From school to soother to ski slopes

Gold medals, commercial shootings, press conferences: Ten years ago, Anna Schaffelhuber’s life was a blur of speed and appointments. Everything revolved around snow. The mono-ski rider ranked among Germany’s most successful athletes, winning five gold medals at the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi – and becoming a star overnight. “Sochi was the highlight of my sporting career. I am very proud of it,” the 32-year-old LMU alumna says today. “But it was also a strenuous time full of pressure, with an appointments book that was bursting at the seams.”

A measure of ambition had always been an important part of her life. Born a paraplegic, the native of Regensburg boarded a seated mono-ski – a special device that allows people with walking impediments to enjoy skiing – for the first time at the age of five. Shortly afterward, she found herself lining up for her first race. “I never wanted people to reduce me solely to my disability,” she insists. “Instead, I wanted to show that performance, passion and joie de vivre have nothing to do with physical preconditions.”

After completing the Abitur that opened the door to higher education, Schaffelhuber moved to Munich and, in 2011, initially enrolled to study law. “Becoming a lawyer was my dream back then,” she recalls. Rolling in a wheelchair through the venerable halls of the Faculty of Law was doable, but it could sometimes take a long time. “The biggest challenge was definitely getting from one seminar room to another,” she says, thinking back to her time as a student.

Five starts, five gold medals

As a rule, the rooms were some distance away from each other and often hard to find, “above all because you can’t simply ask someone the way”. Many students would only use the main routes via the stairwells – an option that was not available to her. And even the elevator system in the main building on Geschwister-Scholl-Platz took some getting used to: “The floors in different parts of the building are not all on the same level. You might have to press one in one elevator but two in the other building.”

Back then, she would regularly commute between lectures at LMU and training camps in the mountains. “When other athletes were regenerating, I would be sitting at my desk,” she says. Yet her studies also brought balance to her life: “After a race, I enjoyed sitting at a perfectly normal lecture and ‘switching channels’ in my mind.”

In the 2013 summer semester, she did everything she could to prepare for her university work so that she would have enough time to go skiing the following winter – and to attend the Paralympic Games in Sochi. Her strategy paid off. Despite the dual workload, she achieved something that is very rare indeed even in top-class sports: She started five races in the seated mono-ski class – downhill, super-G, super combination, giant slalom and slalom – and won every one of them. This achievement made her the German team’s most successful athlete at the Sochi Games and a figurehead for parasports.

From serious sport to the teachers’ staff room

Her success did not go unnoticed at LMU, of course: Lecturers and fellow students alike would occasionally ask her for her autograph. But her achievements also placed her under greater pressure. Why? Because she wanted to prove to herself and others that what she had done in Sochi was not just a flash in the pan. And indeed, she again took the podium on several occasions at the 2018 Paralympics in Pyeongchang – winning one silver and two gold medals – before being voted Germany’s “Female Para-Athlete of the Decade”.

Looking back, “I really couldn’t contain my elation at this award,” she recalls. Yet another triumph was, however, followed by a conscious break: “I wanted to stop at the right time – when things felt good.” So, instead of continuing to hunt for medals on the ski slopes, she returned to the auditoriums at LMU.

That said, she soon realized that, in the long run, she “would prefer to work with people than paragraphs”. Accordingly, she switched to a teacher training course at LMU, majoring in mathematics and economics. “I really liked how this combination linked analytical thinking to everyday life.” A strategic mindset, she added, had repeatedly helped in her sporting career, too.

Crossing the whole city in a wheelchair

In this subject, too, being in a wheelchair was not easy. “When you are training to become a teacher, you travel all over the city,” Schaffelhuber notes. “The various institutions are often a long distance apart, and you sometimes have to go looking for barrier-free access.” Over time, she learned to plan her routes precisely – drawing on the same discipline that had served her so well in her competitive sporting days.

After graduating from teacher training studies, Schaffelhuber began her trainee year at a secondary school in Wasserburg/Inn. Later, she taught mathematics, economics and accounting at schools in and around Rosenheim.

“You suddenly find yourself in front of a class, and you realize how much organization and patience you need,” she recalls. “That was quite a shift of perspective – from learning to teaching.” Schaffelhuber taught from her wheelchair. And she is convinced of the importance of being authentic. “When the pupils catch on that you are genuine and are passionate about what you do, nothing else really matters.”

No Limits Summer Camps

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At the same time, Schaffelhuber founded Grenzenlos Camps (No Limits Summer Camps), a project that enabled children with and without disabilities to share sporting activities together. “We want to encourage encounters, trust and learning together,” she says, because sport builds bridges between people. “Children quickly understand that they have a lot more in common than their differences.” The summer camps that she organizes in collaboration with partner organizations are growing constantly.

The birth of her child last year once again brought fundamental change to Anna Schaffelhuber’s life. Today, two small children keep her more than busy, and her days are full of new challenges. “The life I live now is calmer but no less fulfilling,” she says. “Obviously, it was a huge change – from constant travel for sporting competitions to a more settled life with far more empty spaces on the calendar. But that was precisely what I found so attractive after my sporting career.”

Her days are now more relaxed because she feels less pressure and faces less expectations – “even though certain moments with small children can obviously be stressful, albeit in a different way”. She still sometimes thinks back to her days spent training in the mountains. Her mind goes back to the sun, the snow, the rapid descents. “Yes, it would be nice again,” she admits. “But I don’t miss the cut and thrust of the competitions – especially when I think about how much organization and pressure comes with a life of high-level sports.”

Off to Milan – with a microphone

Being disciplined, structured and perseverant – skills that stood her in good stead during her sporting exploits – remains with Schaffelhuber today. “In my sporting career, I especially learned to be patient. That helps me tremendously today – in everyday family life as much as in my teaching activities.” When her parental leave is over, she is keen to get back into teaching at school. “But we’ll see how things turn out. Right now, my focus is on my daughters, and I am simply enjoying time with the family.”

Be that as it may, the former gold medalist doesn’t want to withdraw from the sporting scene altogether. For the 2026 Paralympics, she will once again travel to Milan-Cortina, though not with a mono-ski. This time, she will be armed with a microphone and a keen professional eye as a sports commentator for German broadcaster ARD.