Kira Walkenhorst

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Kira Walkenhorst
Kira Walkenhorst in Münster 2017
2017 in Münster
portrait
birthday November 18, 1990
place of birth Essen, Germany
size 1.84 m
Indoor volleyball
position External attack
societies



2009–2011
2011–2013 		VC Essen-Borbeck
VC Olympia Berlin
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Alemannia Aachen
FdG Herne
National team
National junior team
beach volleyball
Partner 2008–2012 Chantal Laboreur
2010 Anika Brinkmann
2010 Anna-Lena Rahe
2010 Jana Köhler
2011 Melanie Gernert
2011–2012 Geeske Banck
2013–2017 Laura Ludwig
2018 Leonie Körtzinger
2020 Anna-Lena Grüne
society 2013-2018 Hamburger SV
successes
2011 - 3rd place U23 European Championship
2012 - U23 European Champion
2012 - German Vice Champion
2013 - European Championship third
2013 - German Champion
2014 - Winner Grand Slam Shanghai
2014 - European Championship third
2015 - Winner Grand Slam Yokohama
2015 - European Champion
2015 - German Champion
2015 - 2nd place World Tour Final Fort Lauderdale
2015 - Winner Puerto Vallarta Open
2016 - Winner Antalya Open
2016 - European Champion
2016 - Winner Hamburg Major
2016 - Winner Grand Slam Olsztyn
2016 - Winner Klagenfurt Major
2016 - Olympic Champion
2016 - Beach volleyball player of the year
2016 - German Champion
2016 - Winner World Tour Final Toronto
2016 - Team of the Year (with Laura Ludwig)
2017 - World Champion
2017 - Winner World Tour Final Hamburg
2017 - Team of the Year (with Laura Ludwig)
As of July 21, 2020

Kira-Katharina Walkenhorst (born November 18, 1990 in Essen ) is a German volleyball and beach volleyball player . With Laura Ludwig she became Olympic champion in 2016 and world champion in 2017 . She became European Champion in 2015 and 2016. With Laura Ludwig, she was also voted Team of the Year in 2016 and 2017 .

Career hall

In the hall, Walkenhorst also played in the junior national team, with which she took part in the European Championship in Foligno , Italy , but had to retire injured. She played at VC Olympia Berlin , Bayer 04 Leverkusen and from 2009 at Bundesliga club Alemannia Aachen before playing for regional division FdG Herne from 2011 to 2013 , where her father was a coach.

Career Beach

Kira Walkenhorst with Geeske Banck after winning the tournament in Cologne 2011

2005 to 2012

In 2005, Walkenhorst became German C youth champion alongside Mareen Terwege. Later u. a. Chantal Laboureur and Anika Brinkmann their partners. She started with Anna-Lena Rahe for the first time in 2010 at the German championship in Timmendorfer Strand and finished thirteenth. Then she won the Challenger tournament in Chennai, India with Jana Köhler .

In 2011, Walkenhorst initially started with Melanie Gernert , but switched to Geeske Banck in July , with whom she immediately won the smart tournament in Cologne and finished ninth in the German championship. In between, Kira Walkenhorst won the bronze medal with her former partner Chantal Laboureur at the U23 European Championships in Porto . In 2012 she won the U23 European Championship again with Laboreur in Assen, the Netherlands . Kira Walkenhorst then became German runner-up with Geeske Banck . Then Banck / Walkenhorst reached seventh place at the Åland Open .

2013 to 2016

Since 2013, Walkenhorst has played alongside four-time beach volleyball player of the year Laura Ludwig for Hamburger SV . In the first tournament of 2013, the CEV Satellite in Antalya , Ludwig / Walkenhorst reached the final, which they lost 2-0 to the Dutch van Gestel / Meppelink . After being unable to play the first tournament of the world tour in Fuzhou due to an injury to Walkenhorst , they came fifth in Shanghai . In The Hague , they came in ninth place. At the World Cup in Stare Jabłonki , Ludwig / Walkenhorst reached the quarter-finals, where they were eliminated against the Chinese team Xue / Zhang Xi and finished fifth. At the European Championships in Klagenfurt , they achieved third place. Towards the end of the season, Ludwig / Walkenhorst took second place each at the Grand Slams in Moscow and São Paulo . On the German Smart Beach Tour they reached third places in Norderney , Hamburg and Münster and finally became German champions in August .

