Germany's obstacle ace Gesa Felicitas Krause is expecting her first child - and she is training hard for her dream of participating in the Olympic Games in Paris. She also fights criticism. The pregnancy should not be the end of the career of the ambitious runner.
When Gesa Felicitas Krause is lying on the sofa after a long day, the obstacle ace simply enjoys the moment. "The best feeling is being kicked by you in the evening," Krause wrote on Instagram, posting a picture of her baby bump. The 30-year-old will give birth to her first child in the spring. But that shouldn't stop Krause from starting at the Olympic Games in Paris just a year later. That's why the European champion from 2016 and 2018 continues to train as much as possible. She had to take a lot of criticism for that, along the lines of: "Why is she doing this to herself and the baby?" But Krause feels good about it, she is pregnant - and not sick. That's how she sees it.
"There are no objections from the doctors. So I can also be active and do sports. As long as I feel like this, I want to keep myself as fit as possible during pregnancy," Krause said in an interview with "Münchner Merkur/tz": "My sporting career is not over. The passion and the fire for the sport continue to burn. Of course, always assuming that the doctors give the green light."
Krause has always been a power woman. The World Cup third place from 2015 and 2019 wants to prove that as an athlete you can return to the big sports stage even after pregnancy. "It was always clear to me that having my own offspring doesn't have to mean the end of my career. It also gave me courage to see that in other athletes," said Krause. Most recently, female athletes had increasingly returned to sport after pregnancy, and there are also some prominent examples in athletics, such as sprinters Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica) or Allyson Felix (USA).
Krause definitely wants to be there in Paris. "I want to fulfill this dream next spring. When I go to the Olympic Games, I want to be the best version of myself. But it will be a completely different starting point," she said: "I'm not an obstacle for two years It can be scary. But the anticipation of accepting this challenge is greater. And the thought that my daughter can be in the stadium in Paris is of course very tempting."
