Olympia 2022 – cross-country skiing: Katharina Hennig/Victoria Carl sensationally win gold in the team sprint

The daring gold dream of the German cross-country skiers has come true: Katharina Hennig and Victoria Carl sensationally stormed to Olympic victory in the team sprint in Beijing and twelve years after the triumph of Evi Dingebacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad in the same discipline again have a golden triumph for the long-stricken cross-country team celebrated.

“We’re like in the wrong movie and can’t believe it. It’s unbelievable that we were able to top the silver medal,” said 25-year-old Hennig from Oberwiesenthal.

The completely distraught last runner Carl said: “My whole body is shaking, I’m full of adrenaline and walk around like counterfeit money. Only on the last climb did I realize that a medal was at stake.”

“It’s so cool, there’s simply no better birthday present,” roared national coach Peter Schlickenrieder, who turned 52 on Wednesday, into the team radio.

Carl and Hennig are the strongest in the attrition battle

Seconds earlier, Carl, who had only joined the team on the morning of the competition to replace the slightly injured Katherine Sauerbrey, had managed the huge surprise in a gripping sprint to the finish. The final runner of the “Thüringen-Express” came out ahead of the Swede Jonna Sundling and the Russian Natalia Nepryaeva.

On Saturday, Hennig and Carl won silver in the relay together with Sauerbrey and Sofie Krehl. This was already a moderate sensation.

But the highlight now followed in this brutal discipline: Each runner had to cover three of the most demanding 1.5 km laps in turn, in the semi-finals and in the final – the classic style of attrition was perfect for the two German Golden Girls.

After the race, national coach Schlickenrieder said visibly emotionally on “ARD”: “It’s a dream. I have to pull myself together a bit, otherwise I’ll start crying again. Victoria is doing something she’s never done before. She has excellent tactics raced.”

Also Eurosport expert Jochen Behle was of course enthusiastic: “Gold for Germany – that’s a dream. “It went exactly as the Germans wanted it to. The final was almost a minute quicker than the semifinals – that faster pace was the basis for others going on the defensive, the Americans for example. The Germans can do that with Katharina Hennig”

“It was Katharina Hennig’s move that tore the gap and ensured that the others were initially on the defensive. They had to work first to get back on their feet. Then Victoria Carl did it very cleverly. On the mountain you have it saw that she still had reserves”, the former national coach analyzed the final.

German men with bad luck in the semifinals

Already on the first lap Kuchler suffered a broken stick in a collision and had to work hard to get back up. He is also unlucky in Beijing: Kuchler got lost in the individual over 15 km and lost a lot of time.

The day had started for the German women with a supposed setback: Sauerbrey, the Olympic discovery that was actually planned to start alongside Hennig, had to pass. The strains of her first Winter Games took their toll on the 24-year-old, who had shone as the starter of the silver relay.

First German cross-country gold since 2010

Substitute Carl had previously also shown strong performances in Beijing and made a significant contribution to the success of the relay – but she was considered the somewhat weaker classic runner. A fallacy.

In 2010 in Vancouver, Sachsenbacher-Stehle and Nystad won the team sprint and thus celebrated the last German Olympic victory in cross-country skiing. In 2018 in Pyeongchang, the German men and women finished tenth and thus last in the final. At the 2019 World Championships at home, Victoria Carl finished ninth in free style and Sofie Krehl, Janosch Brugger and Sebastian Eisenlauer were eliminated in the semi-finals.

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(SID)