One year after the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, the German para-skiers experienced successful world championships.
At the Nordic World Championships in Östersund, Sweden, eight gold, twelve silver and eight bronze medals meant the best haul of all nations. At the Alpine World Championships in Espot, Spain, the German team won five gold, four silver and three bronze medals.
The most successful supplier of medals was Anna-Lena Forster. Germany’s para athlete of the year 2022 won four of the five gold medals. The 27-year-old monoskier from Radolfzell competed five times because she had to settle for silver once, and “there was still room for improvement,” she said with a laugh. The fifth gold went to 22-year-old Anna-Maria Rieder from Murnau in the slalom. Forster’s roommate Andrea Rothfuss (33) won one silver and two bronze and now has a total of 31 World Championship medals.
In Östersund, like ten months earlier in Beijing, the two teenagers Linn Kazmaier and Leonie Walter caused a sensation. The only 16-year-old Kazmaier from Römerstein won a total of four gold medals after the relay victory, Walter from St. Peter, who was three years older, twice. In Beijing Kazmaier had won five medals last year and Walter four, including one gold each. Since they were the two youngest German athletes and lived in one room, they were called “die Küken-WG” from then on within the team.