Alica Schmidt (; born 8 November 1998) is a German runner. She was part of the national team that came second in the 4 × 400 metres relay event at the

2017 European Athletics U20 Championships The 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships were the 24th edition of the biennial European U20 athletics championships. They were held in Grosseto, Italy from 20 July to 23 July. Medal summary Men Track Field Combined Women Track Field ...

, and third in the same discipline at the

2019 European Athletics U23 Championships The 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships were the 12th edition of the biennial athletics competition between European athletes under the age of twenty-three. It was held in Gävle, Sweden from 11 to 14 July. Medal summary Men Track * Medal ...

. She was previously a fitness coach of

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

. Schmidt was part of the German relay squad at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, though she did not compete.

Early life

Schmidt was born in 1998 in

Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had about 82,000 inhabitants . A pre-Roman foundation, Worms is one of the oldest cities in northern Europe. It wa ...

. Her family now lives in

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bav ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, Germany. She attended Fresenius University of Applied Sciences.

Career

Schmidt started competing in the

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

, and

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

running events. In 2018, she started competing in

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

events. Schmidt began her career training at

MTV Ingolstadt The Männer-Turn-Verein von 1881 Ingolstadt or ''Men's Gymnastics Club of 1881 Ingolstadt'' is a general sports club in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. It was founded on 18 July 1881. Until 2004, the club operated a football department but after a merger ...

. In 2017, Schmidt came second in the 200 metres event at the under-20s German Championship. At the

, Schmidt was part of the German

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, th ...

team that finished second, alongside

Vanessa Aniteye Vanessa may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Vanessa'' (Millais painting), an 1868 painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais * ''Vanessa'', a 1933 novel by Hugh Walpole * ''Vanessa'', a 1952 instrumental song written by Bernie W ...

Meike Gerlach Meike is a diminutive of a (regional) short form of Maria.Meike
at the

Corinna Schwab Corinna Schwab (born 5 April 1999) is a German athlete. She competed in the women's 400 metres event at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held from 4 to 7 March 2021 at the ...

. Their time of 03:33:08 was faster than the previous age group world record, but they finished behind the Ukrainian team, who set the new world record. It was the first medal at the Championships for an Ingolstadt athlete since 1999. Schmidt also set a personal best time of 54.23 seconds in a qualifying round of the individual 400 metres event at the Championships. She was withdrawn from the individual 400 metres final in order to focus on the relay event. In the same year, she came second at the German under-20 Championship in the 400 metres event. left, Schmidt hurdling in 2018 In October 2017, Schmidt started training at , after moving to

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

for personal reasons. Ahead of the 2019 season, Schmidt joined

SCC Berlin SCC Berlin is a German sports club based in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin and founded in 1902 as ''Charlottenburger Sport-Club 1902''. In 1911, they merged with ''Sport-Club Westen 05'' and changed their club colors from yellow and blue ...

. She was part of the German team that came third in the

event at the

. At the 2019 German Athletics Championships, Schmidt came third in the under-23s 400 metres event, and was part of the SCC Berlin team that came second in the 4 × 400 metres relay event. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

lockdowns, Schmidt trained alone, and ran through forests. Schmidt was appointed as

's fitness coach for the 2020–21 Bundesliga season. Schmidt was in the German squad for the

event at the

2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held from 4 to 7 March 2021 at the Arena Toruń in Toruń, Poland. This was the second time this event was held in Poland after the 1975 edition in Katowice. The four-day competition featured 1 ...

. Schmidt was selected for the German relay squad at the delayed

; she travelled to the games as a substitute in the mixed relay, in which she did not run. She came second in the 400 metres event at the 2022

German Indoor Athletics Championships The German Indoor Athletics Championships (german: Deutsche Leichtathletik-Hallenmeisterschaften) is an annual indoor track and field competition organised by the German Athletics Association, which serves as the German national championship for th ...

, behind

. Schmidt chose not to compete at the

2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships The 18th World Athletics Indoor Championships were held from 18 to 20 March 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia. Ethiopia headed the medal table, with 4 gold medals, despite winning only nine in total. United States, second on gold medals won with 3, won t ...

, in order to focus on her outdoor season. Schmidt was part of the German team that finished sixth in the final of the 4 × 400 metres relay event at the

2022 European Athletics Championships The 2022 European Athletics Championships were the 25th edition of the European Athletics Championships and were held in Munich, Germany, from 15 to 21 August 2022. They were part of the European Championships, a multi-sport tournament which brin ...

Public image

In 2017, Australian magazine ''Busted Coverage'' described Schmidt as "the world's sexiest athlete". According to Schmidt, this led to a major increase in her social media followers; she currently has 4 million followers on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

. Schmidt is sponsored by Puma.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Alicia 1998 births Living people German female sprinters People from Worms, Germany Borussia Dortmund non-playing staff Association football coaches Athletes from Rhineland-Palatinate