Alica Schmidt admires fans' overwhelming support at Ostrava Golden Spike

Alica Schmidt shared moments with fans as she signed autographs during her stint at the Ostrava Golden Spike event on June 24, 2025. Schmidt came fresh off finishing runner-up in the 800m at the Atleticageneve in Switzerland.

Alica Schmidt switched to 800m in 2025, starting off her indoor season with a performance at the Nationales Hallenmeeting Erfurt but missing a podium finish. She then made a fourth-place finish at the German Indoor Championships, and days after, she jetted off to South Africa for her second high-altitude training camp.

The 26-year-old then trained in France before gracing the track for the outdoor season. In her first outdoor race at the Goldenest Oval in Dresden, she surprisingly finished last in the 800m, clocking 2:06.33. At the Atleticageneve in Switzerland, she clocked a runner-up finish over the distance.

Recently, the German sprinter shared the 800m heat 1 line-up at the Ostrava Golden Spike and finished fifth with a time of 2:05.06. Ahead of her race, she had a brief session of autograph signing as young fans flocked to watch her compete.

Sharing videos in her Instagram story, Alica Schmidt captioned:

"Another race in Ostrava today. The crowd"

Schmidt signs autographs for fans in Ostrava; Instagram - @alicasmd

The Olympian spent a one-day vacation at the Villa Contessa following her stint in Geneva. In a series of Instagram stories posted on June 23, 2025, she showed around the stay and shared pictures of herself in swimwear.

Alica Schmidt revealed the reason behind transitioning from 400m to 800m

Schmidt at the Paris 2024 - Athletics - (Source: Getty)

Alica Schmidt competed with the mixed 4x400m relay team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She didn't get the desired results, but walked home with a lot of memories. Shortly after, she went for her first high-altitude 800m training camp in South Africa to transition to the new event in 2025.

Recently, she hosted a Q&A session on Instagram, where a fan asked her the reason behind her shift. In response, Schmidt shared that she wanted a new goal and a fresh training schedule. She also confirmed that she would not scratch 400m entirely.

"I wanted a change and believe that, in the long run, I might have more potential in the 800m than the 400m. I needed a new challenge, new training schedule, new goals, and want to see where my limits are in this event. I will still run the 400m this summer cause I also love this event."

Schmidt was the 4x400m relay silver medalist at the European Athletics U20 Championships in 2017.

About the author

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

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Edited by Agnijeeta Majumder