Who Is Olympic Track & Field Star Alica Schmidt?

Alica Schmidt is ready to race to the top at the 2024 Olympics. The German track and field athlete is among the latest names in the sporting world who are confirmed to be heading to the Summer Games, due to begin on July 26 in Paris, France. The achievement of her Olympic dream has been a long time coming for athlete, who endured a series of setbacks and back-breaking hours of training to secure a place on Germany's 4 x 400 meter relay team, which also includes high-ranking athletes Luna Bulmahn and Eileen Demes. 

In anticipation of her debut at the Olympics, Schmidt's nerves are high but so are her spirits. "If I go into a competition and I'm not nervous, it won't go well," she told Women's Health (via Health Medicine Lab). "My biggest motivation is thinking about my goals. And about my training partners. The competition never sleeps, they work just as hard as I do." There is no one more familiar with just how tough the competition can get than Schmidt, who lost out on a chance to compete at the previous Olympics by a narrow margin. 

There is a lot of buzz around Schmidt's Olympic turnout that is not simply prompted by her athletic skill. Also famous as a part-time model and influencer, the sprinter has legions of admirers in awe of her drop-dead gorgeous looks. Though reasons are varied, the cheers for her are loud. Here is everything to know about Olympic track and field star Alica Schmidt. 

For many athletes, the Olympics are the ultimate dream — and Alica Schmidt is no different. The German runner is one step closer to realizing her goal, as she readies to compete in the biggest sporting event of the world. Schmidt was in tears when she got the call confirming her selection to the Olympic-bound contingent from Germany, as seen in a TikTok video that has gone viral since the announcement was made.

In a post overcome with emotion, Schmidt also shared her achievement on Instagram, writing, "In just one month, I will be in Paris, creating memories that will last a lifetime." The track and field athlete has had her eyes set on the Olympics for the longest time. Though Paris is shaping up to be her big debut at the Games, it's not the first time Schmidt will mark her attendance at the event. She was set to be on Germany's track team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but failed to perform and clinch her spot before the prelims. 

Paris will hopefully be a redemptive experience for Schmidt, who is pumped for the upcoming event. "I was very young in Tokyo and only there as a reserve runner," she told Women's Health (via Health Medicine Lab). "Every day I sit down for a few minutes and go through what to expect, what I want to achieve. In which situation I have to act how."

Now that Alica Schmidt is on her way to conquer the Olympics, her past athletic achievements are blazing brighter than ever. The racing pro has several competitions and wins under her belt — a streak that began in 2017, when she participated at the U20 European Championships in Italy. Schmidt was part of the 4 x 400 meter relay team that clinched silver at the event. Two years later, when she competed at the U23 Championships, she picked up a bronze medal. As noted by World Athletics, Schmidt has ranked once among the top eight at the World Championships and twice over in the same shortlist at the European Championships. She currently holds a world ranking of 88 in the women's 400-meter category.

At 52.18 seconds, Schmidt's personal best before she made the cut for the Paris Olympics was well over the 50.95-second mark set by the World Athletics Council as a qualification requisite. Schmidt had to bring her record down by several milliseconds to meet that condition. 

Alica Schmidt is a woman of many interests but the one that drives her ambitions most fervently is sports. Her athletic inclination goes back years, when she was only a child who loved to run. "I began my running career really early. I believe I started to do light athletics aged 6 or 7," she told TJ Sports. As her childhood passions turned to serious training, Schmidt kept her eyes on the prize, working hard to rank among the top athletes in the world. Along the way, her sporting fame branched out into other trajectories, courtesy of her unignorable good looks. The U20 European championships in 2017 were a turning point, when she began gaining wide renown on social media. 

