Anyone who just makes it into the top ten in the last qualifying race of a World Championship, but then makes it through the quarter-finals and semi-finals in the medal race to the final and becomes runner-up in the pre-Olympic junior class U19 iQFOiL Youth can celebrate. As the daughter of two-time Olympian Dirk Meyer (1984 Windglider in Los Angeles, 1988 Lechner Div. II in Pusan), the 18-year-old high school graduate from Berlin has the windsurfing genes in her blood, which have developed well at the Berlin Windsurfing Club on Lake Wannsee.
When did your dad Dirk put you on the board for the first time?
At the age of five and a half, I had received a small 1.5 square metre sail from our sailmaker at the club, Wolf Zins.
Shortly afterwards, however, he is said to have continued in the Opti. Why switch to sailing straight away?
My dad put me in the Opti so that I could learn the tactical basics. At the time, my team was in the SV03 (Seglervereinigung 1903 e. V.), right next to our club boat Windanna. I was then able to qualify for the Opti A DM in this hotly contested children's sailing class and won my first regatta.
Back to windsurfing, you spent a lot of time on the Windanna, the WSeV club boat, and grew up there in the junior ranks, with systematic training. Surely your first regatta board was a Techno 293?
Exactly, this youth board was very popular at our club and I also surfed the first regattas here in Berlin. We had a super-motivated training group of eight people who wanted to get out on the water as often as they could. At the time, we were training for the 2018 Techno World Championships in Cadiz and also did a lot of other training camps together.
Which coach influenced you there?
Definitely Johannes Girke, who trained there three times a week. With him, we also dominated the German Youth Championships at Lake Dümmer in 2019 and won 12 out of 15 medals.
After your time in the Techno 293 class, you switched to the iQFOiL adult material relatively early on. Wasn't the transition from the narrow centreboard to the 95 centimetre wide foil board difficult?
Of course, I first had to learn how to surf on a foil board. I travelled to Kiel on many weekends to train with the newly formed women's foil group. Leon Delle and Marc Hollenbach from the DSV were in charge. Once everyone from the Berlin group had material, we also organised training camps together on Usedom. Diederik Bakker and Johannes Girke coached us there.
Your first foil regatta wasn't long in coming, was it?
Nope, I won the women's competition at the Racer of the Sea on the Baltic Sea.
So you went on to compete internationally at the 2021 Youth & Junior U19 World Championships on Lake Garda?
Exactly, I only got the smaller youth board three days before the first race. It was amazing to see how many young people were already there in the first year. We were already 60 girls in the U19 age group!
In 2022, you took the big plunge at the iQFOiL European Championships in Torbole. Wasn't that a bit too much, with all the established stars on the starting line?
I've already taken part in a few International iQFOiL Games before. Of course, 100 women at the start is a different matter and I still lacked the experience. I was always at the back of the pack, but I always made it into the time limit.
In the same year, she went to the European Youth & Junior U19 Championships in Brest. Constantly jumping from the 95 centimetre wide Olympic board to the narrower 85 cm Youth board - were there no problems?
Always at the beginning, because when jibing, your front foot can sometimes go into the void on the youth board. But after a few manoeuvres, you'll find the loop on the narrower board too.
In 2023, you made your international breakthrough with fifth place at the U21 World Championships on Lake Silvaplana - on the big equipment. The result of hard training?
I moved to Kiel after my A-levels to get more water lessons. I usually trained there on my own five days a week. I was able to improve a lot of my technique in those two months. I also went to the gym a lot and worked on my competition weight. When I won my first race, I was very proud of my progress. Unfortunately, I lost my second place in the medal race. A very important experience.
But was your sensational runner-up finish at the World Youth & Junior U19 Championships in Cadiz even more impressive? It didn't look like it at first, but at the last minute and with strong nerves you saved yourself to seventh place and made it into the medal race of the top ten.
The World Championships didn't go too well for me at the beginning and I had problems finishing in the top ten overall despite solid individual races. On the last day, a lot of things changed in the slalom races.
You won the quarter-finals and semi-finals and didn't show any nerves like Sebastian Kördel, Germany's Olympic hopeful, who recently spoke in an interview about the extreme pressure ahead of the finals at the World Championships.
I was then able to keep a cool head in the medal race. Elias von Maydell, with whom I was also in the Berlin training group at the time, helped me a lot on the coach boat. The pressure was definitely enormous for me. You have to have practised medal races in order not to go completely crazy. In the semi-final, I briefly thought it was over when I had seaweed on the foil at the start.
You even had the chance to win in the final. How did it go?
Tactically, I performed very well on the day and avoided the decisive early start in the final. I skilfully took the advantageous pin end side from my opponent Tuva Oppedal at the start and had a very solid lead at the first buoy. Unfortunately, I then lost due to a touchdown in the jibe.
