(May 22, 2024) – For our first athlete profile of 2024 (and the 46th in the “Getting to Know…” series) we catch up with German brakewoman Vanessa Mark. Vanessa had an outstanding 2023/2024 season on the handles alongside pilot Lisa Buckwitz as the duo won the IBSF World Championships on Mark’s home track in Winterberg. Over the course of two seasons on the World Cup tour, Mark has won five gold medals plus the 2024 championships, and has pushed for seemingly everyone at some point, including Mariama Jamanka, Laura Nolte, and Kim Kalicki.
Slider: Vanessa Mark
Team: German Bobsled
Hometown: Frankfurt (originally Dortmund)
Home track: Winterberg
As we do with all of these, we’ll start with this one: What’s your favorite track, and why?
Of course, one of my favorite tracks is St. Moritz. The ice is the smoothest I’ve ever slid on, and the area around the track is really nice. So every season we really like going to St. Moritz.
Another one of my favorite tracks is La Plagne. But it’s so bumpy, and entirely different than St. Moritz. You push, then you get in the sled and it’s already bumpy, so from the very first corner to the last you’re bumping. I think it’s a really nice track though!
Do you like the start ramp in La Plagne?
It’s also nice! It’s a little more flat and long, but it depends on if you’re a runner or if you push hard and get in early. I feel like I can do both, I can both run it deep or push fast at the beginning. So I like it there, I had my first competition this year there!
Also, Beijing is really nice! In Altenberg when you hit the Kreisel there’s a lot of pressure, but in Beijing you don’t really feel it. It’s smooth and you feel how fast and high you are in the sled, so it’s just so different to somewhere like Altenberg.
Unrelated to the track, where is your favorite town to visit on tour?
I enjoy Lake Placid! The lake is there and it’s really nice to have a walk along there. It’s also just one street there, and when we have time we like to go have an iced coffee or something like that. Most tracks aren’t in the middle of a city or an area like that, so we have to drive a while from the track to get somewhere, but Lake Placid you’re right there onto the street!
Of course St. Moritz is always nice and we love it there. It’s always expensive though!
After the season is over everyone takes a little break before training, what did you do this year after the season end? Did you go anywhere?
After Lake Placid I went to the Caribbean for the first time! We went to the Domincan Republic, myself and my boyfriend [Austrian bobsled pilot] Markus Treichl. We went for about two weeks and it was really nice!
Any particular reason you went to the Dominican Republic?
We wanted to go to the Caribbean, and we said we were already in Lake Placid so we were already kind of nearby. We were looking at either Cuba, Mexico or the Dominican Republic and I looked online and the Dominican Republic seemed really nice, so we went there!
It was my first time at an all-inclusive resort too! It was really exciting, it’s nice to go out and eat and drink everything you like without having to look to see how much it is. I really enjoyed it, it was nice!
You’ve pushed for many different pilots, how did you get teamed up with Lisa Buckwitz this season?
I was on her team last season, but I was injured so I wasn’t competing and that’s why everyone feels like I was just joining. After the Beijing Olympics Mariama [Jamanka] retired so I was free to slide with someone else. Lisa was the next pilot coming to the World Cup, and she asked me after that season. But had she not asked me I was going to ask her!
Who have you enjoyed pushing for the most, other than Lisa?
Oh wow, there were lots! I would say with Mariama, because she always gave me a really nice feeling. When we were standing on the start block about to start we’d look into each other’s eyes that we were getting into it together and giving it 100%. So she gave me a nice feeling, I gave her a nice feeling, and I enjoyed that!\
Do you have any interest in driving?
I’m enjoying on the back of the sled, but I would also like being a pilot but now I’m too old to make the switch! When I was young and starting in bobsled they never talked about me moving up to be the pilot. But then two years ago one of our coaches came to me and said to try going up and being a pilot. I tested a monobob and I really liked it, and since then I can relate more about how hard it is to drive the sled. I think I would be like it, I’m not someone who has a lot of fear but I’m just too old. If I could go back to when I was 22 or 23 I would go back and try driving, 100%.
