'Gymnastics has changed'

DW: The World Championships in Artistic Gymnastics are due to start in China at the end of this week, and the event is clearly an important stop on the path to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. What goals do you have ahead of the event in Nanning?

Fabian Hambüchen: We are a good team and we want to reach the team finals. Reaching that stage should not be a problem. Personally, I want to reach the final in the individual combined event and on the horizontal bar. Those are my goals to start with, and then, in the finals, anything is possible. You just never know what will happen then.

On the horizontal bar your biggest rival is Epke Zonderland from the Netherlands. He is an Olympic gold medallist and a World and European champion. How can you beat him?

In the last few years it's always been close between us. Earlier in the year, at the European Championships, I tried to do something new and I fell. That's when I realized, I can't beat Epke at his own tricks. I have to work out how to progress in my own way. I can't do that by increasing the difficulty of my routine, I just have to execute it better. I have worked on that in the last weeks and I'll be keen to see what results that now brings.

Your first big competition was at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. You have now been at the top of world gymnastics for a long time, some 10 years. How have you been able to survive for so long?

I started young and had great training from my father, who is still my coach. It is amazing to be a gymnast for so long, but I never thought about it. It's always been clear to me: my gymnastic career will last until the end of my 20s, maybe my early 30s. I will soon turn 27. I realise now that I have a lot of experience, but I still go into every competition just as nervous as when I did 10 years ago.

Do you have to train differently now to be able to keep pace with the youngsters? More efficiently, perhaps?

A lot has changed. Sometimes I sit there at training and joke that I would love to be in my early 20s again. Then I could train more extensively. But, these days, I know where my strengths and weaknesses are and what is good for my body. Still, I try to practise new things and I realise quickly what works and what doesn't. Gymnastics has changed a lot in the last few years. But I can still keep pace, and I think my training regime will keep changing.

After the Olympic Games in London you started your studies at the German Sports University in Cologne. Wouldn't it have made more sense to increase your training? Do your studies impact your ability to train now?

After London I thought to myself, "Okay, now I'm in my mid-20s. When I finish gymnastics I want to be able to get into the workforce relatively quickly, I don't want to first get a job in my mid-30s." That was the thinking behind the decision to start studying. Of course, it is a huge job to coordinate it all. You arrive at university and at first you don't really know how everything works. Suddenly I could only train once a day. The first semester was a bit of a journey of discovery for me. After that though, I got things under control and organized my courses so that I could train in the mornings and at midday, and I study in the other times. That is a big daily load but we have coordinated it well. The distance between Cologne and my home in Wetzlar is considerable, so my father comes to Cologne sometimes, and other times I travel to Wetzlar. It hasn't been a problem for the last few years. The World Championships last year were great and I was fitter than ever.

With 35 domestic titles, Fabian Hambüchen is the most successful gymnast in Germany. On the horizontal bar, his favorite discipline, he has been World Champion once and European Champion three times, as well as picking up two Olympic medals. The World Artistic Gymnastics Championships start on October 3 in Nanning, China, and will last until October 12.