Winter Games 2022
Keeping your nerve under dreary conditions: Natalie Geisenberger is crowned German Olympic Queen
Natalie Geisenberger in the finish area in Yanquin
© Adam Pretty / Getty Images
Natalie Geisenberger wins her sixth gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games with the team in Beijing. And replaces Claudia Pechstein as the most successful German winter Olympian. She had toyed with the idea of boycotting the games.
Natalie Geisenberger and the German toboggan team had to fight hard for the historic triumph. Geisenberger fell behind her Austrian competitor Madeleine Egle on the Yanquing ice rink. Johannes Ludwig reduced the lead and the two-seater made up of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt turned things around: gold for Germany, silver for Austria. At the finish, the Germans cheered quite cautiously in view of the almost uncanny success. Maybe the pressure was too great beforehand or they couldn’t quite believe it: They won all the luge competitions, four times gold.
But not only the dominance of the German lugers is something for the history books: By winning her second gold medal at the Winter Games in Beijing, Natalie Geisenberger finally made her career superlative. The 34-year-old is now the most successful German Winter Olympian of all time. She has won gold six times, overtaking speed skater Claudia Pechstein. The doubles Tobias Arlt and Tobias Wendl are also tied with Geisenberger with six gold medals, they can also call themselves the most successful German Winter Olympians.
Natalie Geisenberger was “brutally nervous”
It was to be expected that the policewoman from Miesbach, Bavaria, would once again come up trumps in the mountains of Yanquing, but it didn’t have to be. Geisenberger had traveled to China as one of the favorites, her young competitor Julia Taubitz, overall leader of the World Cup, was the first gold candidate. In the second run of the individual competition a few days ago, Taubitz fell in the demanding curve 13, which was fatal to some athletes. Until then, she had been in the lead with a lead of 57 thousandths over Geisenberger.
And curve 13 also gives Geisenberger nightmares. Before the start of the third and fourth round, she openly admitted how “brutally nervous” she was and how damn bad she slept. All because of curve 13. She had already fallen there at the World Cup last November on the Olympic course and in the final training session before the individual race. When things got serious, the experience of four Winter Olympics, in which she participated since Vancouver 2010, certainly helped her. She mastered the complicated passage in runs three and four with somnambulistic certainty and won gold.
Part of the story of her incredible success is that she almost didn’t compete in Beijing at all. In November at the World Cup, the Chinese authorities quarantined her as a contact person after arrival. The conditions in the hotel were lousy, the treatment of the athletes was rude and the food was bad. Geisenberger thought aloud about a boycott and complained to IOC President Thomas Bach.
Biathlon, ski jumping, bobsledding, tobogganing: you are the German medal winners
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Your resignation is open
Pledges from the IOC to improve conditions and her sporting ambition to improve her medal record allayed her outrage. Perhaps she also wanted to prove that she is still fit enough for the podium after the birth of her son Leo 18 months ago. Basically, of course, this applies to all athletes: the Olympics are bigger than anything else. The same applies to Beijing – despite the disregard for human rights and the effects of the pandemic. During the games, however, Geisenberger commented on the censorship. She defended athletes who refrained from making political statements. “You have to be careful when, where and what you say.”
When Geisenberger flies home, she does so as one of the greatest German athletes ever. Her career began more than 15 years ago with the World Cup in Altenberg, where she raced to second place as an 18-year-old. The question remains when Geisenberger will step down. Maybe she will continue until the World Cup in a year in Oberhof. There she could be adopted with a large train station. There would probably be spectators, and their families. In Beijing she finally rose to the Olympus of athletes, but under dreary conditions. She can catch up on the big break in Oberhof.
sources: DPA, “German wave”, “Image”, “Southgerman newspaper”, “sport show”