Alica Schmidt, dubbed the “world’s sexiest athlete,” pushed herself out of her comfort zone and she’s now embarking on a new journey in her career.
The German track and field star, 26, who competed in the mixed 4x400m relay at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, revealed she is training to compete in the individual 800m and is shifting her focus to endurance running.
“It’s been quite a year 🤯,” Schmidt wrote on Instagram, including photos from this year’s Summer Games and European championships in Rome. “It was filled with so many highlights and I made some memories that will last forever: 🇧🇸 from the world relays in the Bahamas, where we qualified the mixed relay for the Olympics 🇮🇹 to the European championships in Rome, where we qualified the women’s 4x400m for Paris 🇩🇪 to the German nationals 🇫🇷 and of course: THE OLYMPICS 🥹.
Ѕchmidt explained she is still going to run the 400m, but she will focus more on endurance in her training for now.
“After Paris I tried something new and ran a 800m & 600m and really enjoyed pushing out of my comfort zone,” she wrote. “Back in 2022, I decided that I wanted to give the 800m a shot after the Paris Olympics, so now it means… I’m going for it next year 👀 I‘m on my way to my first high altitude training camp where I’ll join an international 800m group to train alongside great athletes where I can learn a lot. I‘m super excited for this new challenge and what it will bring ✨ (I‘m also going to run the 400m but focus more on the endurance part in training for now) Let this journey begin .. xoxo.”
Taking to her Instagram Story on Monday, Schmidt share a video of her walking through an airport.
“Off to the first training camp of the new season,” she wrote.
Another video showed a plane map with the aircraft in Johannesburg, a city in South Africa.
“Back in South Africa,” she wrote.
Schmidt took part in her first Olympic Games in Paris this summer — she was a reserve in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics — and raced in the mixed 4x400m relay at the Stade de France, where Team Germany finished seventh and was eliminated from the preliminary round.
She also competed in the women’s 4x400m relay.
Schmidt — who’s also a model and social media influencer with 5.7 million Instagram followers — did not compete in Japan at the Tokyo Olympics.
Last week, the sprinter revealed her “first and only tattoo,” which featured the Olympic rings inked on the side of her upper thigh.
It came after she began training last month for the 2025 season.