We had known each other since kids. Often, we shared a room in the national team competitions. And usually in the summer we spend at least a week in Hanna’s summer house. Hanna loved high jump, and I loved running.

Later on i had already retired and Hanna got an serious back injury when landing badly from one jump, with a six months long break from all jumps and lifting over 30kg of weight. Her coaches suggesting that maybe it’s time to retire at the age of 27. Yet Hanna had a strong desire to enjoy high jump one more summer, and to reach the World Championships. 

With no experience of coaching high jump; it just felt wrong to let her end career like that. After two weeks of considering, I offered to coach her to reach the dreams. A month later, Hanna said yes.

One condition from me: we both put all in. One from her: we keep it a secret to get to practice in peace. We both committed to them and held our promises. It was about a 9 months later that she competed in the World Championships in Berlin with a huge smile on her face.