By Alfredo Echenique Lugo
01 Aug 2024, 15:37 PM EDT
The 2024 Paris Olympics have their charms, and some of them are precisely in the athletes. Like the case of the German Alica Schmidt, a 25-year-old runner who has been described as “the sexiest athlete in the world.”
Schmidt qualified for Paris 2024 with the 4×400-meter relay athletics team and will compete on August 9 representing Germany.
The young athlete is well known for her great beauty, which has led her to have more than 5 million followers on the social network Instagram.
Paris 2024 will be the first Olympic Games for the German, who has already won silver and bronze medals at the 2017 and 2019 European Championships in the discipline.
Schmidt has been in the news in the past when he gave an interview to the German newspaper in 2021 Image to criticise the lack of support for Olympic athletes, and how many of them have to find other sources of income and cannot live off sport.
“It is not easy for most German track and field athletes to make a living from sport,” Schmidt said, noting that prize money for competing is not enough to sustain them, even after considering travel and accommodation costs, which are not always covered.
His challenge to Erling Haaland
In 2023, he also made headlines for a challenge he launched to Manchester City footballer Erling Haaland to compete in the 400-meter sprint to see who was the fastest.
“I think I could compete against Erling Haaland in the 400m. In the 200m it would be more difficult, perhaps. But I would still be happy if the race were to take place. We have to ask him, but I am always ready. So, Haaland, if you are ready to run, I would be happy. Let’s see who is faster!” she said at the time.
She had already completed this challenge in 2020 against Mats Hummels, a defender for Borussia Dortmund and the German national team. In this challenge, the Olympic athlete won the 400 metres by a wide margin over the footballer.
For now, Schmidt is waiting for August 9 to make her Olympic debut representing Germany in the 4×400-meter relay event, where she will seek to win her first Olympic medal.
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