The vision of FinalRep was born more than 6 years ago by one person who felt in love after his first Calisthenics / Streetlifting competition. This blog covers the story of Tonio Zeidler as the founding father FinalRep who has left FinalRep in the beginning of 2026.
The initial inspiration
In 2019, Tonio participated in the German National Championship in Dessau-Roßlau, organized by Ghetto Workout. Both the community and the vibe of this event deeply inspired him to become active and create something for the sport.
His personal statement after the event: „This event was just amazing. The potential for this sport is huge and the demand for something bigger is already visible“.
Since Tonio himself was a young and aspiring athlete that day, he was looking for something bigger and more professional where he as an athlete can compete with the best athletes worldwide.
So he made the decision: I will create a brand for Streetlifting/ Calisthenics and organize sport events that reach athletes worldwide.
The first stage
The first step for this project was to get people to join and work on the same vision. He started by reaching out to people in his network, how both share the vision and have experience and skill in different fields that are required to raise a sport competition.
The plan was to create an organization with a strong brand that is associated with the sport – a symbol for the sport. At this point the vision already included more than just the organization of sport events. However, organizing sport event(s) was right point to start with.
As a sport science student and with the experience of many years in sterngth training, Tonio knew a lot about the sport but not so much about business administration, event management and other things that the project would require. Therefore he started to pick the team that will found a company with him.
First, he reached out to Riccardo Horn, this time actively working for the Calisthenics Club in Erfurt. He already had some experience in event organization, sponsorship management and a good knowledge in the sport itself. Second, he reached out to Tim Reichel, one of his college friends who studied Business Administration at that time.
In this team of 3 people, the basis was made for the foundation of the „FinalRep Ventures UG“ in August 2020.
The fist competition
As we all know, 2020 was a year of high uncertainty in many ways. Especially for organizing sport events, the risk was very high. Despite all concerns, Tonio and his team took the risk to organize the first FinalRep competition in October 2020 in Cologne in the Rheingym. The competition was accompanied by a lot of supporters that Tonio and Riccardo acquired through their personal network. This included 15+ volunteers in judging, spotting and media plus a lot of sponsors like Barzflex, Gornation, BeMax who made the event possible.
The event went pretty well: 30+ athletes competing, good time management, cool prizes and a well rounded media coverage including photo packages for athletes, a professional livestream and a great aftermovie, All together: the professional event management, the great vibes onsite and the good digital coverage gave FinalRep a kick-start that created an attention worldwide.
The first World Championship
As written in the beginning, the vision to raise a World Championship in Streetlifting was already embedded in the foundation of this project. Therefore, one year after the first FinalRep competition, Tonio started to reach out to top athletes europewide to promote the idea of having a Streetlifting World Championship under the brand of FinalRep. He also reached out to suitable gym across Germany and pitched this idea. One of the gyms that got hooked by it was the Golds Gym Performance Center in Berlin.
And so, the first FinalRep WORLDS was born and later executed in October 2022. With 50+ participants from 12+ countries, this event market a big success and a first small realization of having the best athletes worldwide competing together.
The creation of a digital sport platform
Anther aspect of the vision to raise Streetlifting as a worldwide sport was to well digitalize it from the very beginning. For a sport, starting its journey in the digital age, this was an important factor to consider and an advantage as well.
Carsten Seeger, a software developer that supported FinalRep from the very beginning with basic IT support (hosting, website management, etc), followed the project for already two years. In 2022 he got more engaged in the project and also got hooked by the idea of creating a worldwide digital sport platform. As a result, Carsten joined the FinalRep management team and started to work on the today called „FinalRep App“ as a big cornerstone of the worldwide expansion that took place in the last 3 years.
Today the FinalRep App provides very helpful digital structure for event organizers, that creates more awareness for each competition and reduces the administrational effort a lot. Within 2,5 years of operation the platform had 100+ events and gained 9,5k+ users.
The construction of a worldwide sport network
After the first WORLDS 22, the awareness of FinalRep as an international sport platform was set. From that point on, the team was more engaged in communication with partners worldwide than in Germany alone. Especially in 2022 and 2023, Tonio was actively communication with top athletes worldwide to share the vision of FinalRep. The WORLDS 23 then marked another big achievement with 70+ athletes from 21 countries competing. With this competition, FinalRep has gained the status of the worldwide leading organization in Streetlifting.
After this competition, FinalRep opened up from a single event organizer to a coordinator of a worldwide sport network The focus shifted from event management to partner management and the implementation of unifying sport structures. Also here, Tonio initiated this process by getting the first partners like Streetlifting Italia, Bodystrong UK or the FNSL to the table.
As we can see today, this step was a huge success as well. The network grow from zero partners in 2023 to 16 Qualifier partners in 2025 for the first worldwide Qualifier season. In 2026 FinalRep is now in contact with organizations in 40+ countries worldwide.
And finally, Tonio has made the connection to an important business partner in the doping testing industry. Together with the German testing agency JAQSON, FinalRep developed their own doping testing system.
Tonio as an athletes
Tonio role as the founder of FinalRep was always accompanied by his activity as an athlete on the biggest stage. His career as an Streetlifting athletes so far was marked by achievements like:
- The first 500kg total in FinalRep in 2020
- A 190kg valid dip at the DACH Cup in 2023
- An invalid but completed 200kg Dip at the EUROS 24
- The World Championship title in 2025 in the m+101kg class
Reflecting these achievements, it has to be taken into account, that Tonio was not only present as an athlete but also as an organizer at these competitions. Especially in the first years, when Tonio was leading the organization, he beared a lot of the efforts around these events in addition to his personal preparation as an athlete.
This double burden led to the decision to be less engaged in the event management over time. After WORLDS 23, the events were then mostly organized by Tim and later with the WORLDS 25 by a team of many volunteers in the lead of separate tasks. Over time, this lead to a change in the overall lead of the FinalRep organization.
A new chapter begins
Within the first 5 years, the dream of Mr. Z was fulfilled. FinalRep has created a worldwide competition structure for a sport that was nearly not existing before. We have raised World Championships, created unifying rules and united partners worldwide. Also from a personal athletes/perspective, Tonio has gained the highest achievement in the sport: he became World Champion.
Now, what’s next?
The role of Tonio in FinalRep has shifted a lot over the last 5 years. He started as the founding father and laid the basis for its existence. He created the network of people who are now operating this system. The more the system then was running, the more it was lead by Tim and Carsten. For Tonio as an athletes this was a sake because it allowed him to fully focus on his performance. Additionally, this created new space in Tonio life and opened up new opportunities.
As a result of this, Tonio decided to start a new chapter for himself. In February 2026 he took over a new position at Strengthshop, one of the most important partners of FinalRep in the past years. Since 2023 Tonio shifted his focus from its role as a manager in FinalRep to be an athlete. This step completes a cycle for both him and the organization of FinalRep.
This being said, the year 2026 opens a new chapter for FinalRep. The management of the organization is now officially handed over to Tim and Carsten. Together with everyone who joined our volunteer team in the past 2 years and all business partners that we now have in our network, we are confident to enter the next stage of growth in Streetlifting.
With these words, we want to thank Tonio for his outstanding dedication to the sport. The entire FinalRep team wishes you all the best for your upcoming projects. 
— Tim, Carsten and the entire FinalRep family 
