Louise Hammer loves to take long jumps. Just this year the 20-year-old set her own record in the sandpit by more than five metres. The tape measure “thrown” in the Freiberg showed 5.14 meters in mid-June. And the following target has already been set: it will be 5.30 meters in 2021. “This season could be …

Louise Hammer loves to take long jumps. Just this year the 20-year-old set her own record in the sandpit by more than five metres. The tape measure “thrown” in the Freiberg showed 5.14 meters in mid-June. And the following target has already been set: it will be 5.30 meters in 2021. “It can definitely work this season,” says a resident of Glauchau, who studies at TU Bergakademie Freiberg and trains at TVL.

While it does give a time span for the record, the much larger jump is precisely timed. On the 31st of August, you will go to the USA to Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The industrial engineering student’s new home will be 65 kilometers south of Minneapolis for one or two semesters. “Training in the US is really cool,” says Louise Hammer. “It’s like a competitive sport.” She was in contact with the college through the “Scholarbook” agency, which organizes sports scholarships in the United States. “I wanted to do a class outside and look at what’s out there,” she looks back. It soon became clear to her that she wanted to combine learning and sports. Scholarbook created a profile for her that was sent to several partner colleges. Then I contacted interested universities.

Since she started her studies in 2019, she has been practicing at TVL. She started in athletics when she was a student at the International Primary School in Glauchau. “At some point I needed a competition club and joined SG Motor Thurm,” says Louise Hammer, who also tried her hand at HC Glauchau/Meerane. “Now I’m focusing on the long jump,” she says. The TU student completed her last major competition in Germany in July at the Saxon University Championships in Dresden. In the long jump she landed in second place with a difference of 4.80 metres.

In the tenth grade, there was a side trip for them across the pond in the form of a student exchange. At that time she ended up in Kansas for three weeks. “It was more about looking at the whole area,” says Louise Hammer. She is now “threatened” by another workload. “There will certainly be a step forward from the trainings in Freiberg, especially in the field of strength,” explains the athlete.