Title fights in Qatar
“No superheroes”: Open water team without a World Cup medal
Leonie Beck was unable to win a medal in the relay at the World Championships in Doha. photo
© Jo Kleindl/dpa
Despite a prominent line-up, the German open water swimmers did not win a medal in Doha. We now want to learn lessons from the weak performance. A lot of work awaits before the Olympic Games.
Despite the first, there was unrest or even panic among the German open water team World Cup without a single medal since 2017.
“It can happen that we don’t win a medal,” said Leonie Beck. “We’re not superheroes, we’re not robots, we’re just people,” added last year’s double world champion after fourth place at the end of the World Cup with the relay. “We carry on, we continue to train and make our way to Paris in August.”
The fact that neither the 26-year-old nor Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock was able to intervene as defending champion in the fight for precious metal in the individual races over five and ten kilometers annoyed athletes and those responsible. However, they did not see Germany’s status as a strong open water nation at risk given the big highlight of the season at the Olympic Games in the French capital. Medals – preferably gold ones – are still the goal there.
World Cup as a stopover
“Of course it was a World Cup, but it was a stopover,” said Beck in the port of Doha. Wellbrock, teammate Oliver Klemet and open water national coach Constantin Depmeyer previously sounded similar. “We used this World Cup as a stopover, others prepared it properly,” said the coach. “We can judge the World Cup after we see the games.” Of course they are not satisfied, but they are not worried either: “We are very relaxed about the preparation for the games.”
In fact, Depmeyer’s team will be judged by their results at the Olympics. The World Cup defeat is bearable. However, the title fights in the sea showed that there is still a lot of work and possibly adjustments to the preparation plan awaiting the athletes before the races in the Seine. One thing is clear: the competitions in the cool waters of the emirate were not a further boost to one’s own self-confidence that was hoped for. Despite all the classification, the athletes were also self-critical.
Wellbrock wants to shine in the World Cup pool
“Of course you have to look at what’s going on now. You can’t always put everything off,” said Beck, who now wants to switch off for a few days. She goes to Abu Dhabi with her mother for a short vacation. “It doesn’t make sense to hide in the ground and cry now,” said the Bavarian. “That’s why: close the chapter, move on, see what you can do better and then prepare perfectly for the Olympics.”
Wellbrock had already closed its personal open water chapter of Qatar. The 26-year-old decided not to start the relay in order to prepare for the World Championship races in the pool next week. Without its most successful swimmer, the German quartet of Beck, Celine Rieder, Klemet and the 17-year-old Arne Schubert had to admit defeat to the victorious Australians, Italy and bronze winner Hungary.