For gymnasts who planned on retiring after the Tokyo Olympics the need to train for another year might have come as a shock. For Germany’s Kim Bui the postponement wasn’t easy to adjust to initially but she found ways to use this time productively and focus on her studies. She talked to SWR about her current training and plans for this year.
Translation from German by @kaffeeklexs
Kim Bui is currently working on her Masters researching new forms of cancer therapy at the Institute of Cell Biology (University of Stuttgart). At the laboratory, Bui is creating amino acids that are hoped to assist the immune system in destroying cancerous cells:
“It’s super interesting for sure to know that you may be helping to beat cancer.”
At the moment she is working at her master thesis and is busy putting her collected data from the lab into writing.
For ten years now she has successfully balanced elite gymnastics and the work at the lab. Thanks to her good self-organisation skills and determination she has been able to be successful at both. But the postponement of the 2020 Olympics did throw her off balance:
“I knew that 2020 would be the Olympic year. My whole life was aimed at that. And when it was postponed by a year, it felt like a paralysis.”
After 16 years of elite gymnastics, Bui had planned on ending her career after Tokyo 2020. After much deliberation she has decided to stay in the sport for one more year and still try for Tokyo. Her coach Robbie Mai says:
“I don’t have to motivate Kim. When you decide to do it this way [combine sport and studies], you are self-motivated.”
Bui is using her time for new training methods. Together with her training partner Elisabeth Seitz she has decided to do more strength training and reduce her hours in the gym. This way she wants to be in peak physical shape and set new impulses on the long way to Tokyo. She is feeling in her best shape ever and found new motivation through her new training methods:
“Never before have I found the time to get rid of certain errors completely and to work on the small details.”
The postponement of the Olympics has given Bui the time to finish her master thesis at the University of Stuttgart:
“The goal has changed. Now I definitely want to finish my master’s thesis before the Olympic Games and then I’ll be free to completely focus on the Games.”
Photo: DTB
