He was the most feared power thrower in javelin before Tokyo Olympics. But 2021 Games broke Johannes Vetter and a bunch of injuries derailed him terribly, to the extent that even in 2025, German Jojo will not be on starting lists at Tokyo World Championships.
What has the German been up to? At the start of 2025, Vetter joined up with Hylo to formally plot a “comeback in early 30s.”
This saw him slowly build up at the Offenburg facility, where he literally trained in rain and shine over the summer. Under intense sun, Vetter has posted several videos on Instagram of his training run-up accelerations. In one such highlighting attention to details the focus was on the block foot and striding. But Vetter, who faced a range of issues including a painful elbow, has been putting in humongous workouts to grow his strength.
Videos show him at ‘flying-weights’ – dangerous move of throw and catch of lighter bars on bench press, as well as deadlifts at 150+kg.
Besides water gymnastics and resistance swimming, Vetter has also done tightrope or stretch tape walks clutching a javelin ready to be thrown for balance. Most reels are hashtagged to Mission 100 – which is assumed to be a 100 metre throw. As one of the all time power throwers (minority flexibility), the 100m isn’t supposed to be beyond him, but the Dressen-born world champion from 2017 London when he was 24, has faced heartbreak at Olympics, but has spoken of his determination to return to the field.
But what’s kept him busy are a wide variety of things – including a full-fledged immersion into politics. Vetter is a member of the CSU Baden-Wurttemberg (Christian Social Union) party, a Bavarian regional conservative branch of the larger party in Offenburg. Vetter has been involved in grassroots politics, working at the local municipal Council.
He recently set off from the home city, and the focus seemed to have moved completely to sport. Writing on Instagram, he said, “One final committee. One last faction meeting. Council for the last time. One final speech. And then it was the end. Thankyou to citizens of Offenburg for your trust, good conversations and positive exchanges. Thanks to freie waehler Offenburg colleagues in the municipal council and of course to my faction stadtoffenburg for great cooperation. Saying goodbye wasn’t easy for me because I valued the political work here. It makes me all the more happy that I continue to stay connected to politics. As a candidate on the state list for the CSU Baden-Wurttemberg (Christian Social Union) in the next state election, I will continue to give my full involvement. I will continue to remain closely connected to Offenburg – sportly, politically and humanly.”
Answering a resident who was critical of his party, Vetter had said, “BTW – no party is without mistakes. With my personal commitment I am trying to get involved in a democratic party, especially in sports and volunteering.”
Besides his #Vetterwurf #Mission100 tags, Vetter has actively been at voter enlistings and outreach programmes. But it’s his non-sport, non-political activities that are most interesting.
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His Saturday workouts have included heading to Schwarzwald – Black Forest (yes, there’s actually a forest, it’s not just a yummy cake), with Chainsaws and split axes to cut wood.
He’s also been the poster face to sell cobblestone slabs, which are highlighted as “Pigeon proof’. At Baustellentag town once, he had pictures in construction overalls with some heavy-duty hardware equipment. And a woodcutter’s axe has hit many blocks which he chucklingly calls weekend training.
At the start of the year he had been doing handstand walks the length of a gym studio. But in recent months it’s been some monster-lifting in the gym videos of which leave you staggered. Comments sections keep poking him with jibes of Arshad Nadeem, but Vetter has made no announcement of when he will return.
He also recently painted his car trims to a perfect Schwars (black) and captioned the post “The buffalo is done.” His car plate? It starts with OG.
