Athlete of the Month
Story by Andreas Schilling.
Triathlon caught my interest
first when I saw one of the big
ironman-distance competitions
in Fredericia in the start of the
00’s. I felt that the atmosphere
and ambience, which is filled
with joy and anticipation, but
also of nervousness and insecurity, was something I liked. I had
to be a part of it and taste that
feeling. Even though my first
competition wasn’t that great a
success, and I went over the line
bleeding, I was “hooked”. From
hereon I had to find my first
bike, fast. The choice fell on
“the blue lightning from Bilka”,
with shifters on the downtube
and 14-speed drivetrain, it was
amazing. As my interest for
training and the sport in general
was rising I had to change bikes
to my fathers black Everton
bike, and since then all the
money from my 14-years birthday was spent on an all new
Nishiki, with Ultegra drivetrain
and carbon fork. It was amazing!
Today I ride an awesome Felt,
which I am just as proud of as I
was proud of the blue lightning
when I was 11.
One of the landmark events
for me was when I was chosen to ride the open German
championships in Kiel as a
15-year-old. It was huge. I was
going with the great boys from
the junior national team and
compete in triathlon abroad for
the first time. Even though I was
far behind the rest of the field,
especially on the swim, it was
an amazing experience, which
set a whole set of dreams in
Andreas
motion. Many of those dreams I
still have. After the trip to Kiel I
got Boris Bjulver, from Fredericia Triathlon Team as coach, and
he learned me everything from
the bottom-up. From trainingplanning, phasing, VO2max, AT,
and transitiontraining. Boris
was crucial for me and with his
help I ended my last year in
the junior class on a 10th place
at the world championships.
Boris was patient and let me
figure out most of the things for
myself, while he made sure that
I moved in the right direction.
What I learned then, I am immensily grateful of. It has given
me a solid foundation, which I
every day try to build upon.
In the shift from junior to senior I had some hard years. The
sport wasn’t the same for me
anymore, and with my own expectations rising, I moved more
and more away from the foundation, which I had created. That
caused that I had two half seasons in 2012 and 2013, which
never really made something of
itself, where I neither moved in
terms of the results or in terms
of development. That costed
a great deal on my self-confidence and I spent many hours
thinking about which direction I
should take afterwards. I chose
to give the dream of being and
elite triathlete another shot!
This year my first goal is to
secure my qualification to the
Olympics in Rio. This starts with
a crazy five-week roundtrip
to three different world cup
competitions in march. Deadline
is the 15th of may where I hope
to see a Danish flag among the
qualified countries.
Schilling
Kangaroos & wombats
Andreas is currently training in Noosa,
Australia to prepare for the wold cup race
in New Plymouth, New Zealand
Going for the win
Andreas will make a wish come true, when he qualifies for the olympics in 2016 in Rio. With this goal i mind - Andreas i striving to perform at his absolute maximum and to go for medals.
Training can
be tough, but
the joy of succes overcomes
the risk of
failure.
My greatest goal in triathlon:
To qualify for the Olympics
My coming biggest investment:
Bike travel case: I have travelled so much with my bike in the recent years that my
bike travel case desperately needs a replacement.
Three things people don’t know about me:
I hate coretraining!
I’m a coach for the youth team in Odense triathlon club
I’m on my way to the Olympics in Rio in August
6
MARCH 2016 · RACEMAKERS
RACEMAKERS · MARCH 2016
7