LUTZ Tina

General
RETIRING AFTER TOKYO
She and crewmate Susann Beucke missed out on qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in the 470 class. She says she "nearly gave up" on sailing after that, but when the 49er FX class was added to the 2016 Olympic programme she decided to continue. However, the pair missed out on the 2016 Games as well. She plans to retire after competing at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and hopes to finish her studies, start a professional career, and maybe start a family. "My biological clock is ticking. After so long sailing, we have started to think about our future lives. Unfortunately, we don't earn anything from our sport and put all of our income back into sailing." (sueddeutsche.de, 06 Sep 2019; traunsteiner-tagblatt.de, 27 May 2017)

CHANGING OF COACH
In 2019 she and crewmate Susann Beucke decided to no longer work with the German national team coach after disappointing results that year, including a 12th place finish at the European championships. "This failure made us really angry. We decided to stop looking for explanations." By chance, the Irish FX team coach Ian Baker had became available and the pair began working with him. "Fortunately, he was interested in working with us. He completely turned our routine upside down." (traunsteiner-tagblatt.de, 27 Dec 2019)

CROSS TRAINING ON SNOW
She was an active skier in her youth until age 13 when she decided to focus on sailing. She still uses skiing for cross training, and for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo she began a ski training programme with the assistance of coaches from the Swedish national biathlon team. "It was brutal, but it really helped. We know we are always going to be the last sailors to be tired. I've never been so fit. A sailing regatta doesn't compare to how out of breath we are after skiing." (sporthilfe.de 06 Dec 2019; traunsteiner-tagblatt.de, 27 May 2017)

In 2005 she became the first German sailor to win a world championship gold medal in the Optimist Open class. (boot.de 05 Aug 2005)