Pascal Brendel has a lot in common with his great role model Fabian Hambüchen: Wetzlar, his own father as a coach and the ambition to become an Olympic champion. He is already being celebrated as the new gymnastics star from central Hesse.
The European Championship is still in Pascal Brendel’s bones – or more precisely: in his shoulder muscles. “It still pinches him a bit,” reports father Matthias Brendel two weeks after the big competition during training in Wetzlar.
His son should therefore warm up particularly intensively today, says Brendel, who is not only a father here in the hall of the performance center, but also a trainer.
Eighth place in the European Championship debut
The only 19-year-old Pascal Brendel is currently considered the great hope of German gymnastics. Brendel had already caused a sensation at the German Championships in Berlin in 2022: he left all the favorites behind on the pommel horse and secured the championship title.
A few weeks ago, the young gymnast achieved another surprise success at his European Championships debut in Antalaya, Turkey: he was the only German gymnast to reach the all-around final and finished eighth there with a strong performance.
“A new star is born”
Pascal Brendel is well aware that some are already hailing him as the “gymnast of the future”. “A new star is born,” said national coach Valeri Belenki after the success in Antalya.
But Brendel doesn’t want to let that go to his head: “I still have to prove that that’s true,” he says. “I hope I can prove it, but I’m not going to let that put me under any pressure.”
Pascal Brendel at the award ceremony in Berlin
Parallels with the Hambüchens
Comparisons with the Central Hessian Olympic champion and world champion Fabian Hambüchen almost come to mind, because there are a number of biographical parallels: like Hambüchen before him, Brendel from Wehrheim (Hochtaunus) now trains in Wetzlar. And like the famous “Turnfloh”, Brendel is also coached by his own father.
Brendel is currently training 20 hours a week in the artistic gymnastics performance center in Wetzlar – including on the famous “Gold-Bar” that is there: it is the apparatus on which Hambüchen won his medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. It was later given to him and sent to Wetzlar.
“Of course he is a role model for me and I would like to get close to him at some point,” says Brendel. However: The horizontal bar is not his best piece of equipment, it is currently the pommel horse.
He still had his fingers on it: Fabian Hambüchen at his gold performance on the horizontal bar in Rio.
“We do it with our own resources”
Matthias Brendel is only too familiar with the comparisons with the famous father-son team. In addition, the Hambüchens played a very important role in Pascal’s development: After Pascal had problems with his former coach in Frankfurt, Wolfgang Hambüchen stepped in temporarily – until father Matthias finally took over this task himself.
On the one hand, the example of the Hambüchens is motivating, says Matthias Brendel. But sometimes it is also stressful to be compared to it. “Sure, we’re a family too,” he says. “But Fabian and his dad left their own footprints and we want to do it with our own resources.” He says: “We tick completely differently.”
“We understand each other without words” – Matthias and Pascal Brendel
Goal: Olympics 2024 in Paris
Overall, Matthias and Pascal Brendel are very satisfied in their coach-athlete and father-son relationship. “We know each other from A to Z, we don’t need many words,” says Matthias Brendel. And Pascal is also happy to have his father by his side. “I can also say when I have an injury: Dad, it just doesn’t work – and then that’s accepted.”
And of course the two have one thing in common: the next big goal. Pascal Brendel is in the perspective squad for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, he would like to start in the all-around, he says. However, it is not yet certain whether this will happen. Matthias Brendel says: “Every coach would like to become Olympic champion with his athlete – that has nothing to do with father-son.”