Which titled German athletes took part in the Beijing Olympics? In what sports do Germans consistently win prizes in competitions? Are the 24th Winter Olympics successful for German athletes? About this and not only in our today’s material.
The main sports start of the four-year period – the Olympic Games – all athletes are always waiting with excitement and, of course, in anticipation of the opportunity to qualify and perform at the Olympics. And for two weeks now, we have been watching the 24th Winter Olympic Games with joy and excitement , which are being held in Beijing from February 4 to 20. Preparation for these Games required special efforts and diligence due to the tense epidemiological situation. However, for all participating countries, and especially for the athletes who have qualified for the Olympics, this is a holiday, an occasion for great motivation, as well as an opportunity to win long-awaited medals and climb onto the podium.
In winter sports such as luge, cross-country skiing, speed skating, skeleton, biathlon and biathlon, Germany is one of the leaders, it was before and is not losing ground today; athletes with the title of Olympic champions in Germany do not stop there and continue on their way, striving for double and triple gold.
This year, 149 athletes from Germany in 14 sports are participating in the Olympics.. In the process of preparing for the competition, the country carefully supported and prepared its leading athletes for the starts in Beijing, expecting certain results from them, and now we can say for sure that the expectations were justified.
Let’s start with the fact that at the opening ceremony the flag bearers from Germany were five-time Olympic champion, speed skater Claudia Pechstein and two-time Olympic champion, bobsledder Francesco Friedrich , which will be discussed below.
Within the framework of the Olympic Games in Beijing, one should, of course, single out a number of titled German athletes who have already shown themselves at the previous Olympic Games and have become champions more than once. In Beijing, Germany is represented by such Olympic champions already known to the sports world as Natalie Geisenberger, Tobias Arlt, Tobias Wendl, Felix Loch (luge), Vinzenz Geiger, Eric Frenzel (cross-country skiing), Francesco Friedrich, Torsten Margis (bobsleigh).
We will discuss each of them in more detail below.
Natalie Geisenberger (born February 5, 1988, German luger) – titled athlete, winner of the bronze medal in women’s singles at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Later, she became the Olympic champion in the women’s singles and team relay at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and 2018 in PyeongChang.
Natalie Geisenberger is one of Germany’s most famous female athletes and one of the most successful Olympic luge athletes. And at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, Natalie was able to become a three-time Olympic champion, having won gold on February 8 in the singles luge competition, as well as in the team relay on February 10. Silver was taken by her compatriot Anna Beraiter, and bronze by Tatyana Ivanova from the ROC team.
Continuing the analysis of the luge competitions at the Olympic Games, it should be mentioned that the German athlete, the bronze medalist of the games in Pyeongchang Johannes Ludwig , also won the men’s team , becoming the first Olympic champion in Beijing with a score of 57.191.
Johannes Ludwig (Johannes Ludwig born February 14, 1986, German luger) has been playing for the German national team since 2006. It is also worth noting that the athlete is a two-time world champion and a five-time winner of the European Championships, a multiple winner of the national championship.
Luge competitions for Germany in Beijing were successful, despite strong competitors in the face of Austria and Italy. Returning to the conversation about the most titled athletes in Germany participating now in the Olympic Games, it is worth mentioning the participation of Tobias Arlt and Tobias Wendl , multiple Olympic champions, who managed to win Olympic gold for Germany in twos on February 9, ahead of their compatriots who won silver, Tony Eggert and Sasha Beneken.
Tobias Arlt and Tobias Wendl (Tobias Arlt – born June 2, 1987, Tobias Wendl – born June 16, 1987, German lugers) are outstanding figures in the sports world, who are four-time Olympic champions in Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 in the men’s doubles and relay. In addition, they are 9-time world champions and 5-time European champions. And now we can already write that they are six-time Olympus champions.
The three-time Olympic champion of Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014 in individual and relay races, 13-time world champion (the absolute record holder for the number of victories in the history of world championships), 7-time World Cup winner, 6-time European champion, Felix Loch(Felix Loch – July 24, 1989, German luger).
At the 2019 World Championships in Winterberg, Germany, Loch defended his title and became a six-time European champion, ahead of Austrian Reinhard Egger by 0.100 seconds. In the same place, Loch won silver in the sprint (he lost only to 21-year-old Austrian Jonas Müller) and bronze in the relay.
In Beijing, Felix Loch lost the podium to his compatriot Johannes Ludwig, Austrian Wolfgang Kindl and Italian Dominik Fischnaller with a score of 57.485.
Above, we were talking only about luge, because in this sport Germany is trying not to concede leadership to anyone at the current Olympic Games, but we should mention Vinzenz Geiger, who is present in Beijing ( Vinzenz Geiger – born July 24, 1997, – German Nordic combined).
The athlete showed good results in Beijing, but it must be said that fame came to him even earlier. Vincenz Geiger is the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic champion in the biathlon relay, a two-time silver medalist of the World Championships (2019 and 2021), and a multiple winner of the World Cup stages.
He managed to show a decent result in Beijing on February 9 in the competitions in normal ski jumping (K-95) and 10 km cross-country skiing in Nordic Combined. His result is 25:07.7. In the team championship on the big springboard, Germany took silver on February 17, 2022. The German athlete, three-time Olympic champion, seven-time world champion, Eric Frenzel, intended to fight for the podium in Nordic combined, however, Eric failed to prove himself at the 2022 games due to his positive test for COVID-19, as a result of which the athlete was isolated from the German national team.
Another notable sport in the Winter Olympics is bobsleigh , which is also attended by German athletes. One of the favorite bobsledders are Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis (Francesco Friedrich – born May 2, 1990 – bobsledder pilot, Thorsten Margis – born August 14, 1989, bobsledder-driver).
Francesco and Torsten are the 2018 Winter Olympic champions in doubles and quadruples, Francesco is also a 12-time world champion and three-time European champion, and Torsten is a seven-time world champion.
An interesting fact: before moving to bobsleigh, athletes were professionally engaged in athletics.
German bobsledders have already taken all the prizes in twos on February 15, and we will know the results in fours tomorrow.
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