“Mental health and physical performance go hand in hand”
With a smile on her face, Franzi tells us: “I never really had the dream of becoming a professional athlete; I just developed very quickly”. Thanks to her talent and consistent training, Franzi has achieved remarkable success since the start of her cycling career; this, combined with “the drive to keep getting better”, was her motivation to carry on. For three years running, she won medals at the World Championships in the individual time trial on the track – first bronze, then silver and finally gold.
In 2021, the moment finally arrived: what for many athletes is merely a hope became a reality for Franzi – she was selected to compete for Germany in the women’s 4-person track cycling event at the Olympic Games. “We went into the race with absolutely no pressure – without being among the favourites – and so we set a world record straight away in the qualifying round.” For her, the secret behind their performance all the way to the final was that they “raced with complete mental freedom”.
“After that, the pressure was naturally different, of course, because people now assumed we’d always win – but in the end, you only put the pressure on yourself.” In saying this, Franzi expressed what psychoanalysis also teaches: ‘The Other’ does not exist, but its ethics committees do, writes Jacques-Alain Miller. Each person is always responsible for the inner dialogue they allow within themselves. The key lies in analysing where the dialogue you have with yourself comes from and how you can transform it into your own unique dialogue, one that is true only to yourself.
Franzi has a clear stance on mental health in elite sport: “It’s important to talk about it. Because mental health is at least as important as physical health; the two go hand in hand.” Franzi tells us that nowadays it is becoming “more normal” to talk about one’s mental state and mental health, something that was previously “frowned upon and seen as a weakness”. In the national team, they have support from a sports psychologist, and within World Tour teams too, the conversation around mental support is becoming more open. “Pressure to perform, self-confidence and anxiety are issues that concern a great many athletes, across all sports”.
However, according to Franzi, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, in the form of a designated person, that works for every athlete. “It’s entirely individual, and everyone has to find their own way.” She tells us that many athletes in her circle work privately, outside the official system, “with sports psychologists or mental trainers”, because “without mental health, you can’t achieve what you’ve set out to do”.
Alongside her career as a professional athlete, Franzi is the athletes’ spokesperson for the German women’s national team squad. She wants to “carry on with my career for as long as I enjoy it”, as the privilege of being able to turn her hobby into a career is her greatest motivation. Nevertheless, she already has plans for life after sport: “I’d like to give something back as a coach and pass on my experiences; to be a role model.” Authentic and strong as Franzi is, she will undoubtedly achieve this goal with excellence too.
