Well, I am back in Germany now and practicing hard. I am actually very excited to be back and to start playing; I feel very motivated to practice hard and to become better.

Claudia (third from left) back in training in Germany.

I was one of the first one to come back to the training camp after vacation, so the first day I went running and did some light gym work because I was still feeling a little bit tired from the 15 hours flight.

I got a surprise when everybody else came back. They had been practicing a little bit on vacation so when we went to run together at 6am I couldn’t keep up with the speed. It’s amazing how much you can lose in a couple of weeks without practice…

After that I realized that in life there’s always going to be people who try harder than you and you can not just be careless and relax.

The good thing is that for me it takes only three days to get back on shape but in the meantime my whole body hurt and right now it is even hard to sit.

Not much else has really happened considering that my entire life involves around training, sleeping and eating. I am often going to physiotherapy. Before the vacation I had some problems in my Achilles, I had a lot of pain even when walking and the doctor told me I should rest, but I was in the middle of Olympic qualifications so I couldn’t. I needed to play tournaments to qualify and I though after resting it, it would be ok.

However it is still hurting so I am a little bit worried, but we will see with the time what happens…

I have a lot of things in my mind right now but one that’s keeping me from sleeping is that maybe I will not be able to go to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

We start playing the 9th at 9am and the opening ceremony is the night before. I have heard that it takes a lot of time, and we have to be standing and waiting so it will be exhausting. I don’t now what to do because maybe this will be the only Olympics I will go to (because after I have to focus more on studying) and I don’t want to miss the most emotional moment of the Olympics, for me. But I have to sacrifice some things if I really want to play my best badminton in the Olympics.