Max Rendschmidt (24) loved canoeing from an early age. His first whitewater race was at the age of six, and soon after he gained his first experience of competitive racing. At the age of 13 Max moved to a sports boarding school in Essen to concentrate solely on canoeing. In 2009 he celebrated his first German championship title in the junior four-man kayak event. In 2016 he won gold at the Olympic Games in Rio in both the four-man and two-man kayak events. Like Skandika, the young man who was born in Bonn, now feels at home in Essen: his local club is KG Essen.

Many athletes have goals, such as Olympic and world championship medals. Lena’s goal is to become an athlete who can cope with all the demands of her sport. She draws her motivation from her iron will and her passion for her two great loves: biathlon and mountain biking. And she’s as weathered as Skandika! She loves training for competitions. Together with her small team she “tinkers” with peak fitness and good core musculature – a muscle tweak here, a tiny bit of fat loss there. Her attitude towards sport and her body form the basis of her success. She already has two German championship titles in mountain biking and one gold medal in international summer biathlon.