After winning a World Championships gold medal this summer, Marco Koch returned to his home city of Darmstadt to a new honor: a banner celebraing his achievements in his home pool.
Germany’s Swim.de has the story here, including photos of Koch unveiling the banner at Nordbad, the pool where he does most of his training.
The banner reads “Trainingstaette des Weltmeisters – mit Darmstadt im Ruecken nach Rio 2016,” which in German means “training venue of the world champion – with Darmstadt behind him on the way to Rio 2016.”
Koch and his coach Alexander Kreisel were in Darmstadt to commemorate the new banner. Koch is coming off the 2015 World title in the 200 breaststroke, a race in which he beat out a host of strong competitors including rising American Kevin Cordes and Olympic champ Daniel Gyurta on his way to Germany’s only gold medal of the pool swimming events.
Swim.de reports that the ceremony was delayed about a month. Koch flew directly to Turkey from those World Championships in Russia, taking a much-needed vacation. Koch fell ill shortly after Worlds and cancelled his schedules appearances at the World Cup events in Moscow and Paris.
Koch has long pushed for the city of Darmstadt to updated the Nordbad pool, and his recent world title may cause the city to finally agree, Swim.de reports.