- Status: Active
- Height: 180cm (5’11”)
- Age: 27
- Birthday: July 7, 1997
- Nationality: German
- Events: High jump
- Personal Bests:
- High jump: 1.98m
Christina Honsel Honours
- 2020 German High Jump Champion
- 2 x German Indoor High Jump Champion
- 2024 Olympic Games 6th place
Christina Honsel Career
Christina Honsel is a German high jumper with a personal best of 1.98 meters. She has been competing internationally for Germany since 2019.
Honsel started athletics as a young child and has specialized in the high jump since she was a teenager, occasionally competing in the long jump when she was younger. She became the German U20 Champion in 2015 with a jump of 1.80 meters shortly after her 18th birthday.
In 2016, she had a stress fracture on her ankle, which required several operations.
She would clear 1.81 meters for the first time in her season opener in January 2017 and show consistency around this mark through the season, tying her personal best on June 30, 2017, and jumping within a centimeter on several occasions.
She would tie her personal best again the next year at the German U23 championships to finish second.
Honsel set a new personal best in June 2019 of 1.84 meters. This jump would qualify her for her first national team as part of Germany’s U23 European Champion Squad heading to Sweden.
She had a huge personal best at these championships, finishing second with a jump of 1.92 meters.
She also qualified for her first World Championships in Doha but didn’t advance through the qualifying.
After the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the first part of the 2020 season, and Honsel wouldn’t open her season until July. She would go on to win her first German Championship in August with a jump of 1.90 meters, clearing the height on her first try, and narrowly missing a new personal best of 1.93 meters.
Honsel’s 2022 season was marred by another serious injury when she twisted her ankle during a takeoff and tore ligaments in her ankle. She wouldn’t be pain-free the entire season.
The next time she would jump over the 1.90-meter barrier wouldn’t be until 2023. After jumping 1.90 meters in January, she set a new lifetime best in early February with a jump of 1.98 meters at the BKK Freundenberg High Jump Meeting.
On the result, she wrote on her personal blog,
“The 1.98m was pure joy and gave me absolute goosebumps! I couldn’t stop grinning all weekend and I’m still overwhelmed.” [translated from German]
Honsel jumped 1.91 in qualifying at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and again in the final to finish sixth. She finished off the season with a jump of 1.94 meters at the World Championships in Budapest, finishing eighth.
Honsel would continue to see improvements the next year, jumping an early-season height of 1.95 meters and then jumping this height again in March to finish fourth at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.
She would jump this height again in both the preliminary and final rounds of the Paris Olympic Games, finishing sixth.
Christina Honsel Personal Life
Honsel studied economics at the Technical University of Dortmund. She competes for the club TV Wattenscheid 01 Leichtathletik.
At the time of writing, she was ranked seventh in the world in the women’s high jump and had achieved a highest position of sixth.
She has maintained a blog in German on her personal website since 2023, where she talks about some of her competitions. On her disappointment with her performance at her first World Championship, she wrote,
With tears in my eyes and great disappointment, I wanted to leave the stadium straight away. But I stayed on the bench, watched the other athletes – athletes who have been doing this for many years, athletes who jump 2m and higher – and observed their routines, their movements, and their jumps. Then I realized that they too are nervous, that they cannot always perform at their best every day, and that others have had a perfect day, like I did [when I set my personal best in Sweden]. [Translated from German]
FAQS | Honsel Christina
Where is Christina Honsel From?
Christina Honsel is from Dorsten, Germany.
What is Christina Honsel’s Personal Best?
Christina Honsel’s personal best is 1.98 meters set at the BKK Freundenberg High Jump Meeting in Germany in 2023.
How Tall is Christina Honsel?
Christina Honsel is 180cm (5’11”).