“Let’s see how well that works.” Josie Hofmann gets the skating shoes out of the backpack – the ones with the wheels on. The skid shoes are on a break for the time being: the 26-year-old has just spent ten days doing ice training in Inzell. “In the first three years after I switched to speed skating, it took me up to three weeks to feel the asphalt again,” says Josie.
Even if the movement with rollers and runners looks similar to laypeople – it takes a little time to find the right technique again. “The ice skates are significantly lighter than the inline skates. You notice every gram on your foot,” explains the athlete. “You have the grip on the ice because you’re standing directly on the ice. That’s not the case on the roller, you have the asphalt and the roller, it’s spongy, a bit like you’re slipping.”
The great longing for the Olympics
But today the change from the ice to the local speed skating track in Gera works. Much worse are the violent gusts of wind that blow in the faces of Josie and the other athletes, including her Australian husband, on the long straight.
At the age of six, Josie began speed skating regularly at the talent factory RSV Blau-Weiss Gera. Since then, she has won a lot nationally and internationally: in addition to the world championship title and bronze with the relay alone, 45 gold medals at German championships and two gold medals at the European Championships among active athletes. There are also countless other top placings in national and international championships.
Training on the ice for the big dream
After graduating from high school in 2016, Josie decided, despite international success, that speed skating alone is not enough. The long-distance specialist started training on the ice for her dream – to compete in the Olympics one day. “When you’re an athlete, you see the Olympics, you see this whole event. And that’s just a little bit more than what you can see in inline skating right now. I don’t want to blame myself for not trying . I get goosebumps and would like to experience it for once,” says the likeable athlete.
Participation in the World Games 2017 – the biggest event for non-Olympic sports – certainly increased the desire for the Olympics: “The World Games are still not THE Olympics. There’s not a lot of money in it – but you get the desire to experience the big things.”
The long way to the top of the world
Last winter, the 26-year-old competed in her first full World Cup season on ice alongside the eternal Claudia Pechstein, finishing 16th in the long-distance World Cup. Josie knows her construction sites: “Just putting the performance I have on the ice. You can’t be at the top of the world within a year.”
Learning a new technique or making mistakes requires a lot of repetition in order to store the steps and movements in the brain. “When you’re young, you learn differently. In adults, the brain isn’t quite as willing to learn, it becomes more difficult to implement movements. It somehow works better with children,” says Josie, laughing and perhaps regretting a little bit, just like that to have switched to the ice late. But she is optimistic about the future: “As soon as you take small steps and see them, things move forward!”
Whether skates or rollers: Josie trains twice a day – in addition to distance learning in the field of prevention and health management and currently an internship in the Gera city administration. “When the training was strenuous, it’s sometimes difficult to motivate yourself to study. But it’s important to do something on the side. You never know when the sport will end – sometimes that happens faster than you’d hope,” says the competitive athlete. The young woman cannot live from her sport. A little money comes from Deutsche Sporthilfe. But without private sponsors, Josie’s Olympic dream would have been long overdue.
“I have to perform in winter”
Because the big goal is to take part in the 2026 Olympic Games in Italy – with the runners on your feet. She always has this goal in mind, even when training on rollers in summer. The double burden with several seasonal highlights regularly pushes Josie’s body to its limits.
She has just won individual silver and relay bronze at the European Speed Skating Championships. “The move from the European Championships in France to the summer ice in Inzell was tough – physically and mentally. I have to pay attention to my body and its signals!”