Berlin – Germany’s record Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger fell to her knees with joy in the Yanqing ice channel, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt celebrated after their grandiose finale in the toboggan thriller with the German flag on the sled. With a mini lead of 0.080 seconds over Austria, the German lugers crowned their gold rush at the Winter Games in China with their fourth triumph in the fourth race. With a total of six Olympic victories and a bronze medal, Geisenberger rose to become the most successful German athlete at the Winter Games.
“A great day, a great team. The record thing might come when I’m older. Now I’m just enjoying the moment,” said Geisenberger, who handed over to individual Olympic champion Johannes Ludwig behind. Even when Wendl/Arlt went on the train, the deficit to Austria was still around a tenth of a second.
Arlt and Wendl had “fun on the train”
In the end, the track record was 3:03.406 minutes. “We then just went off and had fun on the train. It’s crazy,” said Arlt and his partner Wendl added: “The sixth gold is simply fantastic. We deserved to win and will celebrate. The big party will come in Germany.” With their sixth success, the duo from Berchtesgaden and Koenigssee also overtook five-time Olympic champion Claudia Pechstein. The Tobis, as they are just called, are missing another medal for Geisenberger’s record.
“Yesterday was incredible. But that’s the icing on the cake of a great performance by my team. The entire team did an excellent job,” said head coach Norbert Loch on ZDF. “In the end, the Tobis showed that they were entitled to become Olympic champions and rocked the team relay. We’re gonna pop out for a few beers. We deserve it.”
Since the team competition was introduced in 2014, only the German relay team has won – always with the toboggan queen Geisenberger and the double Tobis. Felix Loch cheered at the premiere in Sochi. In Pyeongchang and now in China, the Thuringian Ludwig was the better single-seater. With four gold and two silver medals, the German team even surpassed the previous best Olympic record of Sochi 2014.
Head coach Loch was less impressed by the precious metal than by the performance of his protégés. “I’m not a medal counter, I’m focused on the climax, we did an excellent job. That counts for me. I’m incredibly proud of the squad that everyone performed completely,” said Loch, who also praised the last run of Julia Taubitz, who had previously fallen. A perfect gold record with all victories in all competitions was last seen in Sochi 2014. “Of course, with a total of eight sleds, driving errors sometimes happen,” but if you add up the percentages, the competition made a lot more mistakes.
Next generation is already ready
Although many oldies like Geisenberger, Ludwig and both doubles still leave their future open, Loch knows that the next generation is ready with silver Anna Berreiter, Max Langenhan (sixth) and many talents. They should deliver success at the home World Cup in 2023 in Oberhof. He is more concerned about the future of the Königssee railway, which was partially destroyed in a storm in July 2021 in the upper part. “I hope that many have seen what it means to get young people and children into sport. For this we need sports facilities, trainers and coaches, they are the ones who do the dirty work at the beginning. If such a track, such a sports facility were to break away, we would lose a lot.”
According to Loch, not only Olympic champions are formed on the oldest artificial ice rink in the world, “we have to give our children and young people a future, which is a very important point for me. It should be seen from that point of view. And traditionally, the oldest artificial ice rink in the world has to be put back into operation,” Loch demanded.