Who will win the first gold for Germany at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing? Johannes Ludwig probably has the best conditions this Sunday. He could win the successful German discipline of tobogganing. It’s a matter of thousandths – in the case of ski jumpers it’s possibly centimeters.
snowboards: Annika Morgan was already able to celebrate on Saturday. In tenth place, she qualified the top twelve for the 2:30 slopestyle final. She wasn’t put off by a fall in the first run: “It’s standard for me that I don’t land it in the first run and then land in the second. I obviously always like to make it exciting for everyone,” said the 19-year-old, who got 67.63 points in the second run. “I’m extremely relieved. Mentally I can chill now. Tomorrow I’ll do better.” On the course in Zhangjiakou, the athletes drive over railings and ramps and jump over a small hut. Andreas Scheid, the sports director of the German snowboard team, now wishes Morgan a “stable performance” and a place in the top ten, he told the dpa. “Annika is still very young and the level here so far is higher than in the World Cup. She will be at the perfect age for the 2026 games.” But there might also be a surprise in store: three weeks ago, she got one of two podium finishes this winter in this same slopestyle competition.
Alpine skiing: That could still get uncomfortable: The men’s downhill from 4:15 a.m. is also a competition against the wind on Xiaohaituo Mountain in Yanqing. The training sessions were raging, the third and final test on Saturday was canceled after just three starters. “What they did today is in no way okay,” Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud told Eurosport. “There is complete chaos here with the flow of information, and you get the impression that Markus was leading a small dictator line without information,” he complained about race director Markus Waldner.
So it had to be decided without a ride who was allowed to start as the fourth German alongside Romed Baumann, Dominik Schwaiger and Josef Ferstl. The trainers chose Andreas Sander. His relief after the last few difficult weeks was “very great”. He is confident for Sunday: “The fact that I was beaten in the last race doesn’t mean that I can’t compete for medals – I believe I can do that.” Whether Sander, Baumann, Ferstl or Schwaiger – “the boys”, said head coach Schwaiger, “are highly motivated and ski well”. His downhillers are “definitely outsiders at the Alpine Coronation Mass, but this role suits us”. Schwaiger recalled the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo 2021, “nobody expected us” – Sander and Baumann (Super-G) still won silver.
cross-country skiing: 15 kilometers in classic style, changing skis, 15 kilometers in skating technique, this is the men’s skiathlon, which starts at 8 a.m. Lucas Bögl, Friedrich Moch, Florian Notz and Jonas Dobler are there for Germany. They are not among the favourites, but they can get valuable tips from their teammates who have already completed their skiathlon. Katharina Hennig said after her 15th place: “I’ve seen stars and then I had cramps.” Running too fast takes revenge on the route at an altitude of around 1700 meters.
speed skating: An ace on inline skates, still a novice on blades: speed skater Felix Rijhnen retrained for his childhood dream of the Winter Olympics. “I feel like a junior, everything is new and exciting,” said the two-time inline world champion to SID before his Olympic debut: “I’m learning something new every day.” Patrick Beckert is already much more experienced, for the 31-year-old it is already the fourth games. Both start at 9:30 a.m. over 5000 meters. While Beckert celebrates his greatest successes over 10,000 meters, Rijhnen is cautious about making a prediction before his debut: “I want to finish and be able to say that I gave everything.”
ski jumping: Who will be Andreas Wellinger’s successor? He is the 2018 Olympic champion and only just missed out on participating in Beijing. His successor could also be a German, many hoped before the competition. Because with Karl Geiger, a German is leading the overall World Cup. But the Bavarian didn’t get along so well on the hill in the training sessions and also in the qualification on Saturday. “It was a step in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go. We’re looking a bit for what’s missing up front,” said Geiger after his ninth place on Saturday. This also applies to Markus Eisenbichler, the second medal hope. Stephan Leyhe meanwhile said at Eurosport: “My idea, my form, my feeling – that fits so far.” Constantin Schmid is the fourth German to start. The favorite comes from Norway: Marius Lindvik won the qualification, but the Japanese Four Hills Tournament winner Ryoyu Kobayashi can also be expected when the competition starts at 12 noon.
Tobogganing: It’s all about thousandths, every false twitch can be decisive. Felix Loch knows that from painful experience, in 2018 he missed a medal in the fourth and last race. Four runs, they only exist at the Olympic Games. Loch and Co. completed the first two on Saturday. The – very pleasing for the German team – the most successful was Johannes Ludwig. The overall World Cup winner immediately set a start and track record, but is only 39 thousandths ahead of the Austrian Wolfgang Kindl. A touch that needs to be defended on Sunday. Loch made a mistake in the first run, and he also lacks some explosiveness at the start, he is currently fourth with 0.382 seconds. Max Langenhan also didn’t make mistakes in the first race, but then showed a better drive and followed in seventh place. From 12:30 p.m. the men will go down the ice track for the third time, the decision will follow at 2:15 p.m.