17 Jul 2025

City Cycling Hamburg 2025

Open water swimmer & HSBA student Elea Linka cycles 1,336 kilometres and leaves everyone behind

Since 2022, HSBA has been participating in City Cycling Hamburg every year. Not only is it fun and a good cause, but it also provides valuable insights into the mobility behaviour of employees and students – whether they travel by e-bike or classic bicycle, only in good weather or at the weekend, whether they are enthusiastic cycling fans, occasional riders or people who prefer to leave their bikes at home – everyone is represented. We are always particularly pleased about the commitment of our students: when they take part, they do so with full energy!

Just like our Bachelor's student Elea Linka this year. Within a few days, she mercilessly overtook all her fellow cyclists. And it's easy to see why: Elea is no stranger to competition, having made her World Championship debut in open water swimming in Budapest in 2022. Sport is therefore very important to her. We spoke to Elea about her enthusiasm for sport, her studies and her plans for the future:

Dear Elea, congratulations on cycling the most kilometres for our team in this year's City Cycling Hamburg campaign: a total of 1,336 km in three weeks! How did you do it?

Thank you very much for the congratulations. I'm really happy that I was able to cycle so many kilometres. Most of them were from my last adventure. My boyfriend and I cycled to Austria: over six days, we covered 985 km with 6,745 metres of elevation gain. That's an average of just over 164 km per day. In the evenings, we pitched our tent at a campsite. We had everything we needed with us, so our bikes were fully loaded. On 24 June, we reached our destination in Austria. It was a very special experience for both of us. My boyfriend's dad inspired us to do it, as he had already done the tour a few years ago. So we thought: let's just do it. It was an amazing experience.

Do you enjoy cycling in general?

Yes, I enjoy cycling, and it is my primary mode of transportation in Hamburg, as it is often the fastest and most reliable option, and I also enjoy it (when it is not raining).

Or is swimming still your favourite sport? You even competed in the Open Water World Championships in 2022.

That's a difficult question. I grew up swimming and have been swimming since I was five years old. Later, I took it up at a competitive level and achieved some success. My biggest success was my race at the 2022 World Championships. I competed in the longest distance there, 25 km, and finished sixth. I had to train very hard for many years (from a young age) to achieve that. My weekly schedule included up to 11 training sessions in the water, which usually lasted 2 hours each. I usually swam 6-8 km per session. In preparation for the 25 km, however, there were also sessions that lasted 3 or 4 hours, which often covered around 15 km. On top of that, there were training sessions on land, running, spinning, strength training, stabilisation and mobility training, flexibility... In the end, it was a full-time job. However, it taught me a lot that is very useful to me today: discipline, time management, perseverance, how to assess my own body, how to deal with defeat and much more.

After my first race at the World Championships, ‘my’ distance, the 25 km, was removed from the programme. Shortly afterwards, it was also taken out of the European Championships programme. That was obviously a big blow for me – so many years of training and preparation, then finally making it to the World Championships with the hope of competing there again, and then this turn of events. It was very sobering for me and one of the reasons why I gave up competitive sport. Another reason was that I wanted to start my dual study programme here at HSBA and concentrate fully on that. Of course, I still go swimming from time to time, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on what else is going on. But I think swimming and cycling are currently on a par for me. I grew up in the water and just feel comfortable there and can clear my head. When you're cycling, you can really enjoy the world around you and see so much. Especially when you're cycling through the whole of Germany! Running is also becoming a part of my life, so who knows, maybe I'll try a triathlon at some point?

Open water swimming is certainly not for everyone – what fascinates you about it? What makes open water swimming so special (challenging)?

Open water swimming differs from ‘normal’ swimming in a pool in terms of the water and the distances. Open water swimming takes place in lakes, rivers or the sea. A circuit is marked out with buoys (usually 1.25 km or 2.5 km). While the 1500 m freestyle in a pool is the longest distance that can be swum in competition, open water swimming offers distances of 2.5 km (only for beginners, not internationally), 5 km, 10 km and 25 km. The distances are therefore significantly longer, which is exactly what appealed to me from the start.

Open water swimming is made interesting by the location in open water. This creates a variety of new conditions that have to be overcome. First of all, the water is usually not as nice and smooth as you are used to in swimming pools. When racing in the sea, there are waves, which can sometimes be quite high. This takes a lot of energy, so that 10 km can quickly feel like much more. You also have to keep your bearings. What's more, all the swimmers start at the same time, so there's a mass start. As everyone has to swim to the same buoy, collisions are inevitable. Some people like to use their elbows or fingernails. This makes open water swimming a contact sport. In the end, it's not about who can swim the fastest, but who can assert themselves best and cope best with the given conditions. Personally, this has always bothered me because I don't think it belongs in this sport. I don't want to win because I can physically assert myself against others – I want to win because I am the fastest. Unfortunately, this is often not the case in open water swimming. Nevertheless, I find the sport very interesting because it gives swimmers the opportunity to try new things and learn. For example, feeding. For distances of 10 km or more, you eat or drink something in between. The trainer stands on a jetty or platform where the course passes by. Using a homemade fishing rod, they hand out small bottles with special drinks, which the swimmers grab and drink while swimming. For the 25 km, I always prepared something to eat so that my stomach had something solid.

These are just some of the special features of open water swimming. However, I must admit that I actually prefer swimming in a pool. If the 25 km had been in a pool, it would have been right up my alley. I even swam the 25 km in a pool once to qualify for the world championships. A total of 500 laps in a 50 m pool or 1000 in a 25 m pool – a unique experience for me that I often think back on.

You have been studying Business Administration at HSBA since 2023 – how do you manage to combine your passion for sport with your dual studies?

I don't train nearly as much as I did a few years ago, which makes things a lot easier. I also find that sport is a really good balance to work or study. Sport clears my head, no matter what's on my mind. Swimming is great for this because it makes me feel like I'm in another world, as I can't hear anything from outside (if I don't want to). Otherwise, I always try to incorporate sport into my everyday life. I always cycle to university or work (except when it's snowing or icy). That means that by the end of the day, I've usually done at least 1.5 hours of sport without really having to set aside time for it. If I took the train, it would take me about the same amount of time and I wouldn't get any exercise, so I'd have to fit that in separately. I can really recommend it to everyone: get on your bike! In Hamburg, it's a really good way to get from A to B, usually no slower than the train, and sometimes even faster than the car, I've tested it. Especially during rush hour, bikes are much more reliable and easier to plan your journey with, as there are very few traffic jams on cycle paths.

Do you have any specific (sporting) goals for the future?

Of course, I want to finish my studies first, and maybe I'll do a master's degree. From a sporting perspective, I've scaled back my goals considerably, but I don't want to miss out on the challenge entirely. That's why I've signed up for the Haspa Marathon next year, for example. And there's something else I'd like to try again: triathlon. I have a friend who's very successful at triathlon and she inspires me every time I see her in action. Since I've always been at home on the long distances, I'm planning to do an Ironman 70.3, and at some point I'd like to do a full Ironman. However, I can't imagine cycling 180 km and then running a marathon (I always leave out the 3.8 km swim in my mind, as that's not a challenge worth mentioning for me). But I'm taking a relaxed approach to these goals – after all, life isn't just about performance. Where will my path take me? I don't know exactly yet, but I'm very excited to find out.

We would like to thank Elea Linka and all our hard-working cyclists from the ‘HSBArockt&rollt’ team, who together cycled a total of 6,143 km in 594 rides, avoiding 1,007.5 kg of CO2! What a great effort!

back to overview