Schmidt has since created a name for herself in the showbiz world, marking her attendance at major events — all the way from Cannes to the Milan Fashion Week. She even walked the red carpet for the premiere of "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" in 2024. But the razzle-dazzle of her parallel existence as a fashion figure has not sidetracked Schmidt from her sporting ambitions, as she detailed to the German paper Bild, putting everything beyond the track down as just memorable experiences. "I just want to be recognized as an athlete, I want to inspire young people and give insights into my beautiful sport," she said (via ISPO).

Life as an athlete demands tough discipline — and one can believe that Olympic-bound runner Alica Schmidt makes no compromises when it comes to her sport. She trains hard and daily — her schedule a mixed bag of track and field exercises. "I do sprints, of course, but also sprint endurance, strength and strength endurance training, tempo runs, and jumps," she told Women's Health, detailing her attention to strength training in particular. "The focus is on the legs, but I also do upper body training and a lot of core training. Every muscle group is covered." And for anyone wondering, hip thrusts are her favorite bit of sprint training. 

Schmidt's ripped physique and racetrack records evidence the effort she puts into her training. At the same time, the athlete is mindful of giving her body the timeout it needs — with ice baths, physiotherapy, a good sleep routine, and a healthy diet — so she is up and firing at the next session. Over the years, Schmidt has found an ideal balance between rest and exercise, which helps her avoid older patterns of overtraining. She told Fitbook that there were times when she was younger and driven by such ambition that she would exert her body beyond its breaking point. As she developed better training practices, though, she made the necessary adjustments.

For as long as Alica Schmidt has been a popular public figure, she has been preceded by her distinct reputation as "the world's sexiest athlete" — a nickname that was reportedly awarded to her by an Australian magazine some years back and has since stuck. It is not difficult to see why — the runner's striking appearance is a hot topic across headlines and social media, where her unique title is more or less synonymous with her name. 

Flattering as it may be, Schmidt seemingly doesn't place much stock in it, choosing instead to focus on her craft. "I do not know why I got this title. Sport comes clearly first," she said, as Yahoo! Sport reported. "There are thousands of girls on Instagram who look good but having many fans doesn't make you interesting." That said, Schmidt has not entirely disowned her beauty title, admitting that her popularity outside of sports has proved useful in boosting her extracurricular activities as a model and influencer. 

Unfazed as she seemingly is by the widespread preoccupation with her appearance, Schmidt also knows how to keep her head about her in situations where her celebrity status puts her at the mercy of public scrutiny and judgment online. "I think you just have to let the people talk whenever they want to," she told Olympics.com. "I don't feel like I have to prove anything to anyone. It's just for me." 

2020 got off to a rocky start for Alica Schmidt, as it did in various measures for people around the world. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic provoking restrictions in Germany, the track and field runner found her usual training routines interrupted. For an athlete who prioritizes her sport as Schmidt does, this disruption would have undoubtedly been more challenging than it sounds. As she shared on Instagram, weeks passed before she could return to her regular stadium practice after a spell of training under limited conditions. 

Things didn't get any easier for Schmidt in the months that followed. The athlete suffered a number of health setbacks, from contracting the coronavirus to dealing with torn ligaments. Out on the tracks, Schmidt persevered, eyeing a spot on the German team competing at the Olympics in 2021. And though she did accompany the contingent to Tokyo, she couldn't make the final cut and ultimately had to sit the Games out. "Not gonna lie, I'm not satisfied with my races this year. I've worked harder than ever before day in day out pushed my limits in every workout and made so many sacrifices," she wrote in a post, announcing a brief break from the racetrack. 

Alica Schmidt's celebrity extends beyond the racetrack. She is also a big star in the virtual world, pulling crowds on platforms like Instagram and TikTok by the millions. "It all started in 2017," Schmidt told Olympics.com. "I was kind of overwhelmed because from one day to the to the next, I got like 100,000 followers." She added, "It was kind of weird then to post something on social media because so many people are watching it."