Maybe for club sliding afterward?
Maybe!
Before you began pushing bobsleds, what did you do for sport?
I did track and field, in the heptathlon until I was about 18. I was pretty good at track and field, and I think maybe I could have competed for the German federation but I don’t know that I would have gotten any medals at World Championships there.
If you hadn’t gone into bobsleigh, what would you be doing?
If I hadn’t done bobsled I would have stuck with heptathlon. What am I doing after this? I don’t know…I’m working in an office right now, and I don’t love it really but it’s okay! It’s not my dream job but it’s okay!
I would have liked to do dancing and then probably have a regular job. But I’d go on holiday every chance I could when I wanted instead of when the schedule allows it or just going on vacation for just the weekend.
What is your pre-race routine like?
Our competitions are usually in the morning. I wake up three hours before the competition, then spend some time relaxing in the room with my roommate. I take a shower, have breakfast and hang out with the other girls, since the boys aren’t there in the morning.
It depends on who I’m rooming with, but we’ll have loud music and getting ready! I like listening to music and not thinking about the competition the whole time. I don’t like to think too much about the competition.
So you don’t think about it until you’re at the track?
We just talk about the competition, as much as we talk about everything else. When we get ready and put on our jackets and go to the transporter we’ll talk about it.
I’m the kind of person who gets really nervous before a competition, so I can’t just sit down and chill, I have to be doing something so I don’t think about the competition the whole time. So I talk with the spare brakewoman…usually the other girls want to think about the race and don’t want to be distracted so I’ll talk with the spare and talk with the trainer or anyone who will listen. I’d rather do that than sit alone and do nothing!
When you’re warming up, do you listen to any music? If so, what do you like to listen to?
I usually don’t listen to music, if there’s loud music I’ll hear it. But I don’t like to concentrate too long…because I’m already nervous! So if I focus too long I get more and more nervous. So I like to just talk with people and feel how the atmosphere is at the track.
Sometimes there’s a song I’m listening to right before, I don’t know the song, but it’s the Chicago Bulls song [Sirius by The Alan Parsons Project] when Michael Jordan would come out!
What’s been the toughest moment for you in bobsled?
I’ve been doing bobsled since the 2015/2016 season, and it took such a long time to get to the World Championships and to win them, so I’ve had a lot of complications along the way to get there.
But I think the hardest was during the Junior World Championships in St. Moritz [2018]. It was going to be my first Junior World Champs and a day before the competition my trainer said “Vanessa, we’re going to take you from the sled, because your training starts were too slow!” And I was like “Nobody told me I had to run fast in training!”
That was one of the hardest moments for me, because it was one of the first big competitions for me and then I’m told that I’m not going to compete. And then I had to stand next to the other brakewoman and I had to yell and cheer for her even though I was really sad. And they got third place, and I had to watch that. That was really hard, probably the hardest for me in the sport.
What’s been your best memory in sliding sports?
Of course the first one is World Championships this season! I won and that was nice, but it was my first time having so many people there. The first time I competed in World Championships it was during COVID so there wasn’t anybody there. This time there were so many people, and my friends and family were there. Competing in front of them was really great, and it was my home track in Winterberg! It was on my birthday, too! So it was a moment in my life I’ll never forget.
Of course a big dream is the Olympic Games, but I don’t think it matters what happens there. The moment I had in Winterberg was just a moment in my life that I don’t think I’ll have again.
Another one was when we went to Beijing for the homologation of the track. We were there for three and a half weeks and we were all in one hotel with all of the other nations. It was like a big school trip, because all of us were in one hotel and there wasn’t a big competition so everyone was more chill and it was really fun. I enjoyed all of our time there, even though it was during COVID we had all of the nations in one hotel and it was just really nice