Our Athletes return from a succesful Winter Training Camp in La Palma
This year, Beyond the Board travelled to the Canary Island of La Palma for its winter training camp. The choice of location was deliberate, as the German Olympic selection was also preparing there, including Jessie Maduka, our most recent addition to the team. This allowed Jessie to train alongside Beyond the Board while remaining connected to the German national programme. Unfortunately, an injury disrupted Jessie’s training during the camp, but the decision to go to La Palma remained the right one for the team as a whole.
Weather conditions were less stable than hoped this year, with periods of rain and slightly lower temperatures. Still, as the images show, there were also many beautiful moments with sunshine and clear skies. The environment offered ideal conditions to put in the work, with no distractions — just training, recovery, and growth. The camp focused on building towards the upcoming indoor season, with an emphasis on technique, strength, rhythm, and jump quality. Head coach Michel Boels placed individual accents for each athlete, tailoring the training process to their personal goals and long-term ambitions for 2026.
Sharing the training environment with a leading athletics nation like Germany, and with world-class coaches and athletes such as Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo, Caroline Joyeux (European outdoor leader in 2025) and Sarah Kudla, provided a powerful source of inspiration. The German team was also led by national coach Charles Friedek, world champion in the triple jump at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, with whom Michel Boels regularly exchanged ideas on performance and elite athlete development. This created a valuable environment for reflection, benchmarking, and learning at the highest level, placing our athletes quite literally among the international elite.
The atmosphere within the group was strong throughout the camp, even as fatigue built up towards the final days. Coach Michel consistently pushes our athletes to their limits, because at this level there are no shortcuts — hard work makes medals. At the same time, recovery played an essential role in the programme. Athletes worked with a local physiotherapist, followed planned rest periods, and paid close attention to nutrition, all crucial elements for sustainable performance and injury prevention.
Training camps like La Palma do more than improve results on the runway. They accelerate maturity, independence, and professionalism, and are essential steps in growing from a local initiative into a project with genuine international ambition. Such stages are only possible thanks to the continued support of our sponsors and donors, whose belief in our athletes makes this journey possible. For those who want to experience the atmosphere up close, a series of YouTube Shorts captures the daily life, intensity, and unique moments of the La Palma camp.