At the start of the season in Fuzhou , Ludwig / Walkenhorst achieved ninth place. In the first Grand Slam of the season in Shanghai , the team was successful in the final against the Chinese Wang / Yue Y. and thus achieved the first victory of a German team in a Grand Slam. At the European Championships in Quartu Sant'Elena , Ludwig / Walkenhorst again won the bronze medal. Since she contracted Pfeiffer's glandular fever , Walkenhorst had to end the season early at the beginning of July. In 2014 she was awarded the Commander's Coin for her achievements .

At the EM in Klagenfurt 2015

In the 2015 season , Walkenhorst returned at Ludwig's side. At the Grand Slam in Moscow and at the Major Series tournament in Poreč , the duo reached 17th place. In Stavanger , Ludwig / Walkenhorst narrowly missed a medal as fourth and they came fifth at the Grand Slam in Saint Petersburg . At the World Cup in the Netherlands they reached the knockout round after a tie-break loss against the duo Dubovcová / Nestarcová . There they had to admit defeat to the Russians Ukolowa / Birlowa and finished the tournament in 17th place. At the subsequent Major Series tournament in Gstaad , they came in fifth again in the top ten. At the Grand Slam in Yokohama they won the final against the new world champions Bárbara Seixas and Ágatha Bednarczuk . A week later they became European champions in the final against Ukolowa / Birlowa in Klagenfurt . At the Grand Slam in Long Beach , Ludwig / Walkenhorst achieved third place, while in Olsztyn they only came in ninth. At the German championship they won their second joint title in the final against Teresa Mersmann and Isabel Schneider . At the beginning of October, Ludwig / Walkenhorst lost to the Brazilian duo Larissa / Talita in the final of the 100,000 US dollar beach volleyball tournament in Fort Lauderdale ("World Tour Final") . A week later they won the open tournament in Puerto Vallarta in another German-Brazilian final against Eduarda Lisboa and Elize Maia .

Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst (right) during the award ceremony at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

In May 2016 Ludwig / Walkenhorst won the Open tournament in Antalya . At the EM in Biel at the beginning of June they were again European champions with a victory in the final against the Czechs Markéta Sluková and Barbora Hermannová . A week later, Ludwig / Walkenhorst won the major tournament in Hamburg after two 2-1 victories over April Ross / Kerri Walsh in the semifinals and against Ágatha Bednarczuk and Bárbara Seixas in the final . By winning the tournament at the subsequent Grand Slam in Olsztyn , Poland , Ludwig / Walkenhorst climbed to first place in the world rankings. At the Poreč Major they lost in the German duel for third place against Borger / Büthe . In Gstaad they came in third. At the major tournament in Klagenfurt , they achieved their fifth tournament victory in the current World Tour. As the second best team in the Olympic rankings, Ludwig / Walkenhorst qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro . There they came into the knockout round as group winners and then defeated the Swiss Forrer / Vergé-Dépré and the Canadians Pavan / Bansley without losing a set. With another 2-0 against the Brazilians Larissa / Talita they reached the final. There they defeated the second Brazilian duo Ágatha Bednarczuk and Bárbara Seixas also 2-0 and became Olympic champions; it was the first medal for a European women's team. Then Ludwig / Walkenhorst were chosen as the beach volleyball players of the year . In the final of the German championship they prevailed against Laboreur / Sude and thus successfully defended their title. At the FIVB season finale in Toronto , Ludwig / Walkenhorst won 2-0 in the final against the Swiss Zumkehr / Heidrich .