Did you get a lot of response to your success - were sponsors queuing up?
It was really nice to see how happy my family and the whole German team on site were. Many of them were also out on boats. But sponsors didn't turn up.
Your success could motivate more girls. Why do so few girls get on the foilboard? Is too little being done for the next generation?
I also think it's a shame that there are so few girls. In general, there are always fewer girls than boys. Here in Germany, there is simply a lack of surfing and sailing clubs that attract large groups to the sport and also offer windsurfing as an option after the opti boat.
The youth group of the WSeV Berlin is one of the most active in Germany, together with the youngsters of the Schleswig-Holstein state squad and the Bavarian state squad. But why do so few make the leap into the international arena?
There is a lack of coaches and structures.
At the beginning of 2023, the most successful sailing club in Berlin, the Seglerhaus am Wannsee association, accepted you. To promote you even better? Are they keen on your titles?
I had received all kinds of support from the Windsurfing Verein Berlin (WSeV). That was already more than enough for such a small windsurfing club. The offer from VSaW was very convincing for me. Especially because of the large network that such a big club brings with it. The club has many successes in Olympic sailing classes and can therefore support me with everything I need for international success. Above all, it was important to me to stay in a Berlin club, and successes are of course always welcome there.
In addition to Starboard/Severne, Patrik now also has a licence for the Olympic material iQFOiL and has the board produced by Cobra under his own logo, just like Starboard. I hear you want to switch?
Yes, through Surf Line Kiel I can get hold of Patrik material very quickly when supplies are needed. At regattas, things can quickly get damaged and you need at least two complete sets to be competitive. One for training, one for competitions.
In December, the German Sailing Association (DSV) sent you, together with Lenny Friemel, to the World Sailing Youth World Championships in Búzios, Brazil. Only one participant per nation was allowed to compete in the sailing, windsurfing and kitesurfing classes. Just like at the Olympic Games. How did it feel?
Gigantic, we all lived in a hotel, a big community. Things could have gone better on the water. After three days of racing, I was still in third place, but then extremely strong winds came up to 32 knots. I was overwhelmed and slipped to eighth place. But I was able to fully enjoy my last race in the U19. After ninth place in The Hague 2022, I also improved by one place.
Olympic Games in Paris or Marseille 2024 or Los Angeles 2028 - where do you see yourself?
One goal could be L.A. 2028, and if I qualify for that, then I want to be one of the front runners. But I now want to support Team Germany at the iQFOiL World Championships in Lanzarote at the end of January so that Germany can also secure a place on the women's team for the foil competition in Marseille. The national qualification will of course continue after that, and I'll also be at the start of the events. But I think 2024 is still too early for me.
In summer 2023 you will have completed your Abitur. Instead of studying, you'll now do a year of federal voluntary service. After that, full concentration on sport - or university after all?
Of course I would like to launch an Olympic campaign for 2028. But that's a long way off. I will probably have to enrol for the 2024 winter semester. What I will study then, however, is still open. It has to be something that I can combine with sport.
Profile Sophia Meyer
- Age: 18 years
- Born: 26.05.2005
- Place of residence: Grew up in Berlin, now in Kiel
- Profession: Abitur/Federal Voluntary Service
- Size/weight: 170 cm/70 kg
- Sail number: GER 1247
- Sails since: 2013 in the Opti
- Surfing since: 2010
- Regatta debut: 2018 at the Techno 293
- Successes Windsurfing Techno 293: multiple German junior champion U13/U15
- Successes in windsurfing iQFOiL 2022: 7th place iQFOiL Youth International Games U19 Campione, 4th place Nordic Championships, Aarhus, 12th place iQFOiL Youth International Games Torbole, 18th place iQFOiL Youth U19 European Championship Brest, 9th place World Sailing Youth World Championship iQFOiL The Hague; 2023: 1st place iQFOiL Youth International Games U19 Campione, 3rd place Nordic Championships, Aarhus, 5th place iQFOiL World Championship U21 Silvaplaner See, 5th place Intern. Deutsche Bestenermittlung iQFOiL Youth Wittensee/best lady, 2nd place iQFOiL Youth World Championship Cadiz, 8th place World Sailing Youth World Championship iQFOiL Búzios
- Favourite spots: Lanzarote Playa Blanca, Lake Garda, Wannsee
- Favourite discipline: Course races, but also sometimes slalom
- Associations: Windsurfing Verein Berlin (WSeV), from summer 2023 also Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee (VSaW)
- Hobbies: Sewing, crocheting, embroidering, painting, drawing, working with wood
- Supporter: First my dad and my manager mum, then WSeV and SV03, from 2023 Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee (VSaW), a bit of the Berlin Sailing Association (BSV), from 2024 in the DSV squad NK 1
- Instagram: @sophia.myyr
