Once along the Rhine, over 1,200 kilometers. From the source to the mouth of the river in the North Sea, and only by physical strength. Joseph Heß swam this distance in just 25 days - faster than anyone before him. He spent around ten hours a day in the water, which is absolutely unthinkable for non-distance swimmers. Even a stomach bug, a defective escort boat and the heavy shipping traffic in the Netherlands could not stop him. An industrial engineer gets the Rhine record, we love!
Finally, there's more attention for women's soccer! First important changes: There are improvements in the salary for the players. And the fans are supporting the change, because more than 500,000 tickets for the European Championship have already been sold: More than twice as many as at the 2017 European Championship, the record so far. Nadine Keßler, formerly a soccer player herself, now an official, has high expectations for the tournament: "We want to show how far women's soccer has come in Europe, why many players play here nowadays to pursue a professional career," she said in the "Elfen" interview. Let's go, Women's European Football Championship 2022, if that's not a strong signal!
Alicia Schmidt is known not only from the tartan track, but also from Instagram: With more than three million followers, she is probably the best-known track and field athlete on the platform. Now the 23-year-old has been nominated for the World Championships in the USA and the European Championships afterwards in Munich. "I've been working my butt off for the past few months and I'm so happy that all the hard work is paying off," she wrote on Insta about the World Cup nomination. We hope her hard work shows in the results and keep our fingers crossed!
People don't like to talk about their periods, even in sports. Alicia Barnett is now breaking with this by criticizing the white tennis dress at Wimbledon. In itself, she thinks the custom is great. But, "Having your period during the games is difficult enough, but then wearing white is not easy," she told British news agency PA. She doesn't want to keep that to herself. "Why should we be shy about talking about it? I know men are not afraid to talk about many things." She deserves absolute respect for that in our eyes!
Another piece of good news is UEFA's Real Scars campaign against bullying and insults on social media. It aims to raise awareness of the devastating impact of online harassment on players, coaches and officials. "Cyberbullying leaves real scars, especially when the
people targeted by the abuse are already mentally unstable. are. When you say something on social media, you don't know how painful it is or what the consequences can be," said French international Wendie Renard, who supports the campaign.
From a small dinghy to ocean sailing - Susann Beucke said goodbye to Olympic competitive sports and wants to get out on the open sea. And then to take part in the legendary Vendée Globe Regatta: Around the world in 80 days. A complete change for her. And a signal for all women to rise above themselves, which is why she launched the "this race is female" campaign. Beucke is living out a girl's dream by taking part in the Vendée Globe: "When I read Ellen MacArthur's book when I was twelve, I was so inspired that I knew I wanted to be an ocean sailor, too," Beucke told the newspaper taz. We're keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly for her.
We already reported on Jule Niemann and her rapid rise in the tennis world in our annual preview. And this latest good news is also due to Niemann. She did lose in the Wimbledon quarterfinals to her colleague Tatjana Maria. But she did not leave the court angry or frustrated, but with her hands formed into a heart to thank the audience for the support of the last weeks. And warmly congratulated Tatjana Maria, whom she grudges the victory from the bottom of her heart - because she really didn't give her a chance and is still there for her two children besides her training. And maybe next year we will see Niemann on the podium.
