Viola Brand Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Viola Brand

Viola Brand doing a handstand in 2019

Personal information

Born

28 June 1994 (age 31)
Backnang, Germany

Team information

Current team

Retired

Discipline

Artistic cycling

Role

Single

Major wins

German Champion (2017)
European Champion (2018)

Viola Brand (born on June 28, 1994) is a talented German cyclist. She is famous for her skills in artistic cycling, a sport where riders perform amazing tricks and dances on their bikes. Viola has won many big competitions, including national and European championships. She also won silver medals three times at the World Championships.

Viola Brand's Early Life
Viola Brand's Cycling Career
Viola Brand's Achievements
Other Activities and Social Media
Images for kids
See also

Viola Brand's Early Life

Viola Brand was born in Backnang, a town in Germany. She loved bikes from a very young age. When she was just 5 years old, she tried to get on a training bike, even though her feet couldn't reach the pedals yet! Her older brother also did artistic cycling. Both Viola and her brother were coached by their mother, who helped them learn and grow in the sport. Viola started her artistic cycling training when she was 6 years old.

Today, Viola is also a student. She is studying clinical nutrition at Hohenheim University in Stuttgart, Germany. This means she learns about how food affects our health.

Viola Brand's Cycling Career

Brand at the World Championships in Basel 2019

Viola Brand is part of the RSV Unterweissach sports club, located in Weissach im Tal. She joined the German national sports team when she was 15. In 2012, she won the Junior European Championships, which was a big achievement for a young rider.

Viola has even set world records in artistic cycling. She set one at the European Junior Championships in 2011. Then, in 2018, she set another world record at the main European Championships. Her highest score ever was 194.71 points in a German competition in 2019.

Viola spent many years practicing and making her routines perfect. She learned new and difficult stunts. It took her seven years to master a handstand on the handlebars, which is a trick she is very proud of. In 2019, she also learned to do a "Maute jump," where she jumps from the bike's seat to the handlebars!

Viola competed in five World Championships. Getting into these championships is very tough because each country can only send two riders. Viola once said that "qualification is much harder than winning a medal at the World Championships." She uses a special belt-driven bicycle for her performances. On her bike's belt, her motto is written in German: "Du musst den Kampf mehr lieben als den Sieg." This means "You have to love the fight more than the victory."

Her last official competition was in December 2019 in Basel, Switzerland. There, she won a silver medal, making it her third silver at the World Championships. In February 2020, Viola announced she was retiring from professional competitions. However, she still performs in shows and works to promote artistic cycling. She hopes that one day, artistic cycling will become an Olympic sport.

Viola Brand's Achievements

Viola Brand has achieved many great things in artistic cycling. She has won several gold and silver medals in major competitions.

German Champion: She won this title in 2017.
European Champion: She became the European Champion in 2018.
World Championships Silver Medals: She won silver medals at the World Championships in 2016, 2017, and 2019.

Her best scores in competitions are tracked by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the German Cycling Federation (BDR). She consistently placed high in many events, often finishing in first, second, or third place.

Other Activities and Social Media

Brand doing a stunt outdoors (2020)

In 2017, Viola started an Instagram account after a friend suggested it. Her amazing videos of artistic cycling quickly became popular. By July 2018, she had over 100,000 followers! By early 2021, she had almost 400,000 followers.

Her Instagram channel even caught the attention of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Viola used to watch Ellen's show to practice her English. In February 2020, she was invited as a guest on the show! In 2018, she also appeared on the German talent show Das Supertalent, but she didn't make it to the final round. In 2019, she toured with a show called Feuerwerk der Turnkunst (Fireworks of Gymnastics) across 22 cities in Germany. Her performances were highly praised.

After retiring from professional competitions in 2020, Viola decided to focus more on performing in shows and growing her social media presence. In 2021, she signed a contract with the Golden State Warriors, a famous basketball team, to perform during their halftime shows. At first, she performed virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In early 2022, she performed live during several NBA halftime shows, amazing the crowds with her bike tricks.

Viola also takes part in other fun projects. In 2021, a newspaper called Stuttgarter Zeitung wrote about her unique underwater photography session where she posed with her bicycle underwater! In May 2022, she was featured in a video by the famous cyclist Danny MacAskill.