Germany's best Olympic sailors have to overcome many high hurdles if they want to represent their country at the Olympic Games. On the one hand, there is the essential national starting place for a country to be allowed to send a boat or board to the respective competition. Germany's kiteboarding men have already secured this at the 2023 European Championships thanks to the outstanding performance of Jannis Maus. Here, the 27-year-old finished fourth with the "best performance of my career" to secure an Olympic starting place for the German Sailing Team.
Who buys the Olympic ticket: Gruber or Maus?
Now Jannis Maus from the Cuxkiters club is fighting to be allowed to take this national starting place, which has been secured for the team, personally. However, his long-time companion and team mate Flo Gruber from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein started the three-part national elimination with the same goal. Only one of the two can secure an Olympic ticket at the end of the European Championships, which began on 19 March in Los Alcázares, the Spanish classic Trofeo Princesa Sofía at the beginning of March and the World Championships off Hyères in mid-May.
Gruber or Maus? Whoever fulfils all the nomination criteria of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) after the three regattas and has collected more points than the other in the three elimination regattas will be allowed to compete for Germany in the Olympic premiere of the kiters in the bay of Marseille. Both top kiters are training under the DSV umbrella with coach Jan-Hauke Erichsen. But both also have their own training groups, with which they have been active in different areas this winter.
Despite the cold, Jannis Maus has been training intensively in the upcoming World Championships in Hyères. With "really hard but fruitful" winter strength training, he has gained five kilograms of muscle mass and currently weighs 92.5 kilograms. His training partners were a Frenchman and a Monegasque: Maxime Nocher and Alexander Ehlen.
Two kiters with different strengths
Flo Gruber mainly trained off Fuerteventura in the winter and in warmer Mexico in January. His training group includes the fast Austrian Valentin Bontus, who opened the current European Championships as the front runner. With a body weight of around 95 kilograms and a little more at peak times, Flo Gruber has less pressure in this area than Jannis Maus.
"There are some with 100 or even 105 kilograms who are a tad faster. I've also managed to get to just under 100 kilograms, but then I feel a little slower," says Gruber, explaining the balancing act between speed-positive kilograms and the best action weight in the physical training area.
As kiters, Flo Gruber and Jannis Maus are different athletes in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. One of them - Jannis Maus - tends to prefer it "tricky": "I like it when it's a bit rougher, but there are also lots of tactical options. When it comes to seeing wind shifts and avoiding wind holes. I feel more comfortable on the water when it's choppier, when the water is more challenging to ride. Anything that isn't flat water and straight ahead powering."
Focus on the Olympic nomination criteria
Flo Gruber is a master of the latter, among other things. Which is why his start at the European Championships marked a success for him with 4th, 3rd and 6th places in rather lighter winds. Jannis Maus also had a strong start to the European Championships with 4th, 4th and 3rd places. DSV coach Jan-Hauke Erichsen said in Spain: "We started the European Championships conservatively and well. It is important to us that both Jannis and Flo finish in the top twelve (Editor: This is one of the DOSB nomination criteria to be fulfilled at least once at the three qualifying regattas). That's why they both got off to a good start on the first day in difficult conditions. I'm very happy with the start and I think they are too."
In fact, both Flo Gruber and Jannis Maus answer the question of how they want to deal with their duel situation in the three elimination regattas almost congruently: both want to give it their all in the first two of the three regattas without paying much attention to their national rivals. Flo Gruber explains: "It makes no sense to drive ourselves crazy in the first two elimination regattas. If we don't present ourselves as well as possible to the competition, it's not good for us. You can also see that in other disciplines, such as with the German 470 crews: if one is weak, another is good. The group enjoys a strong reputation among the competition. The other nations see that."
There can only be one
Flo Gruber expects a duel at eye level. "It will definitely be a close elimination between the two of us," predicts the man from Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Jannis Maus says: "In the first two competitions, we're both clearly focussing on getting the best out of ourselves. I also have better experiences when I concentrate on my races." It is quite possible that the decision in the battle for an Olympic ticket will only be made at the World Championships in Hyères. For one of the two likeable kiters, the Olympic dream will be fulfilled there at the latest, for the other it will be shattered.
"It's a shame that only one starter per nation is allowed to take part in sailing. We sometimes look a little wistfully at other sports where four Jamaicans compete in athletics," says Flo Gruber, describing the challenge facing sailors, surfers and kiters by way of example. In his sport, it is not the top 20 that compete in the Bay of Marseille, to which Gruber and Maus have reliably belonged for years. The best 20 nations are competing against each other in the fastest Olympic sailing discipline. They race across their courses at speeds of up to 70 or 75 kilometres per hour.
First meeting 24 years ago
Flo Gruber from Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Jannis Maus from Oldenburg have known each other for almost a quarter of a century. Back then, little Flo looked after the even younger Jannis. Jannis Maus recalls: "He babysat me. I was three, Flo was six. My father was a snowboard instructor at Flo's father's snowboard school in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I never lived there, but we were always there for a few weeks in winter."
Later, Gruber and Maus often met up for sport on the largest lake in the Netherlands. Jannis Maus remembers: "He from the south, I from the north, we often used to go sailing on the IJsselmeer over Whitsun. I learnt a lot back then." Now both are chasing the dream of an Olympic premiere, which can only be fulfilled by one of them. Both are being carried by Levitaz foils in their individualised settings. Like almost all the top riders, both rely on Flysurfer kites. They each have their own "buddies" at competitions, but still get on well together, even if the current competitive situation doesn't make it any easier.
The bar is set for Maximilian Maeder
In the end - as they both know - mental strength will also play a role in this German-German duel. No one has to hide here either. "Flo is also right up there at the front," attests Jannis Maus to his slightly older rival. Maus himself has been boosted with self-confidence after securing a place in the nationals last year and recently with a few training victories over kite star Max Maeder.
The Formula Kite World Champion, who is only 17 years old, competes for Singapore. Born to a Swiss father and a Singaporean mother, Maeder speaks Chinese, English and German. The outstanding teenager contested his first professional race at the age of eleven and is currently the measure of all things Olympic kiteboarding. Flo Gruber and Jannis Maus will also be competing against him.
Action-packed Olympic sailing: the promo video for the ongoing Formula Kite European Championships in Los Alcázares:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
