Linn Kazmaier was still crouching exhausted on the snowy ground in the finish area of Zhangjiakou Stadium when Guide Florian Baumann bent down to her and summed up the 52 minutes that had just passed in two words: “Nice race!”
Toughest competition of his young career
“I’m already pretty flat”, Kazmaier said, not surprisingly, in an interview with Sportschau. 15 kilometers in classic cross-country skiing style lay behind her.
The longest, most demanding and at the same time toughest competition in Kazmaier’s career, which is still so young, ended for the just 15 years and four months old student with another sensational Paralympic silver medal in the visually impaired women. She had already finished second in the biathlon sprint last Saturday.
Only the Ukrainian Oksana Schischkowa had delivered a better time of 56 seconds and was unbeatable again. And this next chapter of what is, from a German point of view, a small Nordic skiing para fairy tale from Beijing crowned Leonie Maria Walter – Kazmaier’s only three years older flat share– Roommate at the Paralympic Village – alongside hers guides Pirmin Strecker with her bronze medal again.
Kazmaier: “…then you realize that something is going on today”
“My parents were amazed”, said Walter with a mischievous smile. Before the start “We said, we’ll go for the first lap and see what’s in it, then somehow keep up the pace. I think that’s been done quite well.”
It was just as difficult for Kazmaier to do all of that “Really realizable. I didn’t think I could keep up over such a long distance.” but “when the trainers cheer, shout, run, announce the times and are over the moon, then you can tell, ‘something’s going on today'”she reported on the course of the race.
DBS President Beucher is “delighted”
Even if there are definitely no favorite medal contenders in the competition, mainly due to the exclusion of the Russian team, the phenomenal performances of the German youngsters were not to be expected.
“I thought, that can’t be true. What strength, will and natural talent this girl has. I’m delighted.”said Friedhelm Julius Beucher, President of the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS), after the biathlon sprint SID said about Linn Kazmaier.
“We’ll just run our remaining races and see what comes of it”, said Kazmaier on Monday, still quite routine. Only one thing is missing from the teenager in these already memorable days of the Paralympics in Beijing: “It’s a shame that my parents can’t be here.”