When the official part was over, the guests rallied around the two-time Olympic silver medalist. A photo with bobsleigh pilot Johannes Lochner and his badges, that would be a fine memory of this moody evening in the Grünwald amusement park, many thought. Despite the generally good mood this Thursday, the impressions of the Russian attack on Ukraine were not completely hidden, which was also due to the fact that Christian Nitsche, editor-in-chief of Bayerischer Rundfunk, moderated the fireside chat of the German Olympic Society and pointed out how he enjoyed it to be able to spend the evening in a relaxed atmosphere after a day full of bad news. Olympic hero Lochner couldn’t avoid the crisis in Eastern Europe either: “There are so many problems in the world. It’s the nicest problem you can have if you just have to make sure that the two Olympic medals don’t collide and smash.”
The top athlete, accompanied by Christian Schneider, the team doctor of the national bobsleigh team, presented himself as down-to-earth, likeable and very honest. And so the 31-year-old, whom everyone just calls “Hansi”, reported about his pre-Olympic deprivations: “In the six months before the games I was at home for a total of three weeks. Bobsleigh track, hotel, weight room and the car, um getting from A to B – there really isn’t anything else in preparation,” said the man from Berchtesgaden.
BR editor-in-chief Christian Nitsche, Johannes Lochner and Christian Schneider, team doctor of the German bobsledders.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
The reward was then the two badges in the two and four-man competition, winning the first silver medal “was one of the greatest moments in my life,” says the 1.90 meter athlete, “especially after the disappointment in Pyeongchang.” There he started as the reigning world champion after four wins in eight World Cup races of the 2017/18 season as the absolute favorite – and ended up eighth in the four-man bobsleigh. “At that time I wanted to give up, after that I didn’t do any sport for two months.”
In the end, he picked himself up again – and resumed the competition with compatriot Francesco Friedrich. The fact that he couldn’t beat him in Beijing rankles him a bit. In doing so, he pulled out all the stops in the psychological competition, says Lochner. During the training runs, the sleds were swapped again and again, and he noticed that Friedrich’s regular bobsled had a minimal speed advantage. “I then drove his sled more slowly to make him doubt.” In the end, however, Friedrich, known as “Franz”, chose the faster vehicle – and won gold.
He almost became an alpine downhill skier, once drove with Schwaiger and Ferstl in the junior national team
And so, in the course of the entertaining and open conversation, many other topics were touched upon, such as the technical advantage that German bobsleigh and luge athletes would also have as a result of the research, in which large companies such as BMW play a significant role. Lochner spoke out in favor of the “single bobsleigh”, which gives all competitors the same chances, condemned the “giantism” of the Beijing Games, but praised the comfortable accommodation there, the friendly volunteers and the great track. And described what is important in order to be successful as a bobsled driver: “It goes so fast that you can only react instinctively. I always call it ‘driving with guts and ass’.”
Lochner, who almost became an alpine downhill skier and was part of the junior national team with Dominik Schwaiger and Josef Ferstl, has not yet decided whether he will continue to do so in the future. His now 71-year-old father runs an electrical business in Königssee, he says. “It’s actually about time I got involved and he enjoyed his life,” says the junior, who at least has a master’s degree in electrical engineering. But leaving with a ride that was decorated with Olympic silver but took place in camera in distant China due to Corona also doesn’t correspond to “my athlete’s heart”. And that’s why Hansi Lochner has his sights set on the coming season with the World Championships in the bobsleigh Mecca of St. Moritz. After that there would still be time to get into family planning with his girlfriend.