Olympia 2022: That happened on the night of February 16th

Beijing 2022
A cautious asterisk for Kamila Valiewa – that was the Olympic night

It wasn’t enough for the first medal for the Alpines of the German Ski Association in Beijing. Linus Straßer missed the podium in the slalom and finished seventh. The German national ice hockey team is expected back in Frankfurt on Thursday after the disappointing course at the Olympics. According to the IOC, the result of the Olympic figure skating singles with Kamila Valiyeva will be considered provisional and marked with an asterisk.

Hardly any party atmosphere before the journey home

The German national ice hockey team is expected back in Frankfurt on Thursday after the disappointing course at the Olympics. The selection of national coach Toni Söderholm will depart from Beijing on Thursday afternoon (local time), according to the German Ice Hockey Federation. After the 4-0 defeat against Slovakia on Tuesday, which meant the minimum goal of reaching the quarter-finals was missed, the team spent the evening in their rooms and toasted goalkeeper Danny aus den Birken’s 37th birthday. According to the mood after the game, there was no party. The team cabin in Beijing should be cleared out on Wednesday. Defender Korbinian Holzer’s 33rd birthday was also coming up. But no party was planned for that either, it said.

German Ski Association continues without precious metal

Ski racer Linus Straßer missed a medal in the slalom at the Olympic Winter Games in China. The 29-year-old was 0.93 seconds behind Olympic champion Clement Noel of France in Yanqing on Wednesday and finished seventh. After the first run, Straßer was in fifth place. Silver went to Austria’s Johannes Strolz, who won gold in the combination. Sebastian Foss-Solevaag won bronze. Straßer was 0.23 seconds behind the Norwegian. Alexander Schmid from Fischen im Allgäu was 19th, Julian Rauchfuss retired after a driving error in the first round. “I can’t really blame myself, I really tried it and gave it a go,” said Straßer of ARD. This means that the Alpines of the German Ski Association will continue to be without precious metals at these games. In the women’s competition, Lena Dürr in the slalom and Kira Weidle in the downhill narrowly failed in fourth place. “The Alpines have not been lucky so far,” said ARD expert Felix Neureuther.

Two new corona infections

Two other infections with the corona virus were detected at the Winter Games. As the organizers announced, one of the cases was discovered the day before at an arriving party at Beijing Airport. Another infection was detected among the more than 69,000 daily corona tests in the closed Olympic bubble. Since travel to the games began on January 23, the total number of infections has risen to 435.

Provisional asterisk

According to the IOC, the result of the figure skating singles with gold favorite Kamila Valiyeva will be considered provisional and marked with an asterisk. This applies to the period of ongoing investigations into the doping affair involving the 15-year-old Russian, said Mark Adams, spokesman for the International Olympic Committee. After the short program Valiewa leads the competition, the decision in the freestyle will be made on Thursday. According to Adams, the result of the team competition, which Valiyeva’s Russian team won, should also be regarded as provisional. The IOC had previously decided not to hold an award ceremony if Valiyeva won a medal in the women’s singles. The medal ceremony for the team competition was also canceled.

The figure skating expert and ex-pro Daniel Weiss sees the Russian figure skater Kamila Valiyeva “100 percent” as a victim. “I can never imagine that Kamila took prohibited substances on her own initiative,” Weiss said in an interview with the “Donaukurier”. According to his own statements, the 53-year-old knows the now 15-year-old super talent personally from appearances at the Ingolstadt ice gala he initiated in 2018 and 2019. Weiss said about the system in Russia and the controversial trainer Eteri Tutberitse that the training there was ” unrelentingly hard, it goes beyond a limit of what is permissible. The human factor and pain count for little.”

Brilliant flag bearer

Only a few hours after his Olympic victory in the two-man bobsleigh, Germany’s flag-bearer Francesco Friedrich set the best time again in the opening training session in the four-man bobsleigh. “We owe it to our teammates that we give everything we have again,” said the three-time Olympic champion on Wednesday, looking at his crew in the big sled. As the first pilot in the world, Friedrich could create two Olympic doubles. “We can go in there relatively easily. When the tension has dropped, we’re always better in the foursome and can perform better.”

From quarantine to the ski jump

After his release from the Corona quarantine, the Nordic combined athlete Terence Weber will be the forerunner at the Winter Olympics. The 25-year-old is to be used on Wednesday before training and on Thursday before the team competition on the ski jump in Zhangjiakou, as the German Ski Association (DSV) announced on Wednesday. Weber, like teammate Eric Frenzel, had tested positive for the corona virus when entering China. Because his quarantine was taking longer and longer, he was finally replaced by Manuel Faißt, who had traveled to Germany. As the best German combined skier, Faißt took fourth place in the large hill individual on Tuesday.

Cross-country skier Victoria Carl replaces Katherine Sauerbrey at short notice in the team sprint at the Olympic Winter Games in China. The 26-year-old starts with Katharina Hennig, as the German Ski Association (DSV) announced a few hours before the race. Sauerbrey, who was originally nominated for the two-man team by team boss Peter Schlickenrieder, does not feel 100% fit and has decided not to compete in the past few days, it said. Sauerbrey, Hennig and Carl surprisingly won the silver medal in the relay together with Sofie Krehl on Saturday.

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DPA