Géraldine Frey is this winter's most promising sprinter

Géraldine Frey from canton Zug is making her international elite debut at the World Indoor Championships – with good prospects.

She is slowly getting a little nervous, said Géraldine Frey at the beginning of the week. Understandably, because her biggest sporting comparison to date was with the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade. She will take part in the first of the three days of competition – over 60 m. And there will be several races. The run-up (series from Thursday from 10.15 a.m.) is the prelude. This is followed by the semi-final (6.10 pm) and possibly even the final (8.55 pm).

With her 7.15 seconds at the Swiss Championships in Magglingen in mid-February, Géraldine Frey occupies position 9 in the entry list. Eight final places are available, and 16 in the semi-finals. She says:

"I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, but I can dream."

Géraldine Frey is the most promising new sprinter this winter. Up to now, only the two co-record holders, Ajla Del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji, have run faster than her in Switzerland – and both have now reached an excellent 7.03 seconds. The current European indoor champion Ajla Del Ponte did not get up to speed this winter, however, and broke off the indoor season due to injury, while Mujinga Kambundji was recently in excellent shape at the Swiss Championships (7.05). And Géraldine Frey pushed her to this it. "For a long time, I hadn't counted on being in this World Indoor Championships," she says looking back. She had therefore defined the Swiss Championships as "my winter highlight". It became obvious, however, that things could go even further. Frey rose to a completely new level after having remained continuously below 7.30 in the previous weeks.

Following the Swiss Indoor Championships over 60 metres, Géraldine Frey will now also start at the World Championships.
Photo: Maria Schmid

The right lessons learned
For the 24-year-old and her coach Rita Schönenberger, this development is extremely valuable. The sprinter from Oberägeri, who moved to Zurich four and a half years ago because of her studies (pharmacy at ETH) and then moved to Schönenberger's training group at LC Zurich, feels she has profited from the results, her training values and the feeling she has learned the right lessons. After three junior European Championships (2015, relay bronze in 2017, and 2019), it has taken her a while to breakthrough among the active players - she travelled to the 2019 World Championships as a substitute runner in the 4x100 m relay. But a broken foot and back problems have slowed her down recently. And she now seems to have drawn the right conclusions. The fact that she allows herself more time for her master's degree is a factor. She is pleased to note:

"We were able to complete our planned training."

The result is "steps forward in every area", by which she thinks of strength, technique and stamina.

And of course, with the two excellent races in Magglingen – she already set a standout mark of 7.19 seconds in the semi-finals – the situation has changed for Frey. Working together with trainer Schönenberger, she individualised the build-up. She adds: "The indoor season was over for the other group members, so I moved on alone." She took it easy, she says, and refrained from further competitions abroad. Instead, she set targeted training stimuli: sprints, strength sequences, starts, a lot of explosives.

A "good feeling" has thereby established itself in her head, and she now wants to take this with her. Géraldine Frey describes the evening session, i.e. surviving the heats, as a realistic goal. And if it should even be enough to reach the final, that would be all the better.