Olympic Champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst are trying to get back to normal life, which is not easy after their stunning success

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Black dress, high heels and some mascara – that’s not the way you see Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst very often. But at the moment, it’s the outfit the Olympic Champions from Germany wear even more than their player uniforms.

Everyone wants to catch up with the first Olympic medalists from Europe. Laura and Kira are rushing from one talk show to the next, on Monday the magazine Sport BILD awarded them the title athletes of the year. The beach volleyball players stood on the stage between football national player Jerome Boateng and former swimmer and multiple World and European Champion, Franziska van Almsick. “It’s a great honor for us to share the stage with these great athletes,” Laura said. 

Laura Ludwig is on the bright side of life. Credit: Sebastian Marko.

It’s still a little bit surreal for the two women to be in the big spotlight. In autumn they will become film stars as well. The documentary film project DIE NORM 2016 accompanied the girls during the whole Olympic qualification process. The film about selected athletes from Hamburg, which also includes Markus Böckermann and Lars Flüggen, will be presented on 2nd October 2016 in Hamburg. On top of this, Laura and Kira will get their own movie, ‘The Way to Gold’, which will be released in the autumn – although the exact date and location are still to be determined. “It’s a very personal and sensitive report, and for us a special memory of two very intense years,” Kira said.

Getting back to normal is not too easy for Kira (left) and Laura. Credit: Mihai Stetcu.

Since this week, the life of the golden girls is getting back to normal – well as normal as it could be when you’ve just won the Olympics while losing just a single set. Head coach Jürgen Wagner put nine training sessions on their plan this week and, from 8th until 11th of September, Laura and Kira will fight in Timmendorf for the national German Championship.

They have to defend their title as German Champions before they will come to Toronto to meet up with the best women’s teams in the world at the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals. “Now it is going back to the roots,” they say.