Swiss Review 1/2019

Swiss Review / January 2019 / No.1 11 Julien Wanders in front of his modest home in Kenya’s Iten. Photo: Jürg Wirz (Fit-for-life) But the Geneva-born athlete has never forgotten his roots. “We aren’t from the same world. I know that I have more than them and they never let me forget it. But I live like them and I try to help them in the course of my training programme.” For exam- ple, the Swiss runner regularly in- vites his Kenyan contemporaries to Europe so that they can earn money from participating in competitions like the Escalade race in Geneva. Wanders has participated in this race since he was 5 years old and finished first in 2017 and in 2018. The African attitude towards rac- ing is also different from that of west- ern athletes. “The runners don’t set themselves mental time limits. They don’t use heart ratemonitors and they manage to run further as a result. Their way of running is more instinc- tive; they listen to their bodies rather than using gadgets. We have access to everything in Europe and this often makes us overthink things.” The Ge- nevan athlete does not believe that Af- ricans are naturally superior runners: “If you go in thinking that then you’ve already lost, because you can’t argue with genetics. In long-distance run- ning, it’s the training that counts and you can go far even if you are not ge- netically designed for that specific ac- tivity. Personally, I believe that the body can adapt.” A sportsman who recovers well and progresses Marco Jäger is thus able to set chal- lenging exercises to match his young recruit’s ambition. “To become a champion, you need to combine tal- ent with the ability to work hard. A coach will push an athlete and the quality of that athlete’s response is measured by their capacity to imple- ment this.” Jäger was happy to note that Julien Wanders is continually progressing and recovers quickly. Everything else is strongly linked to a sportsman’s mental fortitude. “Ju- lien is driven by passion and enjoy- ment, which are two essential ingre- dients for competition. He doesn’t set himself any limits and he pushes as far as he can.” The Swiss runner is in- deed ambitious as he is hoping to win medals in the World Athletics Cham- pionships in Qatar in 2019 and in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. But, as Marco Jäger reminds us, competi- tive sport is a continuous journey, not just a trail scattered with one or two highlights: “An Olympic champion? Why not! But it’s limiting as this type of medal relies on one performance in one individual race on one individ- ual day,” comments the coach, who retired from competition at the age of 21. As for Wanders, the young runner practices meditation: “When I run, I try to stay in the present,” he explains. “I might think of the finish line, but never of the distance left to run.” Early to bed, early to rise The high plateau in Kenya sees Julien Wanders follow a repetitive daily rou- tine with consistently early nights. Rising at 5.30am and turning in at 8.30pm, this teetotal runner never breaks his rhythm to head out to par- ties in the evening. Marco Jäger plans out eachweek of training, alternating running sessions with strengthening exercises, exercises for flexibility and rest days, where Wanders will go cy- cling for example. The Swiss sportsman ismonitored by a multidisciplinary team. In Ge- neva, he receives advice from a spe- cialist in biomechanical therapy, a doctor, a mental coach and a nutri- tionist, whilst in Kenya he is sur- rounded by a team of masseurs and a physiotherapist. Wanders’ recent suc- cess has also attracted attention from several sponsors and the Geneva-born runner nowenjoys the support ofmul- tiple Swiss companies and an interna- tional manager. Julien Wanders in an interview with sports journalist Jürg Wirz: www.ogy.de/wanders