Viola Brand
German artistic cyclist (born 1994) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Viola Brand (born 28 June 1994[1]) is a German cyclist specialising in artistic cycling. She has won national and European championships twice each, and the silver medal three times in the World Championships.
Viola Brand doing a handstand in 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 28 June 1994 Backnang, Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current team | Retired | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Artistic cycling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Single | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Major wins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| German Champion (2017) European Champion (2018) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Personal life
Brand was born in Backnang, Germany.[2][1] She tried to climb the training bike as early as 5 years old, then still failing to reach the pedals. Her elder brother did artistic cycling before her, and both he and Brand were coached by their mother.[3] She started training artistic cycling at 6 years old.[4][5][6]
Brand is studying clinical nutrition at Hohenheim University, Stuttgart.[7] As of February 2021[update], she is writing the thesis for her master's degree.[8]
Professional career
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Brand's sports club is RSV Unterweissach (located in Weissach im Tal).[3][9] She joined the German national sports team at the age of 15,[5] and won the Junior European Championships in 2012.[9]
She set a world record at the European Junior Championships in 2011 in her age group,[10] and another world record at the regular European Championships in 2018.[11][12][13] Her best personal score was 194.71 points in German Masters 2019.[14]
Brand spent years perfecting her choreography and learning new stunts. It took her seven years of training to be able to do a handstand on the handlebar,[15] the stunt Brand is most proud of,[16] and in June 2019 she was able to perform a Maute jump for the first time, jumping from the saddle to the handlebars.[17]
Brand participated in a total of five World Championships, missing qualification in 2018[18] after a competition which German national coach Dieter Maute called "very hard".[19] Since each nation can only send two participants, Brand stated that "qualification is much harder than winning a medal at the World Championships".[18] Brand uses a special belt-driven bicycle,[16] and her motto, inscribed on the toothed belt, is "Du musst den Kampf mehr lieben als den Sieg" ("You have to love the fight more than the victory").[18][2]
Her last official competition was in Basel at the World Championships in December 2019, where she won a silver medal, making it her third Vice Championship.[1] In February 2020 she announced her retirement, although she continues to perform for exhibitions and to promote her sport.[20][1] Brand hopes to someday see artistic cycling become one of the Olympic sports.[6]
Statistics
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Personal best
Her best results, according to data from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and German Cycling Federation (BDR):
| Artistic Cycling – Single women | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competition | City | Date | Result | Position | References |
| German Masters 1 | Lemgo ( Germany) | 6 September 2014 | 173.78 | 2nd | [21][22] |
| German Masters 2 | Klein-Winternheim ( Germany) | 20 September 2014 | 172.80 | 2nd | [23][24] |
| German Championships | Denkendorf ( Germany) | 18 October 2014 | 175.30 | 2nd | [25][26] |
| German Masters 1 | Bruckmühl ( Germany) | 5 September 2015 | 175.98 | 1st | [27][28] |
| German Masters 3 | Mörfelden-Walldorf ( Germany) | 3 October 2015 | 179.99 | 2nd | [29][30] |
| German Championships | Lübbecke ( Germany) | 16 October 2015 | 173.06 | 2nd | [31][32] |
| 3-Nations Cup | Koblach ( Austria) | 7 November 2015 | 180.41 | 1st | [33] |
| German Masters 1 | Oberschleißheim ( Germany) | 10 September 2016 | 171.60 | 2nd | [34][35] |
| German Masters 3 | Biberach an der Riss ( Germany) | 8 October 2016 | 182.75 | 1st | [36][37] |
| World Championships | Stuttgart ( Germany) | 2 December 2016 | 173.75 | 2nd | [38] |
| German Masters 1 | Weil im Schönbuch ( Germany) | 9 September 2017 | 169.31 | 3rd | [39][40] |
| German Masters 2 | Öhringen ( Germany) | 23 September 2017 | 184.80 | 2nd | [41][42] |
| German Masters 3 | Gutach ( Germany) | 7 October 2017 | 185.28 | 2nd | [43][44] |
| German Championships | Hamburg ( Germany) | 20 October 2017 | 183.94 | 1st | [45] |
| World Championships | Dornbirn ( Austria) | 24 November 2017 | 183.29 | 2nd | [46] |
| World Cup | Prague ( Czech Republic) | 10 February 2018 | 176.04 | 3rd | [47] |
| European Championships | Wiesbaden ( Germany) | 1 June 2018 | 186.58 | 1st | [48][11] |
| World Cup | Heerlen ( Netherlands) | 30 June 2018 | 162.36 | 3rd | [49] |
| World Cup | Hong Kong ( China) | 12 August 2018 | 175.93 | 1st | [50] |
| German Championships | Neresheim ( Germany) | 19 October 2018 | 180.66 | 2nd | [51] |
| World Cup | Bokod ( Hungary) | 10 August 2019 | 180.69 | 1st | [52] |
| German Masters 2 | Biberach an der Riss ( Germany) | 21 September 2019 | 193.39 | 1st | [53][54] |
| German Masters 3 | Weil im Schönbuch ( Germany) | 5 October 2019 | 181,97 | 1st | [55][56] |
| German Championships | Moers ( Germany) | 18 October 2019 | 183.00 | 2nd | [57] |
| 3-Nations Cup | Baar, Switzerland ( Switzerland) | 23 November 2019 | 192.09 | 1st | [58] |
| World Cup | Erlenbach ( Germany) | 30 November 2019 | 181.8 | 1st | [59] |
| World Championships | Basel ( Switzerland) | 6 December 2019 | 185.14 | 2nd | [60] |
Other activities
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In 2017, Brand started an Instagram account after a friend suggested it, and by July 2018 had gathered over 100k followers.[4] As of February 2021[update], she has almost 400k followers.[8] Her channel piqued the interest of staff from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which Brand used to watch to improve her English skills, and in February 2020 she was a guest in the show.[61][62] In 2018, she participated in the talent show Das Supertalent but failed to reach the final.[7] In 2019, she toured with the show Feuerwerk der Turnkunst through 22 cities in Germany,[1] with her performance being lauded.[63][64]
After her February 2020 retirement from professional sports, Brand announced that she would like to focus on appearances in shows and her social media.[62] In early 2021, she signed a contract with the Golden State Warriors to perform during the halftime show, virtually at first due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;[8] in early 2022 she performed live during several NBA halftime shows.[65] In July 2021, the Stuttgarter Zeitung reported on an underwater photography session featuring Brand with her bicycle.[66] In May 2022, she was featured in a video by Danny MacAskill.[67]
References
External links
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