Franziska van Almsick: “Hopefully, many of them will continue beyond the basic certificate”

A full length black coat, a long blond mane that looks almost golden, perfect makeup, the dress for her public appearance on a separate clothes hanger: Franziska van Almsick attracts many admiring glances as she enters the Health & Fitness-Forum in Hall A6: Model alarm! The fact that the tall (1.81m) former swimmer still looks this good even fourteen years after the end of her career and after giving birth to two children is not a coincidence but “damned hard work”, as she puts it. Which immediately brings us to her fitness program, Mybod-e.

She has lent her good name to this online training program, where you can pick the training plans that best suit your needs yourself, since 2013. “When I was pregnant, I weighed 25 kilos more than I usually do,” van Almsick says. With this method, she herself lost fourteen kilos in two weeks, and it seems that many people are following her lead: “Our customer base is growing, and we are delighted by the fact that most of them have now been regulars for years. This proves to us that quality always wins, especially in such a fiercely competitive market,”

In future, she intends to sell the concept to companies, too, as most employers increasingly focus on keeping their staff healthy and motivated: “Those are important aspects for the success and competitiveness of any company. Many businesses now also consider them in the way the company is run.”

The other issue she cares passionately about besides her family is the fact that every second third grader can’t swim: Van Almsick bemoans the fact that “drowning is the leading cause of death in children; they’re supposed to be able to speak at least four languages and play the piano but many can’t even swim. That’s a horrific development.”

For the past almost ten years, she and her charity “Schwimmkids e.V.”, which was founded in Heidelberg, have battled against this shortcoming and have helped especially schools with swimming lessons: “By now, we have taught around 8,000 children in sixteen German cities to swim; another five or six cities will join them this year. Hopefully, many of them will continue beyond the basic certificate.”