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Franziska van Almsick Reclaims Her Story as ARD Doc and Sportschau Podcast Debut

The three-part ARD/SWR series with a Sportschau podcast lets the former swimming star reclaim her story through new interviews and archival footage.

Overview

  • The documentary Being Franziska van Almsick is now streaming in the ARD Mediathek, with a TV broadcast on Das Erste scheduled for September 9.
  • An accompanying rbb/Sportschau podcast released today features extensive conversations with van Almsick, her parents, coaches, manager, and former partner Stefan Kretzschmar.
  • Van Almsick reflects that missing Olympic gold "makes me more human" and says she has made peace with that chapter of her career.
  • She details a long-hidden struggle with anorexia during her competitive years and describes restrictive eating as a lasting stress warning signal.
  • The coverage revisits intense public scrutiny from her teens, including a 1992 incident where a TV reporter searched her bag on camera, to examine the personal cost of early fame.