Born: 1st of February 1981
Hometown: Hausen am Albis/Switzerland
Professional Career: 2000-2017
Business: Triathlon Coach
Education: DOSB Triathlon Trainerin A Langdistanz; Sportmanagement (IST)
Languages: English, Spanish, French
I was born on the 1st of February 1981 in Schorndorf (South-West Germany). Since I was a child I have liked doing sport. At 5 years of age I started to swim and run and won titles at regional championships. As the years went on I wanted to do something other than just swim, I competed in my first Triathlon in 1992. I was fascinated from the differences of the disciplines and the endurance you have to train to reach the finish line. So I found my kind of sport.
In 1998 I made the junior state team and one year later I became the German Junior Champion. With this title I qualified for the Junior European Championships in Madeira, my first international race and for the German Junior National Team.
In the year 2000 I finished school and took one year off to concentrate on Triathlon and think about my future. In the following season, my last junior year, I had my greatest success since I started with Triathlon. I placed 3rd at the European Championships and 4th place at the World Championships (both Junior-category). I qualified for the Elite National Team and so I decided to join the German Military-Sport group to do Triathlon professionally.
I moved to Saarbrücken (at the border of France) to train at the Triathlon Olympic Sport Center. At the same time I started to study “sports-management” by correspondence, which
I successfully finished in 2004.
In October 2005 I left the army again to spend the winter in Australia and South Africa and the following year I moved to Freiburg to train with my coach Lubos Bilek.
The 2006 and 2007 season was a breakthrough for me as a professional triathlete. With my 5th place at the World Championships 2007 and several top 10 World Cup finishes,
I showed that I can compete with the best triathletes in the world.
My goal has always been to start at the Olympic Games. This dream has come true in 2008 when I qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The games were the most exiting experience in my career. I finished 15th.
In 2013 I focused more on non-drafting races and could celebrate with the 2nd place at the European Championships (Olympic Distance) another success.
In 2015 I also succeeded on the Middle Distance. With the 8th place at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Zell am See/Austria, I surprised not only myself. Two month later I reached the podium at the Ironman 70.3. Los Cabos/Mexico.
2017 was my last year as a professional athlete and for the final I faced a very special challenge. My last competition was the famous Inferno Triathlon in Switzerland. With 3.1 km swimming, 97 km road cycling, 35 km mountain biking and 25km running with a total of 5500 meters of altitude, that was the long-distance compromise for me. After 10 h and 8 min I made it on the podium in third place and literally ended my career on the summit.
I have now given up my professional license and deregistered from the anti-doping agency. But I will remain true to the triathlon. As a coach, I now see the sport from a different perspective. I am happy that I can now pass on my years of experiences and hopefully encourage many people to do sports and support them in doing so.
ricarda lisk
Triathlon-Trainerin
DOSB Triathlon Trainer A Langdistanz
effectivetraining (at) ricardalisk.de