A little story about a world champs title

Rehab

It’s the 27th of February I’m sitting on the ground of some street in a small village in Turkey with a foot not so much attached to my leg, I remember telling Phil Sauter: That’s it, that was my season 2022.

But I was only down for probably 5min, on the way to the hospital I was already convinced that I would come back and show the orienteering world that you can’t take down an Aebersold with an injury…

Nevertheless the way back was tough, really tough. The first two weeks home after hospital I had pain that I never experienced before, I almost couldn’t sleep. Still I stood up every day and went to training. People were telling me I’m crazy some were even saying I will destroy everything with my training. I admit it was a walk on the edge the whole plus minus 12 weeks of rehab. But I needed that, just going to the training forgetting about my foot.

And then at the 12th of June it was time for my competition comeback, a lot earlier then I thought back when I was sitting on the street in Turkey… With a 22nd place I saw that I’m far from where I was before the injury but still not too shit;-). So I set one goal: I want to be at home world university champs in August.

So 4 weeks later I made this dream I had during my injury come true. I performed like I never did before my injury at the testraces and qualified not only for WUC but also for EOC. For the first time in my elite career I made it to an international competition and it felt incredibly sweet.

EOC 2022

3.5 weeks later I stood at the startline of the middle qualification. 2 days after a vomitting interval and somehow really unprepared… Not in middle quali and neither in the long or the relay I managed to understand this terrain. Going home I was pretty unsatisfied and thought that can’t be the end of this comeback. I never wanted to be the one that just takes part…

WUC 2022

Luckily I got the chance for revenge already one week later at World University Champs in Magglingen.

Before going in to the forest I ran my first Swiss Champs in in 2009 I said to Yves: Today is the day where everything will work. And well it did, and how it did! I had some good races in my career but that was something different. I didn’t feel particularly great physically but I just didn’t do mistakes… It was like the Aebersold technical skills for once also showed in my orienteering;-). There were a lot of guys coming really really close till the race was finished, but for once my last loop didn’t destroy everything but it won everything. Being 45 seconds faster than everybody else on the last 13min won me that university world champs title… I got a bit emotional in the finish but after the 3h wait and a up and down in emotions somehow I couldn’t really show anymore how happy I was… Still half a week later it feels unreal to call myself university world champion in long distance.

Well the week still continued and at the middle distance it was time to do orienteering again like I used to before the long. So not stable but more best times and big mistakes… Not surprisingly that ended not so well. But sadly on this day the competition anyway went far far in the background and it just made me realize once again how precious life is and that we have to enjoy every day we have on this earth! Rest in peace Audun…

Somehow we had to get the focus on the relay again also to honour Audun. We had a great team and we finally also showed what we are capable of. Even though gold would not have been impossible we are really happy with the silver medal we got! So with this said thanks a lot to my two amazing teammates Pascal and Timo who gave me a premium spot for the last leg;-).

With a gold and a sliver this week was more successful that I could ever dream of… Finally I showed my full potential and I know there is still much more I can do… Also I want to say thanks to everyone who supported me on my way from the injury back without you my international medal wall wouldn’t have 3 instead of one medal on it;-). It was a great week at Student World Champs meeting a lot of great people it made me realize that we are all just a big big family so take care and enjoy every day!!