Alica Schmidt on athletics, her image, and social media: 'I don't feel like I have to prove anything to anyone.'

Alica Schmidt is a promising athletics talent, with a fan base that goes beyond her performance on the track.

With over 3 million Instagram followers and nearly a million on TikTok, the 23-year-old is the biggest social media star at the Munich 2022 European athletics championships.

The German 400m runner started to make a name for herself five years ago after claiming silver with the 4x400m German relay team at the U20 European championships in Grosseto Italy: "It all started in 2017. I was kind of overwhelmed because from one day to the to the next, I got like 100,000 followers," she said after spending almost half an hour taking selfies and signing autographs at the Olympiastadion on Tuesday (16 August 2022).

"It was kind of weird then to post something on social media because so many people are watching it," Schmidt revealed. "And of course I wanted to keep something private like my family and friends. So that was kind of weird in the beginning, but I'm still so thankful for that."

Alica Schmidt on social media

More and more over the last 10 years, athletes have been optimising social media as a tool for exposure and enhancing their overall brand and profile.

"It's good for all us athletes to be active on social media in order to get sponsors," the runner admitted. "It's not easy, especially in Germany to live from athletics. So a lot of athletes have to do another job to live from that and do the training. And yeah that's a great thing to do a social media on the side so you can get some more sponsors."

Juggling the life of both athlete and social influencer can be tricky, but she is firmly set in her priorities. Sport comes first.

"Sometimes it's not that easy," she shared. "The training is, of course, the main focus and all other things come behind that. But I also love to do some model jobs or take the people with me on social media. It's a big hobby of mine and I love to do that. But the main focus is sports."

Alica Schmidt: Image and credibility

The Worms native was named “world’s sexiest athlete” by an Australian magazine in 2020 and her popularity has further increased after she ran several fitness sessions with German Bundesliga football club Borussia Dortmund.

There have also been a number of fake and fan accounts created about the German star, often with her name incorrectly spelt Alicia.

While visibility on social media can mean more exposure, it also can also create more vulnerability for judgement of other people: "I think you just have to let the people talk whenever they want to," she said. "There are always people who judge you. That's part of the game and I'm happy that I have so many supporters along the way. I'm so, so grateful for that."

In Munich, the German reached her first goal of making the individual semi-final in the women's 400m: "It was amazing. I was so grateful to get the experience and run in the semi-final. That was the big goal and I knew it would be tough to make the semi, so I'm still so grateful for that and I worked so hard to get here to run the 400 individual in Munich. And it was a great experience in front of a home crowd and the audience was amazing and I really enjoyed it."

Schmidt will be taking over the @Olympics Instagram handle on Thursday, before turning her attention to the women's 4x400m relay heats on Friday 19th August. She was in the squad for a place in the German team for that event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021, but didn't compete at the Games. It prompted a break from the sport, but she now feels confident about their chances: "We have a really good team and I'm really looking forward to that."