what they want and that makes them happy. I don’t put any pressure on them. If one of my sons wants to do a craft apprenticeship , then he should do it. That’s cool and I’m happy to support them.”
Her older son is “incredibly gifted” musically, while her younger son has inherited his mother’s enthusiasm for sports. However: “The pandemic period has really left its mark on my little one. He is sporty, but especially at the time when you are really involved in clubs, there was a phase where everything didn’t work. That already affected us. We’re working on it,” she said. Even though she doesn’t want to put pressure on her children to succeed, she admits in the interview: “But of course I always dreamed of sitting in a stadium at some point. But you don’t always get what you want.”
Speaking of wanting: The children should decide for themselves whether they want to go out in public. “Maybe they don’t need it. Maybe they do need it. At the end of the day they’ll be 18 and know what they want,” emphasized Franziska von Almsick, who won four medals at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona at the age of 14 and became a sports star. At the moment she is “actually enjoying the fact that my children are crossing the street unrecognized and leading their own lives.” So it is unlikely that van Almsick will appear at her next big appearance accompanied by her sons.