A great swimmer and TUM-student:

Florian Vogel wants to take part in the 2016 Olympics

You are from Bayreuth and moved out at the age of 16 because of your sports. How was that for you?

At the beginning, naturally, that wasn’t so easy. I did my “Abitur” at the Isar-Sportschule and lived in the “Athlete’s House”, where there were also many vocational school students. Luckily, there were always warm meals in the evening. At the age of 16, I wasn’t exactly keen on cooking for myself every evening.

How come you are now a pro swimmer?

Actually, it’s my younger brother who is to blame. As a child, Sebastian went to swimming courses regularly. I started too when I was in the third year of school – but I have only been swimming professionally for two years now. I guess my career started in 2013 when I took part in the European Championships in Denmark with the national team. Then, I also took part in the 2014 European Championships in Berlin in December and in the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Doha, Qatar.

How often do you train every week?

I train every day except Sundays. The courses are made to match our schedule. We have training sessions every evening – and sometimes also in the morning. Wednesday mornings at 6 o’clock was the worst, but there was no other possibility due to my courses. Thus, I often sat around at University feeling tired. Now, fortunately, I’m finished with that.

How often do you take part in competitions?

The competitions start again in April and will usually take place about every two weeks. Of course, I cannot take part in all of them. This weekend, for example, there would have been a competition in Luxembourg – but I had to cancel because I need to get down to learning. Last weekend, I was in Zurich, which worked out quite well, time-wise.

Now, you’re in your first semester of Civil Engineering at TUM. Why did you choose that course of studies?

Both my parents work as civil engineers in Bayreuth. I often worked with them on the building-sites and have quite a good insight into the profession. It didn’t take long for me to decide that I want to stay in Munich – because of my great training group and my coach. As TUM is known to be a very good university, one thing led to the next.

How do you manage to balance your studies and professional sports?

You have to make some compromises, of course. I was a bit over-eager, especially at the beginning, and wanted to write many of the tests straight away. I quickly realized that I wouldn’t be able to balance that with the swimming, so I had to lower my own expectations a bit. Also, the TUM was very helpful. I can now concentrate on my sports until the 2016 Olympics.

How was the TUM able to help you?

For example, I am allowed to reschedule some of the tests. Normally, I would be doing three GOP tests now and one in the next semester. Now, we agreed that I could do two in this semester and two in the next. Unfortunately, I often have to skip going to university. Luckily, my fellow students always help me out with the documents. This means that it is not impossible to combine a course of studies and professional sports, but you definitely have to invest a lot of your free time.

What will be your sporting highlights for 2015?

In early April, there are the German Championships in Berlin, where it is possible to qualify for the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, Russia. This, of course, is my personal goal.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

I will definitely work as a civil engineer – otherwise I would probably not go to all this trouble. Also, I will definitely continue with swimming until 2016, because my main goal is to take part in the Olympics in Brazil. Then, I will focus more on studying and see if and how I am able to balance the sports and my course of studies. I definitely want to complete the Master’s course. In my opinion, a Bachelor’s-degree is only half of the story.

Florian Vogel is 19 years old and a member of the SV Stadtwerke München. The Olympic swimming pool where he goes to train is only a few hundred meters away from his bungalow in the “Olydorf”. When he has some free time to spare, he goes snowboarding in winter or visits his family in Bayreuth. In the national swimming team, he is known as the one who likes to go out to party. "But only if it’s OK with my training plan, of course!" Florian laughs.