25 years ago her life took a new direction: within a few days, world-class fencer Zita Funkenhauser had to make three important decisions. A quarter of a century later, life leads the Tauberbischofsheimerin back to this fork in the road: Her twin daughters are faced with the same decision – and the mother takes stock: “I was rewarded for persevering.”
“Life repeats itself”
When Zita Funkenhauser, as a young top athlete, scored a goal with the foil, she sometimes screamed out her joy at the triumph. Today she enjoys moments of affirmation more quietly ?? but no less enthusiastic: “Life repeats itself,” says the 54-year-old with a smile, looking at the calendar. What does she mean by that? She listens to the question a little. You just have reason to be grateful to fate, says Zita Funkenhauser? and looks back.
In the spring of 1996, Zita Funkenhauser was a name that the world knew beyond sport. The world-class fencer, who came from Romania as a child and stayed at the Tauber, was a glamorous symbol of the success of the world-famous fencing stronghold in the northern Baden province for a decade.
“Tendency to almost southern eccentricity”
At that time the “Frankfurter Allgemeine” called its style “light-footed, almost prancing and at the same time powerful and explosive at the crucial moment”. The “Süddeutsche” praised “a purposeful aggressiveness and the tendency to almost southern eccentricity”.
And the photographers loved the spirited beauty with the dark mane, who looked (and was) very different from her blonde fellow fencer Anja Fichtel. The fact that behind their appearance, their achievements, in addition to talent, there was also iron discipline and perseverance, often went unnoticed.
And then, that spring 25 years ago, her life was at a crossroads. Somehow, it was as if fate were whispering to the world-class athlete: You can’t live off being German champion, Olympic champion and world champion in foil fencing for ever.
In spring 1996 the Olympic champion was faced with the question: “Should I attack again at the Olympic Games in Atlanta?” The Tauberbischofsheimerin decided otherwise? With a heavy heart: Because with her husband Matthias Behr ?? as successful as a fencer as she? Zita Funkenhauser was expecting twins. And she wanted to crown her degree in dentistry in Würzburg with the opening of her own practice in Tauberbischofsheim. That “entailed more risk than taking over a practice, but also more freedom,” she said later.
When the course was set, the then 29-year-old embarked on a new adventure: “There was no going back! Not even pregnant!”, She remembers with a smile. “So I gave up my ambitions to take part in the Olympic Games for the fourth time.”
Instead, Zita Funkenhauser pulled teeth and treated inflamed roots in the early summer of 1996 – and became a mother. “A former fellow student ran the practice on my behalf for a short time and I was back here in September,” she says with the carefree smile that still distinguishes her.
Persevered: “I was rewarded for that”
The fact that she had to be the support of her seriously ill husband for a long time, led the practice, raised the two girls Leandra and Greta, cost strength. Funkenhauser makes no fuss about it. You only notice it in quiet sentences, with which she creates distance, quickly changes the subject: “That just shows how resilient a person is.” But she also gains the positive from this part of life, with the pride of a winner: “I was rewarded for persevering”.
In retrospect, Zita Funkenhauser says today: “Of course, the ideal course of events would have been different, first complete the Olympic Games, then lead the practice for a year or two and then the children”. But it cannot be planned that way, “and there is no ideal time to start a family anyway!”
Compatibility of family and work: “perceived as a luxury”
Family is above everything to her. “I consciously perceived it as a luxury to be able to have both family and work.” The ways were short in Tauberbischofsheim, the elementary school was directly opposite the dentist’s practice. “We could wave to each other. That also made the whole thing logistically simpler.”
Dentistry was not a pipe dream, it was a pragmatic decision: “I have always had an affinity for craftsmanship, wanted to study nearby so that I could continue to train.” At the time, she also considered studying architecture or becoming an ophthalmologist. In any case, it should be a course that was offered in Würzburg and that offered the opportunity for something creative.
However, she never really escaped the sport – not as a mother of fencing daughters and then also as a dentist for the German Olympic team in Beijing in 2008 and in London in 2012. With a smile she gave Tauberbischofsheimerin at a meeting with her fencing colleague Sabine Bau ?? she too is a doctor and mother today? three years ago how helpless I felt: to stand next to the fencing piste as a mother and not be able to help when your own daughter crosses the sword with an opponent. “The faint is terrible.”
Quiet enjoyment
The fact that both daughters followed her, not only in the fencing hall, but also in practice means a lot to her. Zita Funkenhauser has now worked as a dentist for a quarter of a century, today with twelve instead of two employees. Fencing has given way to yoga and badminton, and the moments of loud success and the limelight have given way to quiet enjoyment of nature on a walk or in the garden.
And right now it seems to Zita Funkenhauser that life is whispering to her: “You made it right at that moment of the decision 25 years ago.” She works ?? completely without fencing – very at ease with himself, is pleased that her husband Matthias can now ironically be called “doctoral supervisor” after daughter Greta passed her doctorate with flying colors and Leandra wants to complete her successfully this year in Würzburg.
Their twins, Greta and Leandra, will be 25 years old this summer. After completing her studies in Würzburg, one of them is currently collecting resolutely and curiously in a children’s dental practice in Hamburg Professional Experience. The other continues to cross swords while fencing with the world’s elite, wants to go to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo ?? but works every day in the mother’s practice with.
“Life repeats itself,” says Zita with a smile, looking at her daughters. She doesn’t want to dictate any rules or pretend anything. The two should find their own way.
Profession and Passion
She herself owes her satisfaction to sport, even though her body today pays the price for the long torment in competitive sport. “Without fencing, my life would not have been so positive,” says the 54-year-old. You learn early on to “persevere even when things don’t go well.” And she is convinced: “Not the most talented, but the most stubborn win!”
Is discipline the most important thing for dentistry and fencing? “No,” says Funkenhauser spontaneously. “The passion!” Because even if most people think of suffering rather than passion when they hear the term dentist: “It would be difficult in a job that you don’t enjoy.”
Top athlete, dentist, mother
In 1984 the foil fencer became an Olympic champion with the team, and in 1987 she won the silver medal at the World Fencing Championships in Lausanne. At the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, Zita Funkenhauser won bronze in the individual and defended the team title. In 1992 she won silver with the team.
Funkenhauser graduated from high school in 1986 in Tauberbischofsheim. She studied dentistry in Würzburg and received her doctorate in 1994. She is married to the fencer Matthias Behr, also Olympic and world champion, and has two children with him, Greta and Leandra Behr, who also fights. After the end of her sporting career, the 54-year-old now works as a dentist in Tauberbischofsheim.
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