Germany’s Merle Menje chases more summer and winter success
Germany's Marle Menje shares how she trains for Para athletics and Para cross-country skiing, and talks about her dreams in and out of sports 25 Apr 2025
In 2011, a seven-year-old Merle Menje watched the German Para Athletics Championships from the stands and was immediately captivated by the wheelchair racers.
Menje, who was born with spina bifida, was able to walk a few steps but found that using a wheelchair full-time gave her more freedom and an ability to keep up with friends of the same age.
It also meant that these superheroes on wheels, like Swiss stars Marcel Hug and Manuela Schär would become something even more powerful for Menje: role models.
She became an international star after winning two gold medals and two silvers at the 2021 European Para Athletics Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
While she played down the ‘German wunderkind’ nickname, Menje was happy to become a role model herself.
“I love to inspire people and show as many people as possible how incredible we are and what people with disabilities can do,” Menje, now 20, said.
“My main goal is to inspire small children with or without disabilities to dream big and realise that nothing they love is unnecessary and that they should do all the things that fulfill them.”
Wins of all sizes
Medals at major championships have been harder to come by since Menje first burst onto the scene. She claimed gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Kobe 2024 Para Athletics World Championships in Japan. She finished outside the podium at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
But a mature, philosophical approach enables Menje to make her athletic achievements about more than just medals.
That is why she describes her fourth-place finish in the women’s 1500m T54 in Tokyo as “quite amazing” and admits that while Paris was “definitely not what I was hoping it would be”, it had “nothing to do with the fact that I finished out of the medals because that was not the main goal.”
“For me it is incredibly important to have goals and a perspective because it helps me stay motivated and to have a look at my progress,” she said. “When you have a perspective, it is easier to formulate clear goals, and by this clear formulation it is often easier to stay on, celebrate and appreciate the process.
“Success in my sporting career for me is having sometimes small or big wins. It can be a good training session or a medal. Sometimes it’s not about the big and obvious wins but about the small personal wins and overcoming obstacles which no one from outside can see.”
Success on track and snow
What also motivates Menje is her ambition off of the tracks. By Tokyo 2020, she had started training as a Nordic skier and competed in Para cross-country skiing events.
“It’s quite a challenge, but I love it!” she says of switching sports between every summer and winter.
“On the training side, they are pretty similar and complement each other well. I think both sports have their individual challenges, and I have to constantly question myself and decide where I put the focus and what I do at which time. It takes a lot of organisation, a great team behind you, and passion.
“But for me, the balance of both sports is extremely refreshing and makes me feel mentally, as well as physically, very good because I have a lot of diversity in my training and my training equipment. I can, therefore, set many different incentives.”
Life lessons and career in teaching
Menje’s career on snow started promisingly, with top 10 finishes at the World Para Snow Sports Championships in Lillehammer, Norway, in January 2021. However, she made the difficult decision not to compete at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games to focus on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which took place in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Menje also juggled an elite sporting career with full-time education throughout her teenage years. She was even studying for school while competing at the World Championships in Lillehammer.
But Menje would not change a thing.
“Juggling a work or study and sport is quite hard and challenging and needs a lot of organisation,” she said. “I think all the events have shaped me into the person I am today, and I became a much stronger athlete and person.
“I would tell my younger self that she should never do anything she doesn’t want to do and is 100 percent behind it. Just as she should fight for all the things that she really loves and be a little prouder of herself.”
More than six months after the Paris 2024 Paralympics, she now works and trains to make her dreams come true.
“I’m working in a social and sports facility, where I can also focus on training and competitions besides working. I love to work and learn with children, so in the future, I want to start studying to become a teacher.”
“I will switch back to athletics after the winter season and do some competitions like road races and a few track events. But my focus is still on the upcoming season in Nordic skiing. Now it is a really big goal of mine to qualify and then hopefully compete at Milano Cortina 2026.”
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