Volleyball
Javelin world champion and competitive Volleyball player – Germany’s one-of-a-kind Katharina Molitor
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Article Tue, Sep 8 2015
Leverkusen, Germany, September 8, 2015. About ten days ago, on August 27, 31-year old Katharina Molitor used her last attempt to improve her personal best to 67.69 m and win the women’s javelin at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China. What many fans do not know is that Katharina is also an accomplished Volleyball player who has been wearing the shirt of TSV Bayer 04 LEVERKUSEN in the first and, more recently, second division of the Bundesliga.
This is indeed quite an exceptional story and Katharina sums it up by first recalling the early days of her sporting career. “It all began at the age of six when I started with athletics and doing some other sports. After that I tried out gymnastics but I was not that good at it,” she says. “So I stopped and started looking for other sports and in the end I decided to play Volleyball. That happened when I was 13. I kept on improving in both sports and back in 2004, when I graduated from high school, I was ready to stop with athletics and to focus entirely on Volleyball.
“However, in order to do that, the pre-condition was that I would attend university in Hamburg but I did not get a place to study there. Since then I have focussed more and more on athletics and over the course of the years I became more and more successful in the javelin throw. However, I never wanted to stop playing Volleyball completely. As a result of my background and training with the javelin, I am fast and strong, I have a good ball control and apparently also some talent. This way I have been able to play and perform even without practicing as much as other players do. So I found a way to combine the two sports, even though, with regards to Volleyball, from a technical standpoint I have to acknowledge that I am not the best one.”
Back in the ‘80s journalists and experts speculated that tennis star Steffi Graf could easily have made Germany’s Olympic team and become one of the world’s best 400 or 800 m runners. However, with the competition getting tougher in almost all events, even the most talented athletes have had to choose for one or the other sport. “And I decided for the javelin,” Katharina says. “I know other athletes who also have hobbies and as far as I am concerned, Volleyball is my hobby,” Katharina says. “I like spending time with my team and I have a lot of fun. And I do less training than for athletics. My coach would like me to focus only on one sport but in the end this combination gives me a lot of positive energy and it does not really harm.”
There is a sentence that can be found on Katharina’s website which sounds quite interesting and challenging. It reads as follows: “It would definitely be more professional to focus entirely on one sport”. However, after her success in Beijing, that does not seem to be true, at least for Molitor. “Maybe it would be better but I think this does not suit to me,” she explains. “I would miss something. And as I just said: Volleyball gives me more positive energy and it does not take anything away from athletics.”
When she performed in Germany’s first division, Molitor played alongside former or current national team members – Kathy Radzuweit, Nadja Schaus and Maren Brinker – who immediately took on social media to congratulate her former teammate on the gold medal she won at the Bird’s Nest in the Chinese capital.
Katharina is definitely an eclectic individual, who started with athletics at the tender age of six, began playing Volleyball and throwing the javelin at 13 and 14 respectively and focussed more on the latter after turning 20. Molitor has been combining the two loves of her life for 18 years now and her Volleyball career in Germany’s first and second divisions encompasses as many as eight seasons to date. Is there any skill Katharina has learned in Volleyball and taken from this sport which has become beneficial for her career as a javelin thrower and vice versa? “Well, actually since I started with athletics first and have devoted most of my time to it, I have been taking a lot from athletics to Volleyball but not the other way around,” she acknowledges.
Volleyball is known for epitomising the quintessence of a team sport where the contribution of every single player is instrumental to victory whereas a javelin thrower is performing on his own and can only rely on his technique and strength. The two sports Katharina is involved in couldn’t be more different also from a psychological standpoint. “Yes, I agree with that. But actually both sports have their advantages and disadvantages. If you have a bad day in a Volleyball game, your team can help you or there is another player who can replace you and play for you. As for the javelin, you are the one who has to throw with no help from the outside. However, there are days in Volleyball where you play really good but you and your team end up losing the game. And with the javelin, if you are in good form and you perform your best, you will always get one of the top spots,” Molitor says.
She showed clear evidence for that in Beijing where Molitor set a personal best and won her first major medal in international competitions. She has now set her sight on a podium finish at next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “Notwithstanding my success in Beijing I will still continue with both sports but I will not spend more time for Volleyball than I did last year. I think I have now found the best mix.”
