Iris Julia Berger
“When I swim, I have grandma and grandpa in my heart”
Swimmer Iris Julia Berger is currently the hottest thing in the pool in Graz. The 20-year-old "mermaid", who swims for USC Graz, spoke about her preparations for the World Championships in Budapest, her emotional "homecoming" to Styria and her new training environment in Copenhagen on the sidelines of the short course national championships in Graz.
Friends and relatives are cheering her on in the stands. For swimmer Iris Julia Berger, the short course national championships in Graz are a home game.
"I grew up near Berlin. But my dad was born in Graz and I swim for USC Graz. And I have lots of friends here," says the 20-year-old mermaid, who moved her training base to Denmark two and a half years ago and relocated to the capital Copenhagen last September.
"My coach Mads Hansen got a great job offer, so he changed the base. It was immediately clear to me that I would go with him." The reasons are obvious: "Mads and I understand each other perfectly, he can interpret my body language. He also flew with me this time especially for the national championships to support me."
Berger is delighted with her new training environment in Denmark: "I have around ten water sessions a week and I also go to the gym three times a week. I can see myself in Denmark in the medium term, I have ideal conditions here and I can now speak the language a bit," says Berger, who is living in her grandparents' old house in Graz during the championships.
It brings back a lot of memories. I often visited Graz on vacation as a child. But my grandparents have since passed away. But they are always there in my heart. When I swim in Graz and live here in their house, even more so.
Schwimmerin Iris Julia Berger
"It brings back a lot of memories. I often visited Graz on vacation as a child. My grandparents have since passed away. But they are always there in my heart. When I swim in Graz and live here in their house, even more so." The championships in the Auster now serve as a "dress rehearsal" for the World Championships in Budapest (December 10 to 15).
Dream of Los Angeles
Berger is already in top form. Most recently at the Danish Championships in Odense, she beat Lena Kreundl's Austrian record by 0.02 seconds as the starting swimmer in the 4x 100-meter crawl relay, thus clearly confirming the A standard for the World Championships. The USC mermaid has qualified for a total of four events in Hungary (100 and 200 meter crawl, 100 meter butterfly, 200 meter backstroke) and wants to surprise. Her long-term goal is clearly defined: "I want to go to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. It would be my dream to be there."
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