2017/2018

At the FIVB opening tournament in Fort Lauderdale in 2017 , Walkenhorst played together with Julia Großner , as Laura Ludwig was recovering from a shoulder operation. Großner / Walkenhorst won two of their three pool play games and reached the knockout round, in which they lost 2-0 to the Dutch Meppelink / Van Gestel and ended the tournament in 17th place. At the beginning of May, Walkenhorst again won the tournament at the Smart Super Cup in Münster alongside Ludwig . At the four-star tournament of the World Tour 2017 in Rio de Janeiro at the end of May, Ludwig / Walkenhorst achieved fifth place after three wins and a 2-0 defeat in the quarter-finals against Canadians Humana-Paredes / Pavan . They finished the three-star tournaments in Moscow and The Hague in ninth place. They finished fourth at the Presidents Cup in Long Beach . At the World Championships in Vienna , Ludwig / Walkenhorst came into the knockout phase as group winners, in which they defeated a Chinese and two American duos before they prevailed against the Brazilians Larissa / Talita in a new edition of the Olympic semifinals . With a 2-1 victory in the final against the US duo Ross / Fendrick , they became the first German women to become world champions. At the European Championships in Jūrmala, Ludwig / Walkenhorst lost in the quarter-finals to the later European champions Glenzke / Großner and took fifth place. At the FIVB season finale in Hamburg , Ludwig / Walkenhorst won 2-1 in the final against the Brazilians Ágatha / Duda . At the German championships they were defeated by Borger / Kozuch and the later vice-champions Gernert / Zautys and finished the tournament in fifth place. Walkenhorst was operated on on the hip at the beginning of December 2017 and on the shoulder at the end of January 2018 and was therefore absent for several months. Because of Laura Ludwig's pregnancy, she played in the national tournament series with Leonie Körtzinger in 2018 . In their comeback at the start of the Techniker Beach Tour in Münster, the duo finished 13th after two defeats. In Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, the duo took second place each. In St. Peter-Ording, as in Münster, the duo took 13th place. The duo came fourth on Usedom in Zinnowitz. In Kühlungsborn she reached fourth place alongside Lena Overländer and third place alongside Elena Kiesling in Leipzig. Due to a displaced rib, she had to cancel the German championships. In January 2019, Walkenhorst had to temporarily end her career due to persistent physical problems, and she was operated on ten times for back problems.

From 2020

In July 2019, Walkenhorst announced its comeback for 2020, which had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany . At the beginning of August 2020, Walkenhorst and Anna-Lena Grüne qualified for the German championship in September via the Comdirect Beach Tour .

family

Kira Walkenhorst's siblings Pia and Alexander also play volleyball and beach volleyball. Since October 27, 2017 she has been married to beach volleyball player Maria Kleefisch , with whom she has been together since 2014. This took on the surname Walkenhorst after the wedding. In July 2018, the couple announced Maria Walkenhorst's pregnancy through an anonymous sperm donor. Triplets were born in October 2018.

Web links

Commons : Kira Walkenhorst  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Junior European Championships Foligno (w): Kira Walkenhorst wishes to get well soon. In: volleyball-verband.de. Retrieved May 22, 2019 .
  2. ^ Reports. In: fdg-herne.de. Retrieved June 1, 2012 .
  3. ↑ 2013 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite Antalya. In: CEV.lu. April 6, 2013, accessed April 6, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Sao Paulo GRAND SLAM. In: FIBV.org. Retrieved October 14, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Ludwig / Walkenhorst with historic success - Grand Slam victory in Shanghai. (No longer available online.) In: volleyballer.de. May 6, 2014, archived from the original on August 5, 2016 ; accessed on August 5, 2016 .
  6. ↑ The Marseille barracks remains a medal forge. In: Abendblatt.de. August 22, 2014. Retrieved August 22, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Ludwig / Walkenhorst win the highest prize money of their career. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . October 5, 2015, accessed October 12, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Olympic heroine threatens a long break. In: Sport1 . December 6, 2017, accessed December 6, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Comeback! - Gold Kira and the tall Leonie . In: bild.de . ( bild.de [accessed on May 8, 2018]).
  10. ↑ Kira Walkenhorst back in the sand - in a new role. NDR, June 11, 2018, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Beach: Kira Walkenhorst ends her career. In: volleyball.de. January 7, 2019, accessed January 7, 2019 .
  12. ↑ SWR1 BW, SWR1 BW: Kira Walkenhorst. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Beach: Kira Walkenhorst announces comeback for 2020. In: volleyball.de. January 7, 2019, accessed August 2, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Secret revealed: Kira Walkenhorst plays with Anna-Lena Grüne. Volleyball Magazine, July 19, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Kira Walkenhorst: It all belongs to me. In: morgenpost.de
  16. ^ NDR : Wife pregnant - Kira Walkenhorst becomes a mother
  17. ^ Beach Olympic champion Walkenhorst mother of triplets
personal data
SURNAME Walkenhorst, Kira
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walkenhorst, Kira-Katharina (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German volleyball and beach volleyball player
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1990
PLACE OF BIRTH Essen , Germany