Viola Brand

Brand was born in Backnang, Germany.^[2][1] She tried to climb the training bike as early as 5 years old, then still failing to reach the pedals. Her elder brother did artistic cycling before her, and both he and Brand were coached by their mother.^[3] She started training artistic cycling at 6 years old.^[4][5][6]

Brand is studying clinical nutrition at Hohenheim University, Stuttgart.^[7] As of February 2021^[update], she is writing the thesis for her master's degree.^[8]

Brand's sports club is RSV Unterweissach (located in Weissach im Tal).^[3][9] She joined the German national sports team at the age of 15,^[5] and won the Junior European Championships in 2012.^[9]

She set a world record at the European Junior Championships in 2011 in her age group,^[10] and another world record at the regular European Championships in 2018.^[11][12][13] Her best personal score was 194.71 points in German Masters 2019.^[14]

Brand spent years perfecting her choreography and learning new stunts. It took her seven years of training to be able to do a handstand on the handlebar,^[15] the stunt Brand is most proud of,^[16] and in June 2019 she was able to perform a Maute jump for the first time, jumping from the saddle to the handlebars.^[17]

Brand participated in a total of five World Championships, missing qualification in 2018^[18] after a competition which German national coach Dieter Maute [de] called "very hard".^[19] Since each nation can only send two participants, Brand stated that "qualification is much harder than winning a medal at the World Championships".^[18] Brand uses a special belt-driven bicycle,^[16] and her motto, inscribed on the toothed belt, is "Du musst den Kampf mehr lieben als den Sieg" ("You have to love the fight more than the victory").^[18][2]

Her last official competition was in Basel at the World Championships in December 2019, where she won a silver medal, making it her third Vice Championship.^[1] In February 2020 she announced her retirement, although she continues to perform for exhibitions and to promote her sport.^[20][1] Brand hopes to someday see artistic cycling become one of the Olympic sports.^[6]

In 2017, Brand started an Instagram account after a friend suggested it, and by July 2018 had gathered over 100k followers.^[4] As of February 2021^[update], she has almost 400k followers.^[8] Her channel piqued the interest of staff from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which Brand used to watch to improve her English skills, and in February 2020 she was a guest in the show.^[61][62] In 2018, she participated in the talent show Das Supertalent but failed to reach the final.^[7] In 2019, she toured with the show Feuerwerk der Turnkunst through 22 cities in Germany,^[1] with her performance being lauded.^[63][64]

After her February 2020 retirement from professional sports, Brand announced that she would like to focus on appearances in shows and her social media.^[62] In early 2021, she signed a contract with the Golden State Warriors to perform during the halftime show, virtually at first due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;^[8] in early 2022 she performed live during several NBA halftime shows.^[65] In July 2021, the Stuttgarter Zeitung reported on an underwater photography session featuring Brand with her bicycle.^[66] In May 2022, she was featured in a video by Danny MacAskill.^[67]