The German artistic gymnasts narrowly missed qualifying for the team competition at the 2024 Olympics in Paris at the World Championships in Antwerp.
The quintet from the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) came in 13th place at the world championships, and only the best twelve teams are eligible to compete at the Olympics. Pauline Schäfer-Betz from Chemnitz achieved medals at the World Championships in both the all-around and on the balance beam.
The best qualifying athletes on Monday (October 2nd, 2023) were the US athletes led by record world champion Simone Biles, followed by Great Britain and China. Germany was in tenth place after their round, but Japan overtook them in the penultimate round.
Gymnastics World Championships 2023 in Antwerp: China and France also stronger
At the end, the favored athletes from China and France were even stronger than the German team, which was weakened in terms of personnel following the failures of German record champion Elisabeth Seitz from Stuttgart (torn Achilles tendon) and Emma Malewski from Chemnitz (foot operation). Both of them cheered in vain in the stands of the Sportpaleis.
“I’m extremely proud,” said team spokeswoman Sarah Voss in an interview with SWR Sport before the decision was made: “We can’t blame ourselves, we had the most mixed preparation you could ever imagine.”
Voss: DTB gymnasts “as a team grown together”
Voss himself had recently been struggling with a foot injury, “which may even require surgery” – as well as an arm injury sustained shortly after the finals. However, all the setbacks allowed the gymnasts to “grow even more together as a team”.
“We didn’t have any big mistakes in our ranking, we didn’t have any crashes. Of course we left a few tenths behind in one place or another, a few points could have been better. But the other nations also had their mistakes,” said Voss.
DTB trainer Wiersma: “Working in a new reality”
“There was a huge amount of pressure on the girls, I’m proud of them,” summarized national coach Gerben Wiersma: “They didn’t disappoint at all, they had to work in a new reality after our failures.”
