Sdon’t you believe that? On Friday there was a premiere for the German runners in the Olympic ice track. A medal. Since the mean Olympian friend rubs his eyes. Isn’t that the standard when people throw themselves into the depths on sled devices? Scrolled back in the virtual Olympics album in 1928. Skeleton is at the start for the first time. The successors to the courageous British officers who were not afraid to challenge the Cresta Run headlong on the natural ice rink in St. Moritz in 1885. 1948 the second attempt at the Olympics, 2002 the third and since then Olympics after Olympics athletes like rocket men in the tracks. Only the German men dashed after them.
But now they are proudly speaking of a historic event: an Olympic medal for the first time. Even more: equal gold and silver. Christopher Grotheer wins ahead of his compatriot Alex Jungk. There was no holding back, whether at the finish of the Yanqing Sliding Center or at home with the relatives. Screams of joy here, tears of joy there. “Crazy, crazy, just crazy,” said national coach Christian Baude, “we worked so hard for it.” The path to the fifth gold and third silver medal was a tough one.
“I had nothing to blame myself for”
First flashback: A few weeks ago, Jungk from Saxony, with the Freddy Mercury mustache, didn’t even know whether he, now almost 32 years old, would even be able to start after his return from an injury to the Olympic team. He’s been there for 15 years. 2026, the next games might be a dream. Doubts accompanied him. But he got back in shape, he felt fit. Until this finding came around the corner in mid-January: positive for Covid-19. For twelve days.
“The worst thought after the infection was that I was completely at fault. I had nothing to blame myself for, I lived like a monk for half a year. Completely against my nature, no party, nothing. And then the Olympics are suddenly very far away,” Jungk told ARD. But there is another turning point: “After the decisive third negative result, I had more endorphins than ever before. No World Cup win can match that.” Recovered and flown to China, he missed two practice runs. He does not accept more: “This is the Olympics, I’m on fire every day.”
Helmet on, off to the meandering. Only one was faster, albeit a clear 0.66 seconds thanks to four very constant, stable tours at the highest level, two on Thursday, two on Friday. Fast on his feet at the start, safe on the track, strong nerves in the final. One mistake can ruin everything. Second flashback: Grotheer, 29 years old from Wernigerode, crowns an interesting career. How was it in 2020? Not in the World Cup, instead in the second row, in the Intercontinental Cup. Best there, but not among the elite. He then left them behind: at the World Cup. A lucky one, albeit with a long half-life.
Proud silence in Thuringia
A year later he again won the title of world best. And realized that there was something more in him than a very good skeleton pilot. A winner in a nutshell when it counts: “I’m very proud of myself. I made another leap from my head thanks to some help.” Internal security paved the way for him to Olympus. And a minute later the connection back to the origins, when the ARD switched to home with eight moved pensioners in the snow in front of a hut, including the youth coach, seized. But yes, the contact was never lost. And now this. Proud silence in Thuringia.
It is hardly surprising that two skeleton riders at the top of the Olympic competition have something in common, apart from the fact that they differ by fractions of a second. But maybe this: Both practiced ski jumping before they ended up on the artificial ice rink at the age of around 15. And now – finally – as the first Germans to jump over the world elite at the Olympics. But the Germans were never completely uninvolved. Third was the Chinese Yan Wengang. His trainer is Willi Schneider. He had his hands on an Olympic medal again. Schneider comes, you guessed it, from Germany.
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