German Judo federation welcomes new Vice President Laura Vargas Koch

Prof. Dr. Laura Vargas Koch has been appointed as the new DJB Vice President of Competitive Sports. Laura Vargas Koch is known above all as an extremely successful athlete. She won bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, was Vice World Champion in 2013 and won many other medals at European Championships and in the IJF series. The athlete, who has been doing judo since she was seven years old, is also well known for her straightforward training alongside high-performance sport. She studied mathematics, wrote her doctoral thesis and is now a professor of mathematics at the University of Bonn.

Despite this high level of stress in her daily work, the 34-year-old is now taking on the challenge of taking on responsibility in the DJB Executive Board. She maintains a close and trusting working relationship with her former national coach and predecessor Michael Bazynski, who has now taken on the role of Executive Board Member of Competitive Sports. "I want to give something back to judo, which has given me a lot and made it possible for me. Since I don't see myself in the role of a trainer, this is a very good opportunity for me," she says about her motivation for this position. "My job is to advise Michael on strategic issues and to represent competitive sport in the DJB to the outside world and to network well."
Her goal is to optimize the conditions for athletes in the DJB. "It is particularly important to me that everyone who has the necessary prerequisites can gain access to competitive sport and that we can also advise our athletes in good conscience to pursue a career in competitive sport. Of course, I would then also like to create the best possible training conditions for these athletes."
For her, there are a lot of discussions on the agenda at the moment so that she can get an overview. The presidium is like a supervisory board and in this sense controls the work of the board. "For me, this means above all that we can support and advise on all important decisions and bring in new perspectives from which everyone benefits."