Two Olympic bronze medals, World Championship silver and countless other successes have made Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel one of the most successful German Olympic crews over two decades. The helmsman and his coxswain from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein have competed in regattas together for over 7,777 days. The first was rewarded with second place at the Tegeler Jüngstenfest in May 2001, the last was the World Championship of the Olympic 49er class this year. Now the Berliners are ending their Olympic sailing careers, concentrating on their medical studies (Heil) and their jobs (Plößel). At the same time, they have their sights set on new sailing commitments.
"We want to be there for the younger teams"
"We're not just stopping, we want to create new perspectives," says Erik Heil. "We will continue to be there and pass on our knowledge to the next generation, we want to be committed to the success of others," says Thomas Plößel. The 33-year-old doctor Erik Heil and the 34-year-old engineer Thomas Plößel, who works for Reckmann Yacht Equipment, are in talks with their home club and the German Sailing Team about this endeavour. The idols of the German skiff sailors want to "be there for the younger teams", pave the way for them and help them to sharpen their focus.
The decision to no longer compete in the 2024 Olympic Games in Marseille was a difficult one for both top athletes from the German Sailing Team. They have matured this year. "Erik and I are ambitious. When we start, we want to do well, ideally better than last time. This summer, after a long career-related break, we realised that we could only achieve this goal again with an effort that is more than financially demanding and would only be compatible with our professional demands to a limited extent," explains Plößel.
The goal of "better than last time": too expensive, too difficult to achieve
One decisive factor was the introduction of new materials in the 49er Olympic skiff class. "In recent years, we have drawn on the enormous wealth of knowledge that we have built up with our team, our coach Marc Pickel and our training partners. We then defined what would be necessary to achieve the goal of 'better than last time'.
A lot of money and a full-time commitment would be required to restore the peak level with the new material in order to really target Olympic gold or silver. We're talking about half a million euros over two years. We discussed this challenge intensively with associations, our club, our partners and within the team. And then honestly admitted to ourselves that we can't and don't want to go down this route again." Thomas Plößel adds: "There are also other areas of sailing and life that are fun and challenging for us."
One of these could be a German SailGP team in the future. The German drivers are still in talks with the organisers. These and other ideas will keep Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel active as top sailors. They are leaving the Olympic stage with one crying and one laughing eye. "We have achieved a lot, learnt an incredible amount and hope that we have been able to show the next generation good prospects and can continue to do so in the future," says Thomas Plößel.
"Professionalisation was the right way to go"
"We also went our own way and redefined the management of an Olympic campaign. Initially, some people thought it was an exaggeration that we had our own project manager in Frithjof Schade and that we had set ourselves up in a very comprehensive and sustainable way. In the end, this professionalisation was the right path to success," says Heil, explaining the HP Sailing model that worked so well for so long.
Another key to their success was the close and open training community established by Heil and Plößel with their friends and national competitors Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme in the run-up to the 2016 Olympic Games. Only one of the two crews managed to qualify for the Olympics, yet they went the whole way together as a unit. This created the goodness needed to win the first bronze medal at the foot of Rio de Janeiro's Sugar Loaf Mountain. The final and the legendary double somersault of the GER crew Heil/Plößel into the waters of Guanabara Bay will never be forgotten.
The most successful GER Olympic sailing crew of the last two decades
With their Spanish training partners and friends Diego Botin Le Chever and Iago Lopez Marra, Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel once again successfully repeated their successful model of open and goal-oriented cooperation on the way to the 2020 Olympic Games in 2021, which are challenging in pandemic times. They won their second bronze medal in the spectacularly exciting final in Enoshima, Japan.
The crew of the NRV Olympic Team has always been self-confident in its approach and has not been afraid to take offence when it comes to optimally preparing for major sailing events. In the end, with two Olympic bronze medals, they were the most successful German Olympic sailing team of the past two decades. Apart from Jochen Schümann (3x gold, 1x bronze), only eleven German helmsmen or crew members have won more than one Olympic sailing medal in the history of German sailing. Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel are the youngest in this exceptional league.
"We will miss the feeling when everything works and your boat sails perfectly"
What will they miss when they wistfully say goodbye? "Definitely the feeling of commuting ahead of the field in high-calibre gold fleets. Pushing in high-calibre races. The fight to sail forward from fifth position in a race. Simply that feeling when everything is going well and your boat is sailing perfectly," says Thomas Plößel. Erik Heil nods: "There's nothing to add to that."
What has competitive sport given them for life? Erik Heil thinks for a moment and says: "A lot, I have to say. That's what sets sailing so wonderfully apart from all other sports: its incredible versatility, its endless possibilities. You're not just a competitive athlete, you have to take care of a project that includes high-level material development, logistics, travel planning, nutritional issues and much more."
According to Thomas Plößel, it's incredible how much sailing allows you to think outside the box: "I now realise in my job what the sport, travelling to so many countries and contact with so many different cultures has taught me in terms of soft skills such as good communication and also a lot of knowledge about myself and simply about life in general."
As complementary characters, Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel have also benefited from each other during their Olympic careers. "I have learnt so much from Erik," says the foresailor, who has had a similar experience the other way round. Since they started their world career as teenagers with their first important and far-sighted coach Michael Koster, Heil and Plößel have inspired each other very effectively on the water, despite their differences. The idea of the Olympic Games continues to shine for both of them. The Games were and are one of the most important motivating factors for their unique careers, in which Heil and Plößel are now closing a major chapter and opening new ones.
With many thanks to families, sponsors and partners
As they bid farewell to the Olympic power play, the athletes would like to thank those who inspired, motivated, accompanied, comforted, congratulated and inspired them. "Without them, we would not have been able to write this great Olympic sailing chapter in our lives in the way it was possible," says Erik Heil. This applies to the parents, families and friends of Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel, but also to associations, clubs and sponsors. "The partnerships have made a lot of things possible for us that we are proud of and have been happy to share," says Thomas Plößel.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
