Carmen (-48 kg) here pictured above with her sister
Ramona Brussig ( -57 kg)
Twin sisters on their way to Beijing
Carmen and Ramona Brussig are twins with Olympics judo ambitions.
When you meet the Brussig sisters in real life two things become apparent, they are identical twins and are both visually impaired. They started judo 12 years ago through a mutual friend, since then they have been practising the sport of judo with the aim of becoming world champions.
Aldo Carmen lives and trains in Switzerland and Ramona in Germany. They regularly train and prepare for competition together. Despite being in slightly different weight categories, Ramona competes in the under 57kg category and Carmen, under 48kg, both are classified as B3.
In an interview Carmen declares; "I feel very well and save in Switzerland. I can go my own way and train every day in Kampfsportcenter Do-Jigo Wallerau." Coach Alexandra Schiesser is the stable factor in her judo training and preparations for International competitions. In the beginning, her (slightly younger) sister Ramona seemed more successful. In her first appearance at the Athens Paralympics in 2004 she became Champion in the B3 class of under 57kg. But after Carmen moved to Switzerland, she achieved World Champion status for two consecutive years, 2006 and 2007. Her younger sister was (at that stage) unable to handle the pressure and came third. Nether-the-less it is still impressive that both sisters were World Champions in 2006.
In the qualifications for the Paralympics in Beijing, they suffer the same difficulties as all other visually impaired judoka. The IBSA can't guarantee enough optimal international matches. So both sisters compete mostly in mainstream competitions to ensure their competition skills and they participate in three VI training camps in France, Switzerland and Hungary.
Ramona says; "It's important that the coaches follow the same line. The co-operation between my personal and National Coach has to be perfect. I need to have complete confidence in their way of preparing me if I am to get gold in Beijing. It's going to be tough in my weight class, the Brazilian judoka's have become much stronger and in the last four years the Chinese judoka have equalised the score in special training programmes and are not to be underestimated.
Ramona seems to have faith in Matthias Hermann as her personal trainer in her preparations for Beijing, they have worked successfully together for years. The third place she received in San Paola makes her even more determined and motivated to go for gold. The National Coach, Stefan Saueressig has coached her successfully for seven years and she cannot imagine anyone coaching her any better than him for the Beijing games.
In a last word, Carmen states; "Judo has become a way of life for us, a passion that we can't imagine a day without it."
