A score to settle in Tokyo
Commenting on the 400-metres race, a journalist from the ZEIT newspaper once wrote: “This is a profoundly inhumane discipline, and the human body was not made for it.” For Fabian Dammermann, this isn’t true. The one-lap distance is his speciality. “The journalist made it sound dramatic, but it’s an accurate description of the special character of the discipline,” says the recently graduated Master of Education in sport and social sciences. The 27-year-old not only succeeded in getting into top-class sport but, in August 2024, he also achieved the highlight of his career so far: taking part in the Olympic Games in Paris with the 400-metres relay team. For athletes, the Olympics are “the ultimate dream”, he says.
Fabian Dammermann looks back on Paris with mixed feelings. “After I had just missed out on qualifying for the Olympics in Tokyo, I was proud to hear that I would be in the summer 2024 team.” The fact that the German relay team just missed out on a place in the final and, as a reserve, he could only sit and watch, is something that he cannot forget. “I was in top form, and I wanted to show what I was capable of on the track. So it feels like unfinished business,” he says. It means, he says, that he is all the more motivated for the next Games in Los Angeles. “I’m used to organising my whole life around these highlights. “But because we have to qualify for the Olympics or for the World or European Championships, we don’t know until a late stage whether the work has all been worthwhile,” Dammermann explains. ‘All or nothing’ is often the motto in his sporting life.
Field and track athletes are generally seen as being lone fighters. Fabian Dammermann, by contrast, describes himself as a team player. As a child in Osnabrück he discovered athletics through a school athletics club – and stayed with it because he liked training in a group so much. He became a competitive athlete because, as he himself says, his trainer lured him “with a place in the 4 x 400-metres relay”. He enjoyed trying out different disciplines in athletics, he says. “I would have liked to stay with the 100-metres distance,” he recalls – adding, however, that he wasn’t fast enough over the short distance. “I remember not being at all interested when my trainer put me in the 400-metres team.”
In the end, the decision turned out to be a stroke of luck. Team player Dammermann found his niche in the lone fighters’ sport. “And I also realised that with hard training I could achieve comparatively more running one lap.” What followed was qualifying for the German Championships in 2014. “That’s when I first tasted blood and seriously began doing high-performance training.” During puberty, his body developed fast, and Dammermann’s performance took a considerable leap forwards. He passed his Abitur in 2016 and became German indoor champion in the under-20s age group. After that came his first nomination for the German national under-20s team. His breakthrough from the juniors’ to the men’s class came soon afterwards. In his second year as a professional, he won the European Championships relay title. “At that time, I knocked one second off my best time, which is an enormous improvement over 400 metres,” he says.
Even though he has occasionally had problems with injuries, Fabian Dammermann feels ready for higher aims. “This season we want to qualify for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. I’d like to be chosen to run and reach the final.” He also gets his motivation from a defeat. “In 2021 I missed out by a whisker on the qualification for the Tokyo Olympics – so I still have a score to settle,” he says. The fact that this year, for the first time, he can concentrate on his sport fits in well with his plans. In the medium-term, he will have to do his practical training as a trainee teacher. How being a teacher and being a top-class athlete can be reconciled is difficult to foretell. But one thing is certain: as a top-class athlete and an Olympian runner, he will be a good role model.
Hanna Dieckmann
This article is from the brochure "Twelve months, twelve people", published in February 2025.
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