Lucas Kröger: I agree with Heiner completely. You can take a lot from sport, professional sport, elite sport – an awful lot – but just because you’ve been there and done it doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically extract maximum benefit. Instead, you have to work through it and reflect on your experiences, as you so eloquently put it. I’ve been packing what you said there into a sort of image. I think that this target image and setting targets, whether short, medium or long-term targets, and then working to achieve them – it provides a guideline. It allows you to work towards a certain objective or specific career goals, which you can then put into the context of working in a company. And there are a lot of factors that come into play. As Max has already said, that includes organization, coordinating all your deadlines and submission dates, and then having the discipline to actually make it all happen. Something that I’ve learned to do is to go beyond your target. I think that, in the world of elite sport, you learn to train beyond a target, to exceed a target. And I think that’s another very unique thing that separates an elite athlete from an amateur. Personally, with my background in a team sport, I’ve also been able to learn a lot about teamwork, trusting in your colleagues, trusting in the team. We’ve got a nice saying in handball: ‘A defense is only as strong as its weakest link’. That’s universally applicable, in a way. It means that you have to find a way to strengthen your weakest point because otherwise it becomes the opponent’s main point of attack. That’s what I think, anyway.
Heiner Längst: I think that’s another good point that I’d just like to pick up on – and I think I need to go to bat for ski sports a little. You could certainly accuse us of being egocentric solo athletes that only look out for ourselves. But – and I’m speaking for myself but also for Max as my former teammate – in skiing, when the day comes and you’re on your own, when you just have to get down the course as fast you can, the only way you can succeed is when you’ve completed your preparation as part of a functioning team in which you support one another, motivate one another and, in doing so, always drive each other on to perform that little bit better. That’s what makes a successful winter. And it also produces successful solo athletes. I think it’s a good point that sport in general can teach you to adopt a team-focused mindset – but also how to get your elbows out when necessary.
Lucas Kröger: Exactly. Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything about solo athletes! (laughs)
Heiner Längst: No, don’t worry, you didn’t.
Max Maas: No, not at all.
Heiner Längst: I just thought it was a good opportunity to score a point! (laughs)
Max Maas: I would even go so far as to say that, when you’re traveling around together for 200 days per year, you grow together and become a family where you’re really there for each other if someone’s not doing so well. You become an unbelievably strong team and really help to lift each other up. You have to be intelligent in how you approach things. For some people, things can start to go backwards when you’re traveling around with the team – but, for my part, I have to say that my teammates remain my closest friends and, once you know how, you can really lift each other up. If one of my teammates wins, I’ll know that I’ve beaten him in training at some point, so I can reach that level. The best example of this is the Norwegians. They’re such a unit. They drive each other on so much that, the second someone gets injured and drops out, they can call on a youngster and bring him into their circle, include him in this sort of Viking family – and, even in a solo sport, they become so unbelievably integrated into the team. And that’s essential, because otherwise you’ll grow lonely when you’re on the road for over 200 days per year.
Lucas Kröger: Absolutely. It’s the same for the Norwegian handballers. I just wanted to add that it’s not long since I went back to my old club to commentate on a game. While I was there, I realized that I also have great connections with the team around the team. I mean, for example, the physio, who is immensely important for us – as is probably also the case in ski sports – just like the coach and everyone else involved. Spectators often completely lose sight of the fact that this team around the team plays a much larger role than you might realize.
Wiebke Lehnert: That’s certainly a lot of different experiences, and they’ll help you – especially being connected to others and the ability to work in a team. I think that they’re skills that can definitely stand you in good stead, especially in a world where we’re moving increasingly close together and becoming more fine-meshed and interconnected. And, despite everything else and your love of sport – which is something you all share and will never lose – it’s also evident that professional sport and elite sport isn’t the be-all and end-all for you. You need to have another string to your bow ready for the end of your sporting career, when it inevitably arrives. I’d be interested to hear how you feel MBS can help you in that regard and what tips you would offer to sportspeople and athletes who are also thinking about their life after professional sport. Max, what advice would you give?
Max Maas: Well, I think I can speak for Heiner and myself. Ski sports – and in particular the disciplines we specialized in, downhill and Super G – are extremely dangerous. So, you soon realize just how quick a career in this sport can be over, you have to see that. If you fall or get injured, your career can be over in an instant. Both Heiner and I have had the experience of how quickly it can all be over and, as a professional sportsperson, you’re at a point where all your foundations are taken from beneath you. You’re injured, sitting at home unable to do anything, and when you wake up in the morning you’re just waiting for another day to pass because you’re unable to pursue your passion. It was a very significant experience for me. Being able to experience something like that meant that I said to myself: “Hey, you need to find something else besides skiing. You can see just how fast it can all be over.” To my mind, academic education is important in this respect because, as you’ve rightly said, eventually every professional sports career comes to an end with age. So, I set myself the goal of finding a vocation for myself outside of skiing, something I wanted to pursue and to which I could commit myself completely. And, for me, there were just logical steps of how to do this: I finished my bachelor’s degree as quickly as possible while I was still a professional athlete. Then, looking at the portfolio of courses on offer, I wanted to find the very best one for me and then follow that path to find my next calling, something that would allow me to realize my potential, in which I could work to surpass myself. When I decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree alongside professional sport, there were only a handful of universities where that was actually possible. For my master’s, I then had what you might call the “luxury version”, in that I had the ability to decide where I wanted to go. I opted for MBS so that I could incorporate sports and, yeah, it was certainly a very different situation. My sporting career was over but I just wanted to keep going. So I guess I realized at a very early stage, even when I was still active as a pro athlete: “Hey, this professional stuff after sports, you need to give 100% to that as well if you want to achieve anything in the field.” And so, as far as I’m concerned, I know that I want to find my next vocation, the right field for me, and I’d say I’ve equipped myself as well as I can to do just that.
