Katharina Isele – Welcome To The Team

Katharina Isele is currently one of the fittest women in the German-speaking area and still has a long way to go in her sport.

Besides her love for CrossFit, she has also discovered her passion for weightlifting and joins our incredibly strong Weightlifting Shop athlete team. In this post, we would like to introduce Katharina and tell you the story behind this impressive athlete.

When Katharina Isele decided to lose weight 6 years ago, she would never have imagined where she is today. In January 2015, she entered a gym with a functional fitness area for the first time. “Completely hungover, I went to my first test training back then. I was working at a publishing house at the time and a colleague said to me ‘Katharina, you want to lose weight, don’t you? This would be something for you‘”

She was 20-years old and used to work out for 1.5 years mainly in the field of functional fitness at this gym until she discovered her interest in CrossFit. “One street over, I discovered a CrossFit box, started to inform myself about it, and often watched the members doing their workouts from a distance. Since I was particularly fascinated by barbell work, I decided to visit a weightlifting club, TSG Augsburg.”

Katharina then met members of her current box “Ben’s Gym” in Augsburg and finally switched in July 2016 from her more conventional gym to the box, which she remains loyal to this day. A short time later, the young Augsburg native found her way to her first CrossFit competition. “During this time, I intensively studied CrossFit, and the desire to participate in larger competitions grew in me. In 2018, after my first top ten placement at the Berlin Throwdown, this goal became very concrete for the first time: I want to participate in the CrossFit Games Regionals, that would be it!”

Since that day, Katharina invested a lot of sweat, time, and her own money and learned a lot about the ups and downs of the ambitious sport. Hundreds of training sessions, countless competitions, but also two bronze medals at the German Weightlifting Championships paved her way. “I have developed a special love for weightlifting over the years. Especially because it’s such a great contrast to functional fitness. The focus is rather on “that one lift”, which you do alone and mostly on a stage. This is and has been an incredibly positive experience for my mindset.”

Already to be found at German Weightlifting Championships since 2018: Katharina Isele

Since January 2021, Katharina has shown in her everyday life around sports how much she is willing to sacrifice for her dream. She changed her profession in the advertising industry and is now working in her box “Ben’s Gym”. Despite her young age, she brings an uncanny amount of experience to her classes and devotes her off-hours to her own sports career.

Besides her job at Ben’s Gym, however, Katharina shows her determination on other fronts as well. On social media, she is campaigning for an issue that does not receive enough public attention. “I want to help other people feel more comfortable with their bodies. Every person, whether fit or unfit is different, but still perfect for themselves! This little fight against false ideals of beauty I lead from full conviction because I also once weighed 20 kg more and was therefore no different person than today.”

Katharina consistently advocates “body positivity” on social media

Her new focus on sports paid off after only a short time. At this year’s CrossFit Games Open, she finished as the second-best German and also qualified for the Quarterfinals. In the end, she finished 67th and thus just missed out on a place in the semifinals, which were secretly considered the goal of this year’s season.

“Of course, I was incredibly disappointed not to have achieved my actual goal. With a little distance, however, I am proud to have achieved this goal without any athletic background at all. After all, 6 years ago I weighed 96 kg and apparently had no talent for any sporting activity. Without Ben by my side, I certainly would not have managed this. I’m also taking away some positive learnings from this experience because as an athlete, you first have to put away the psychological strain.”

Learn more about Bens Gym

Since 2019, Katharina has also been supported on her journey by Reebok, and since then the sportswear manufacturer from Herzogenaurach has also been one of her most loyal partners. This contact is also the secret behind her latest partnership with the Weightlifting Shop.

5 Questions to Katharina Isele

“Reebok and the Weightlifting Shop stand for me for great quality and incredibly good products. I’m glad to have gotten in touch with the store through my clothing partner here and to represent both brands in a worthy manner in the future. The Weightlifting Shop stands for me like no other store for an athlete team on the highest level and I am very proud to be a part of it.”

We wish Katharina all the best for her journey and will report from her again in the future.