For Selina Hocke the 2012-13 season was the best times and the worst of times. The 16 year old Berlin based swimmer had a terrific performance at the German National Championships finishing second to Jenny Mensing and posting a time of 1:01.52 improving on her previous best of 1:02.95 by almost a second and a half.
Mensing was not able to compete at the World Championships due to an injury, which lead to Hocke having to opportunity to represent Germany in Barcelona. Hocke struggled at the World Championships finishing 31st in the 100 backstroke finishing in a time of 1:02.94. It was because of that performance that the German coaches decided to fly relay alternate Lisa Graf into Barcelona to swim the backstroke leg of the 4 x 100 medley relay.
The move proved to be beneficial as Graf went to swim a 1:00.89 in the heats to help the German women qualify for the final where she swam a 1:01.22.
It was reported that in Barcelona Hocke’s poor performances were because she was overwhelmed by the by the competition itself and by what was expected of her. When referring to her experience in Barcelona Hocke told the Hamburg Evening Gazette, “This was just too much for me.”
Since the World Championships Hocke has moved from Berlin to Hamburg and has been training at the Olympic Training Centre where she is being coached by Petra Wolfram. She has been training with German Olympians Markus and Steffen Deibler and Silke Lippok who will be able to help her learn how to deal with the spotlight that comes with being a high profile athlete.
So far the youngster seems right at home, “It feels as if we are all one big family,” said Hocke.