Read on to find out how Sophia turned what would seem as such an insignificant moment to a passion.

“One day in kindergarten I was given a karate flyer of someone performing a sidekick. It was so cool, that I wanted to do it myself. I went on trial at a karate club in my neighborhood and fell in love with it. At a younger age, I was also doing gymnastics and dance but everything became too time-consuming. I made the decision to prioritized karate as number one. It was the sport that gave me the most joy and got a lot of support from my coach.

There are days where I’m less motivated, especially during the long ride to the training ground in Frankfurt. My karate peeps and my family always gave me the motivation to keep going. It makes me proud to make them proud. On top of that, I haven’t spent half of my childhood in sports halls to just give it up. 

During my teens, I felt a lot of pressure. Looking back it was mostly myself creating it. Even though my family’s support always helped me. Now I’m aware that I am the only one I have to satisfy. That makes life easier.

 I have never had any huge setbacks during my career. Sometimes it doesn’t go smoothly but I luckily never had a big injury. My job has been a little game changer. Since I’m working for the police I can’t invest as much time as I used to in my sport. Daily training isn’t possible anymore. Nowadays I’m kind of indecisive about my future. I will be done with my university degree soonish. So I have to decide if I want to focus on my job at the police or in my karate career.

My sport never forces me to be away from home for a long period of time. I’m happy about that cause I wouldn’t be able to handle it. It’s nice every now and then to get the chance to discover different countries and to make friends with people from different nations cause of karate.”