David Storl’s friends were convinced he had been a victim of a deepfake.
Last Tuesday, out of the blue, the former German world champion and Olympic silver medallist shot putter popped up on their mobile screens. In a minute-and-a-half-long Instagram reel, Storl was seen sitting at an indoor athletics arena, his lips-syncing to every word uttered in an “unrecognisable language”, with captions in a “foreign” text and India’s flag next to it.
“Some of my friends called me to say my profile was hacked… I was speaking in another language,” Storl laughs. “It was funny.”
All along, though, Storl was simply reaching out to one of his biggest fan bases — hundreds of wannabe shot putters across towns and villages in India. And the video was an offer to provide them lessons in Hindi, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
From his office overlooking the Leipzig railway station in Germany, Storl — who works there as a police official — saw the video go viral. Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra recently shared it, hailing Storl’s initiative. By Friday, the reel had more than 7 lakh views, he says.
“Last year, I started analysing shot put techniques of athletes from all over the world,” Storl, who retired in February 2024, tells The Indian Express from Leipzig. “I recognised that many athletes from India were contacting me via Instagram because they had to prepare for a police test or a special event.”
The volume of requests — “they were in hundreds” — surprised Storl but from an Indian athlete’s point of view, it was understandable. Storl, after all, is considered one of the finest exponents of the “glide” technique over the last two decades. And, at his peak, he won two World Championship titles with a London Olympics silver medal sandwiched between them.
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It also isn’t uncommon in India for an enterprising young athlete to dig up old clips of sporting greats and then emulate their technique — as an amateur, Chopra himself binge-watched javelin legend Jan Zelezny’s videos. The Czech is now his coach.
Storl saw it differently, however. “When I started watching their videos, I started to understand why they needed help. In Germany, we have great indoor facilities, great stadiums… whereas in videos from India, I saw them training on fields, on the grass, in the dirt,” he says.
He isn’t sure but many of these requests came from in and around “Nayi Dilli (New Delhi)”, Storl says. He was “pretty sure”, however, that “they didn’t have a coach and didn’t have an idea how or where to start”. He says, “I found it very motivating to see how much these athletes wanted to reach their goal and what they did for that. That was pretty cool. That’s also why I wanted to help out.”
At first, Storl would look at the clips they sent and give them his feedback. However, breaking down a complex event like the shot put and teaching a technique online wasn’t so straightforward. That’s how the idea of creating a beginner’s guide struck him.
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Storl got into a huddle with his team at Velaasa, a US-based company that designs and develops apparel for Olympic athletes. “We brainstormed over how to help these athletes and the easiest way, we thought, was to make a video course that would explain the basics of shot put,” Storl says.
He saw no point in making videos for his Indian base in English. So, he shot the clips in German and sent them to his partners in the US who — with the help of AI — changed the language into flawless Hindi.
Before uploading, Storl got it green-signalled by Indian discus thrower Abhishek Chaudhary, whom he had met in Leipzig during an exposure tour.
The first volume, Storl says, focuses on the basics of the glide technique, which allows a thrower to generate forward momentum with the positioning of his legs and stretching the arms explosively.
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The aspiring throwers, for a fee, will be able to access his videos and watch them an unlimited number of times to fine-tune their skills. In the next phase, Storl says he will analyse the clips of the throwers and hold individual online sessions to further improve their technique.
It’s still early days but Storl knows his idea, to use AI and break the language barrier, can disrupt the coaching ecosystem. “AI will be a very important part of how coaching develops all over the world. Most importantly, it’s beneficial for athletes. When you watch videos on YouTube, the information isn’t completely clear — there is no explanation of how the technique works or what the key movement is. So that’s what I want to do, explain my sport, break it down so that young athletes have a strong foundation.”
There’s also a personal motive. “I want to ensure that glide does not die, by spreading it to far corners of the world,” Storl says. So far actually that a young Indian could soon learn it at home, with a simple tap on their phone.