YoIn combat, she pulls off the “craziest moves,” says foilist Leonie Ebert of the challenges of her sport: “I jump into the deep end without warning,” without any problems. And then, in a “pretty small move,” she tears the cruciate ligament in her right knee. Bad luck for athletes.
The moment that changed the 24-year-old's life occurred at the first World Cup of the pre-Olympic season with the team in Novi Sad in mid-December. In the last fight, seven seconds before the end, his knee “briefly bent inward” as he walked backwards, as he later saw in the video: “and then I overstretched it.” Zack. Torn cruciate ligament. The competition ended, the season ended and, as a result, he missed participation in the Olympic Games, something that had previously seemed almost certain.
The fencer from Tauberbischofsheim recently received a letter informing her that her name would be missing when the qualification cycle for Paris ends on April 1. In the corresponding team classification, the German team fell to eighth place without Ebert's support. Although eight teams can participate per subsidiary, one place is reserved for Africa, and this is for the Egyptians, who occupy 15th place. For the German Fencing Association (DFB) a debacle, because not a single team qualified for Paris in the six team competitions.
In the individual classification, the 2022 European champion fell from fourth place to 22nd. Since only one individual competitor per nation is allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, the German place corresponds to Anne Sauer, who came in fifth place. “She fought very hard and deserves the qualifying spot,” says Ebert, paying tribute to her teammate, who is eight years older than her and who has to make her way as a lone fighter in Paris. Besides Anne Sauer, only swordsman Matyas Szabo will compete for Olympic honors as a DFB representative.
Leonie Ebert has thought a lot about why her knee reacted so much in that fateful second. “We came out of the season break. She had trained very disciplinedly for two months. She was very fit.” However, she had to deal with some illnesses last season. “My body had suffered a lot and I also demanded a lot from it.” You have to think about the reasons: “But obsessing about it is not healthy.” Her motto: accept destiny and “hope positively.”
“Like the family golden retriever”
A double irony of fate hangs over the Ebert sports family: Leonie's brother Constantin, a basketball player with Bundesliga experience, also suffered a torn cruciate ligament three weeks before her. “I was five meters away when it happened,” she says of her older brother's bad luck with injuries. “It was very sad for him because it was the second cruciate ligament tear, this time on the other side.” The little sister helped him through the most difficult moment – “then I went too far with empathy” – when she too was injured. The “absurd situation” culminated on Christmas when both brothers had to put their feet up at the Christmas table. “The next day was too much for me and then I sat on the floor, like the family golden retriever.”
His knee's ability to bend was three degrees: “I couldn't do anything.” Thanks to exercise therapy and advanced training, he has now reached 140 degrees. Given her injury, Leonie Ebert wanted to give “130 percent” to be 100 percent in Paris. The left-hander is now focusing on the 2028 Olympic Games, although she is “heartbroken” by the missed opportunity for 2024. Fencing is very important in the Grand Nation and the Olympic competitions take place in the unique atmosphere of the historic Grand Palais . Ebert still doesn't know if she'll watch the games live or if she'll prefer to “send herself to the desert.”
After all, Leonie Ebert already has Olympic experience: in 2021 she was the only German singles titleholder and reached the round of 16 in Tokyo. Her big goal there was to meet Roger Federer, she had said before, half jokingly. Nothing happened, Federer had to withdraw due to injury.
Ebert does not hide that she also praises other athletes and does not forget how “as a little fencer” she met the stars of the scene of the time as a bag carrier at the World Championships in Tauberbischofsheim. One of them was two-time world champion Arianna Errigo of Italy. Ebert fought the 35-year-old in the 2022 European Championship final and won. “Nowadays, when girls come up to me and ask for a photo, I feel totally honored; “I used to be the same.”