Hammer Throw Media Blitz

From a recent profile in the Zürich 2 newspaper. Photo by Lorenz Steinmann.

Right after the Swiss Championships I hopped on a plane to America, where I am now preparing for my wedding on Sunday. I took a three week vacation from work for the wedding and honeymoon (one of the benefits of working in Europe) and had planned on taking most of that time off of training. But after talking with coach Bondarchuk on Sunday, I will now only take a 10-day break. I am in great shape and he doesn’t want me to lose that before starting my training back up again. That means I am trying to squeeze in a few training sessions before the wedding and then will relax on the honeymoon. Even though the break is shorter than planned, I think it is still my longest period of time off since 2007. A man of few words, he gave me a succinct reply after I presented him with a revised training schedule: “Okey. Heppe weding. M.B.”

Despite all the travel, I am still riding high from the new personal best I threw on Friday. In addition, the past week has seen a blitz of hammer throw coverage in the Swiss media. Coverage of athletics always increases around the Swiss Championships, and this year we were lucky they turned their attention to the hammer throw so that more people in the country can learn about our event and the interesting personalities competing in it.

The most recent article (see below or click here) is a big front page story from my neighborhood newspaper. It touches on several topics, but gives extra focus to how lonely the event can be and how I’ve adjusted to life in Switzerland.

In addition, the other articles this week have also been great and each provide a different perspective on the event. Unfortunately for most of my readers, they are all in German:

• Saturday, 6 August 2011: “Fliegende Hämmer und rettende Netze” in the Basler Zeitung. A good overview of the women’s hammer throw final at the Swiss Championships. Rather than just rehashing the results, it provides a good insight into what it is like to watch a hammer throw competition.
• Friday, 5 August 2011: “Der Hammer-Anwalt” in Blick. This article discusses how I balance throwing and working as an attorney.
• Wednesday, 3 August 2011: “Ich wollte nur noch schlafen” in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. An interview with Lydia Wehrli, the new Swiss record holder and the first Swiss woman to break 60-meters. After joining Betty Heidler’s training group this year, she was overwhelmed with the volume and she “just wanted to sleep.”