Max, Paul and Johann Kohlhoff enjoy their home game on the Kiel Fjord. The three brothers share a great passion for sailing. They have grown up with it. First in Bremen and since 2004 in Strande opposite the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre. At the 122nd edition of the world's largest regatta, Max and Paul are even sailing to victory at the halfway point of the Olympic regatta. The youngest brother Johann is in the middle of his A-levels, but is still in 47th place out of 110 starters in the Laser instead of cramming.
After six races, Max Kohlhoff, 23, leads the Finn Dinghy classification ahead of his training partner Phillip Kasüske. Jochen Schümann sailed to his first gold medal in the Finn in 1967. The 20-year-old Paul is the front runner in the new Olympic mixed catamaran class Nacra 17 with his foresailor Carolina Werner, but he does not want the Kiel result to be overrated: "The field here is not very strong in our class so close to the Olympics. You can't overestimate that." The biggest challenge is yet to come: Kohlhoff and Werner have met all the qualification criteria for the Olympics and can hope to be nominated by the German Olympic Sports Confederation - it would be the first major breakthrough for one of the Kohlhoff brothers.
"The most exciting sport on the most beautiful stage"
"We fell in love with sailing as children: it's the most exciting sport with the best competition on the most beautiful stage," says Paul Kohlhoff, who will celebrate his 21st birthday on the final "Super Sunday" of Kieler Woche. When asked about his greatest wish, the young helmsman spontaneously says: "An Olympic gold medal!"
Like his brother Max, Paul is also aiming for a professional career as a sailor. This clarity and the open targeting of this goal is rare in Germany because many athletes shy away from the risk and prefer to concentrate on their studies and jobs after one or two Olympic campaigns at the latest. There are hardly any major professional campaigns in Germany. As a result, there is a lack of opportunities to develop further on larger boats. If you want to make a career as a professional sailor, you ideally have to be successful at the Olympics in order to attract the attention of international projects or find your own way into the professional business via international engagements. "The risk of wanting to become a professional sailor is perhaps a little greater, but if you do it right, there's not much that can go wrong. I want to become a professional sailor and want to make a living from it," says Max Kohlhoff, who, like Phillip Kasüske, is still holding two experienced and future Olympic participants at bay after the first three days of the Finn sailing regatta in Kiel.
470 junior teams reach for world championship medals
Members of Audi Sailing Team Germany led in six of the seven Olympic disciplines on Friday evening. Only exceptional sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke from New Zealand seem to be unbeatable once again in the 49er. The two German Paralympic teams - Heiko Kröger and the Sonar crew with helmsman Lasse Klötzing, Jens Kroker and Siegmund Mainka - were also able to defend their top positions. At the Junior World Championships for Olympic 470 sailors, the best German teams in both the junior men's and junior women's categories are still promisingly involved in the battle for the medals. Malte Winkel and Matti Cipra from the Schwerin Yacht Club are just one point behind the leading Japanese Kaiju Okada and Naoya Kimura. Frederike Loewe and Anna Markfort from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club are tied on points with two French women in fourth place.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