While these are dream numbers for many social media influencers to aspire toward, Schmidt — for whom everything outside of sports is only a side gig — is not consumed by them. Sure, she is unabashed about the delight she takes in using social media but her approach toward it is far more easygoing than it is toward sports. "Nobody feels the same every day and I don't want to be in front of the camera all the time. That's why I'm active whenever I feel like it, so it's still fun for me to bring people into my life," she told Women's Health. 

Even so, Schmidt is hardly oblivious to the advantages that come with the kind of influence she has — especially against the context of German athletes not being able to rely solely on sports as a source of income. "It's good for all us athletes to be active on social media in order to get sponsors," she told Olympics.com. "It's a big hobby of mine and I love to do that. But the main focus is sports." While she has a team taking care of her social media specifics, Schmidt tries to keep it as authentic as possible and often takes to her accounts personally to interact with her followers. 

Alica Schmidt is as popular for her sporting ability as she is for her glam factor. It is then no surprise that the athlete — with her massive online following — is pursued hotly by brands keen to onboard her. One of her standout collaborations is with Hugo Boss, for which Schmidt is a global ambassador. From walking the ramp for the German fashion label to launching an exclusive collection with them, Schmidt has worked extensively with the brand. "I'm beyond grateful for the support from Boss and how deeply I'm involved in all processes," the runner, who is notably the world's first athlete to race in a Hugo Boss fit, said. Schmidt was also associated with Puma, and works with F&B brands Vitamin Well and Barebells. 

Though she is building an impressive roster of brand collaborations across industries, Schmidt is not one to say yes to every opportunity that comes her way. According to The Sun, the athlete was once approached by adult mag Playboy with an offer to pose nude. The proposal reportedly came with a big paycheck but Schmidt turned it down in favor of prioritizing her sports career. On the OMR Podcast, Schmidt spoke frankly about backing only those endorsements that fit in with her own personal brand, recalling an incident where she declined a lucrative deal from an unnamed company.

Between all the sports fanfare and social media glam, it may seem like Alica Schmidt lives a lavish life. But the Olympic-bound sprinter has a different story to tell. Schmidt has been candid about the challenges that beset athletes in Germany, particularly with regard to wages. In a TikTok video that made people sit up and take notice in 2023, Schmidt claimed that her sports career yielded less than a thousand euros (via Bild).

"In principle, I have to say that it is not easy for most German track and field athletes to make a living from sport," Schmidt added, also pointing out the extra costs players sometimes have to bear for traveling to competitions (via OutKick). It is, therefore, not uncommon to hear of athletes take up second jobs or side hustles to earn some extra cash to get by. In Schmidt's case, a huge chunk of earnings presumably comes from her social media presence that runs in millions across platforms. "I am grateful that I earn my money with social media and can avoid having to do another part-time job." While the runner has not divulged numbers, she mentioned on OMR Podcast that a brand campaign could bring in six figures. She explained that the deal she turned down "would have been in the mid to high six figures for a campaign."

 Alica Schmidt can boast about having met some of the most iconic sporting figures ever. Her own recognition as a track and field star has put her in the company of big names like Brazilian soccer player Neymar, whom she met in 2022 at a car launch in Berlin. Coming face to face with the world's most famous footballer hardly seemed to daunt Schmidt; in fact, she took the opportunity to invite Neymar to compete on her racing turf, as she detailed to Sport1, adding that the Brazilian player seemed to have backed down in the face of her open challenge. 

While Schmidt is still waiting to hear back from Neymar, she did successfully race and win against German footballer Mats Hummels back in 2020. Courtesy of a video she shared on her YouTube channel, fans got front row seats to the 400-meter event, which she called "one of the most exciting challenges of the year" for her. The list of celebrities Schmidt has hung out with has since grown to include the likes of French soccer player Lucas Hernandez and British pro boxer Anthony Joshua. 

Being a regular on the tracks has also allowed Schmidt to run into her own racing idols, like Laviai Nielsen. She even raved to Fitbook about having met the British Olympian a handful of times and drawing inspiration from her.