“Everyone suddenly gets involved”
After Olympic disappointment: Geiger with strong accusations
May 8, 2026 – 2:26 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Vinzenz Geiger was unable to win a medal at the Olympic Games due to a fall. The circumstances now appear in a new light.
After his double fall in the team sprint, the Nordic combined athlete Vinzenz Geiger clearly criticized the circumstances at the Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina. Actually, the track in the Pedrazzo venue is always professional, but when “the Olympic Games are taking place, everyone suddenly gets involved and then of course it becomes difficult. In our case the conditions were not solved professionally,” he said in the Sport1 podcast “Deep Dive”,
As one of the top favorites, he only finished ninth and tenth in the individual competition and fifth in the team competition. The fall in the team sprint was particularly bitter. When Geiger was actually on course for a medal, “my left ski broke off and then I was lying on my face.” His suspected reason: a hole in the ground. “There was probably a cable there that dug a hole in the snow, then it snowed over it and I probably collapsed.” This isn’t 100 percent confirmed, but since he doesn’t see anything wrong with himself, that’s the only thing that would make sense.
Geiger was able to get up again quickly, but was on the ground again a few meters later because he had so much snow under his skis. This meant that the top pursuers were able to overtake him. “I planned everything as well as possible and was well prepared. It was also a lot of bad luck that it didn’t work out on day X.”
He is particularly sorry for the German team that he didn’t get a medal. Personally, he was able to deal with the setback well and couldn’t blame himself. “Whether there is another gold medal in my medal collection will of course make a big difference on the one hand, but in ten years no one will care anymore whether I am a two-time or three-time Olympic champion or whether I still have a bronze medal or not.” Geiger had previously won gold at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics.
