The adventurer and extreme athlete has the book about his triathlon around the world “The limit is only me” written.
Dusseldorf When Jonas Deichmann arrived at Odeonsplatz in Munich on November 29, 2021, he grabbed his bike “Esposa”, Spanish for wife, and yanked it up. This idea, this vision, he says, inspired him again and again for fourteen months. “I’ll make it,” said those images in his head.
The extreme athlete has managed what nobody has dared to do before: a triathlon around the world. Deichmann swam 460 kilometers across the Adriatic Sea, cycled 21,500 kilometers to Vladivostok and ran over 5,000 kilometers through Mexico.
He wrote a book about his adventure. It says “The limit is just me” – meaning: Everything is a matter of the mind, provided it has enough to eat.
When the 35-year-old is not traveling the world, he spends a lot of time with companies giving keynote speeches. What he does goes beyond the imagination of many people – “and that’s exactly what it’s about,” says Deichmann in the podcast “Handelsblatt Rethink Work”.
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Adventurer Jonas Deichmann: A marathon every day
Although he always has a big vision for his projects, in “day-to-day business”, as he calls it, he sets himself many small goals. In his around the world triathlon, he ran 120 marathons in 117 days. At first you think “it’s not possible”, says Deichmann. But he breaks it all down, doesn’t run a marathon a day, but a kilometer – and that 42 times.
His motto: “The next step is always possible. And then another.” He firmly believes that after every low there is a high. The famous “flow” does not always come, but there is always a chance that it will come. And he has a lot of discipline and a clear rule when things get really difficult: “Do shit first!”
But the biggest challenge in his around-the-world triathlon weren’t the blizzards, the currents and the scorching hot asphalt. It was the corona pandemic and the border closures, especially the bureaucracy with his visa to enter Russia. Because all of this was beyond his control.
But “moaning is useless,” says Deichmann. “I was there voluntarily, I chose it that way.” So in moments like this, it’s important to accept the situation and concentrate on what you can influence.
Triathlon around the world: Jonas Deichmann and his new project
The adventurer, who studies international business and made extreme sports his profession in 2018, knows: “There is no perfect day.” You can plan forever, but then you will eventually be left behind. “I’m wondering, what’s the worst that can happen? And the answer is: nothing to change.”
And yet the hardest part of any project is getting to the starting line. That’s why Deichmann is already looking forward to the “beautiful moment” when things get going again. The next circumnavigation for 2023 is already in preparation. He doesn’t want to reveal any details, just this much: “It’s going to be very, very cold. And nobody has done it like that before.”
Being the first is Deichmann’s biggest incentive. “If someone says to me: ‘No one has done that before, you will fail’, then I say: Yes, great, then I can be the first.”
More: You can hear the previous episode of Handelsblatt Rethink Work here.