What’s the next step after the shrug?

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The screams shocked Swiss sport last year: Joana Heidrich (31) wins the bronze medal at the beach volleyball world championships in Rome – the medal in front of her eyes – collapses and holds her right arm, screaming loudly. The shoulder is dislocated, the pain must be tremendous. It takes an hour to get medical attention. The future of the Swiss top duo Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré (31) is under discussion.

And more than that, as the two explain in the exclusive video. “I asked myself so many questions,” Heidrich recalled the time immediately after the accident. “Will I ever be able to hit a ball again?” And even: «Will I ever be able to use my hand again? Or do I have to do everything with my left hand now?”

“She Couldn’t Move Her Fingers”

Anouk Vergé-Dépré adds – and thus shows how bad the injury seemed at first: “She couldn’t move her fingers. That was so far from ever being able to play volleyball again.” Not just sports concerns. Not just the feeling of having to miss a few months of matches. But existential fears.

In February in Tenerife everything looks different again. Heidrich recalls: “At a certain point I realized: I dream of playing volleyball again.” This dream drives her to rehab and has since come true. “Joanouk”, as the duo call themselves, has long since returned to the sand and is gearing up for the comeback season.

“…then the opponents must be really afraid”

Heidrich is even extremely confident: “If we can take a step back, I am convinced that I can take a step further compared to before.” Her calculation: “Maybe I don’t have the same strength for a long time.” And the physical has so far been the strength of the 1.90 m tall woman from Zurich. “But in beach volleyball you can do a lot with technique and well-placed balls. That may not have been my strongest point until now, but now I have to learn it.” And when one day the strength returns, Heidrich laughs mischievously, “then the opponents must be really afraid”.

But that is still future music. The goal is still simple at the moment, “that we can be on the field together again and have fun. Do what we love to do – at the level we did it … That would be nice,” says Vergé-Dépré. Bern.

The coming weeks and months will show whether the European champions and Olympic bronze medalists of 2021 will succeed.

Source : Blick