Driven by Ambition
Hi, my name is Moritz Waldmann and I work in Controlling at ContiTech. I am 33 years old, married and have a daughter. To balance out my work life I like to run, I was a professional middle-distance runner for several years.
My passion for running goes way back to my childhood. I always had a lot of energy and drive, so my parents signed me up for a soccer club before I switched to track at the age of ten. I started off trying out different disciplines, jumping, tossing and running – the latter proved to be my real talent. At the SV Eintracht Hannover (a local track club) I started focusing on the distance 800 to 1,500 meters. At that point, ambition really started to push me. I would train 12 to 13 times a week. I always wanted to give my best, even though that wasn’t always easy. Especially on weekends, when my friends would go out, you would find me on the track trying to improve my time. But on the other hand, I got to see a lot during that period: training camps and competition brought me around the globe. My highlight was supposed to be the participation at the Olympic Games 2012 in London. Sadly, I was just short for qualifying, an injury threw me out.
That was an important moment in my career, I was at a cross path: Should I focus on the running or on my studies?
I studied during the whole time of my professional career, but over time it was an immense workload. I was not able to give a 100% in every aspect of my life. I decided to pursue my studies and have never regretted this decision. Since the birth of my daughter my priorities shifted again, running is only a side issue for me now. I run as a hobby now and participate in the relay at the Hanover marathon. Also I was part of the Continental GripTeam for a while, yet all in regulated frame.
As a former professional athlete I will always be active and sporty, but there are far more important things to me now. For the future I could see myself participating in a marathon. However, I would surely need to practice more often than the one or two times I do now. I guess a little bit of ambition is still there and I would very much like to reach a time below 2:45 hours. 😉
This article was written by our employee.
Moritz Waldmann