Finally, which words would the javelin world champion use to inspire the next generation of players who may be willing to take up her ‘second sport’ and favourite hobby? “Well, I would say that Volleyball is an absolute team sport. You depend on your teammates and you just can’t play on your own. This is what it makes it difficult but so attractive at the same time!”
Pictures: courtesy by www.mowy.de and TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen
This is indeed quite an exceptional story and Katharina sums it up by first recalling the early days of her sporting career. “It all began at the age of six when I started with athletics and doing some other sports. After that I tried out gymnastics but I was not that good at it,” she says. “So I stopped and started looking for other sports and in the end I decided to play Volleyball. That happened when I was 13. I kept on improving in both sports and back in 2004, when I graduated from high school, I was ready to stop with athletics and to focus entirely on Volleyball.
“However, in order to do that, the pre-condition was that I would attend university in Hamburg but I did not get a place to study there. Since then I have focussed more and more on athletics and over the course of the years I became more and more successful in the javelin throw. However, I never wanted to stop playing Volleyball completely. As a result of my background and training with the javelin, I am fast and strong, I have a good ball control and apparently also some talent. This way I have been able to play and perform even without practicing as much as other players do. So I found a way to combine the two sports, even though, with regards to Volleyball, from a technical standpoint I have to acknowledge that I am not the best one.”
Back in the ‘80s journalists and experts speculated that tennis star Steffi Graf could easily have made Germany’s Olympic team and become one of the world’s best 400 or 800 m runners. However, with the competition getting tougher in almost all events, even the most talented athletes have had to choose for one or the other sport. “And I decided for the javelin,” Katharina says. “I know other athletes who also have hobbies and as far as I am concerned, Volleyball is my hobby,” Katharina says. “I like spending time with my team and I have a lot of fun. And I do less training than for athletics. My coach would like me to focus only on one sport but in the end this combination gives me a lot of positive energy and it does not really harm.”
There is a sentence that can be found on Katharina’s website which sounds quite interesting and challenging. It reads as follows: “It would definitely be more professional to focus entirely on one sport”. However, after her success in Beijing, that does not seem to be true, at least for Molitor. “Maybe it would be better but I think this does not suit to me,” she explains. “I would miss something. And as I just said: Volleyball gives me more positive energy and it does not take anything away from athletics.”
When she performed in Germany’s first division, Molitor played alongside former or current national team members – Kathy Radzuweit, Nadja Schaus and Maren Brinker – who immediately took on social media to congratulate her former teammate on the gold medal she won at the Bird’s Nest in the Chinese capital.
Katharina is definitely an eclectic individual, who started with athletics at the tender age of six, began playing Volleyball and throwing the javelin at 13 and 14 respectively and focussed more on the latter after turning 20. Molitor has been combining the two loves of her life for 18 years now and her Volleyball career in Germany’s first and second divisions encompasses as many as eight seasons to date. Is there any skill Katharina has learned in Volleyball and taken from this sport which has become beneficial for her career as a javelin thrower and vice versa? “Well, actually since I started with athletics first and have devoted most of my time to it, I have been taking a lot from athletics to Volleyball but not the other way around,” she acknowledges.
Volleyball is known for epitomising the quintessence of a team sport where the contribution of every single player is instrumental to victory whereas a javelin thrower is performing on his own and can only rely on his technique and strength. The two sports Katharina is involved in couldn’t be more different also from a psychological standpoint. “Yes, I agree with that. But actually both sports have their advantages and disadvantages. If you have a bad day in a Volleyball game, your team can help you or there is another player who can replace you and play for you. As for the javelin, you are the one who has to throw with no help from the outside. However, there are days in Volleyball where you play really good but you and your team end up losing the game. And with the javelin, if you are in good form and you perform your best, you will always get one of the top spots,” Molitor says.
She showed clear evidence for that in Beijing where Molitor set a personal best and won her first major medal in international competitions. She has now set her sight on a podium finish at next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “Notwithstanding my success in Beijing I will still continue with both sports but I will not spend more time for Volleyball than I did last year. I think I have now found the best mix.”
Finally, which words would the javelin world champion use to inspire the next generation of players who may be willing to take up her ‘second sport’ and favourite hobby? “Well, I would say that Volleyball is an absolute team sport. You depend on your teammates and you just can’t play on your own. This is what it makes it difficult but so attractive at the same time!”
Pictures: courtesy by www.mowy.de and TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen