10. July 2025
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Flyctory.com Introduces the Featured Athletes – here is my first selection

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

The Featured Artists – musicians, which are in special focus and also get a little more service and attention from my side – are a key way to highlight certain musicians on Flyctory.com. When I introduced the Featured Clubs with a similar idea on the sports side in my post in April 2024, I focused on team sports. However, I always planned to expand the idea to Featured Athletes as well, i.e. also praising individual athletes rather than teams. I am typically a team sports person, but I also love and admire individual sports persons a lot. Some of the ones I selected are in fact doing team sports, but I felt they should be explicitly highlighted. Some of them also play in different teams, like at a club team as well as the national team. Here is my introduction post about Featured Athletes

 

What are Featured Athletes?

Naming a sportsperson a Featured Athlete is a purely one-sided decision from myself and my project Flyctory.com to have an increased focus on a certain athlete. There is no financial cashflow or support. Neither I do expect any kind of reimbursement from the athletes’ side. Vice versa, you cannot buy or request this flagging. I assign it to people I love to work with or who I feel very admirable as sports persons. Some of them are very successful in the sports they are doing, some are just national or regional elite. For you the only difference is that they are explicitly tagged in the reports I am writing. Similar to Featured Clubs, I try to cover these persons more frequently (if they are still active). However, as similar to that concept on the club and team level… This “additional support” sometimes works out better and sometimes not at all.

 

My Introductory Class of Features Athletes

Here is the first group of featured athletes. I don’t want to emphasize a certain person explicitly, so that I give them to you in alphabetical order (by the first name). In this first post, I rather tell you why I selected them and what they mean to me. The corresponding overview page is rather looking at their sports success and hard facts. I majorly concentrate on still active sportspersons in this list.

 

Allegra Hildebrand (Athletics)

Unfortunately, I just don’t make it to too many athletics events this year. 2024 was significantly richer in that regard. You might expect some of the “big names” in this Featured Athletes, but the one that touch me do not really cross the finish line first. One of them is the local sprinter Allegra Hildebrand from my residence town club TSV Bayer Leverkusen. The young sprinter is an absolute role model to me, combining competitive sports and driving her career. I would love her to make it big in both one day – and I feel she’s got the energy to do so.

 

Eliina Kujalat (Floorball)

Floorball is the sports of my heart. While most of my male floorball heroes (like Germany’s best one ever, Fredrik Holtz) are not active any more, this lady is just playing on and on and on and on. I first met Elina and her twin sister Karoliina when they played for Piranha Chur in Switzerland. Now, Elina is a key player of my favorite team in Finland, SB-Pro Nurmijärvi. She is a wonderful heart and became a friend of mine. Seeing her playing floorball is still absolutely special to me.

 

Karoliina Kujala (Floorball)

I can’t name the one without the other. Even though Elina’s twin sister Karoliina is not playing F-Liiga any more (and nowadays also has family duties), these two ladies were named the “Cool Kujalas” during her time in Switzerland for a good reason. Kallu was an excellent floorball player in her career. Maybe she is coming back one day? Likely not – but I hope to see her playing again in the Finnish minor leagues.

 

Lara Heini (Floorball)

It is a nice coincidence that there are three players in a row, who I met at Piranha Chur the first time. However, Lara Heini is still active – and watching her has always been an amazing treat! I feel I saw her first in the Swiss Juniors League at the age of 15 or 16 – nowadays, she is regarded to be the best female floorball goalie in the world. Such a great and disciplined goalie with amazing technique and quick skills. And: if I see what she is doing in her professional work life, she is amazing as well. You just have to love this lady, who recently became second in the Swiss public vote for the MVP of the Year in a Swiss sports election. Lara is likely the biggest role model I have ever seen in sports – and a friendly and great heart as well. Love to see her at her current team Pixbo IBK as well as in the Swiss National Team.

 

Leander Paes (Tennis)

Okay, the list of featured athletes would just not be complete without this guy. Leander Paes is the one who initiated my passion for Indian tennis. Especially in the 1990’s and 2000’s, he has an outstanding streak of great results, especially in Davis Cup. Here and there, people struggled with him, but I could never stop loving seeing him on court. In 2024, I had the honor to be with him when he became the first Indian player to be inducted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. My life would have been different without the Atlanta 1996 Bronze Medal winner (in singles!) – no sportsman has ever had such an impact to me.

 

Rohan Bopanna (Tennis)

After Leander Paes, here is another former Tennis Doubles ATP world ranking leader. I had amazing memories with Rohan already in the earlier days of his career. For example, I will never forget the five set battle he gave Martin Verkerk at the Davis Cup in Zwolle, Netherlands, as the absolute underdog. Even the Dutch fans cheered for him after the match. However, he was first rather in the shadow of players like Leander or Mahesh Bhupathi. His star shined rather late in his career. In his 40’s, he broke multiple records and finally also was on the top of the Doubles Ranking. Such a great sportsman, who is still active and a tough opponent on the court with his smart play and very disciplined career leverage.

 

Svenja Sommer (Athletics)

Maybe my closest contact in athletics is Svenja Sommer. The Eintracht Frankfurt mid-distance runner is, like Allegra, not typically the one who is going for the golden medal in major competitions. But the way she is living sports, the way she is promoting her career and using it also on social media, is amazing. She is such a friendly and great person. I would love to see her in her new “secondary” sports career – Svenja is representing Germany at the Hyrox World Championships in Chicago this year. I am really proud of this young lady.

 

 

Flyctory.com Featured Artists

Here are posts related to any of my Featured Artists:

 

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