Andreas Hillergren/TT/image images
Doesn’t he have to: Swedish speed skater Nils van der Poe during training (Beijing, February 2nd, 2022)
It is said that major sporting events have their own laws. This also applies to the Olympic Games. Big favorites fail again and again. At this year’s Winter Games in Beijing, the appearance of alpine skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin is particularly puzzling. The 26-year-old American has so far won 73 World Cup races. If she is not thrown off course by a serious injury, it is only a matter of time before she breaks Ingemar Stenmark‘s »record for eternity«. The Swede has 86 World Cup victories to his credit. In Beijing, Shiffrin retired after ten seconds of driving in the giant slalom and after five in the slalom. In the World Cup, she did not finish exactly once in 81 individual races in the last four years.
Julia Taubitz, the 2021 World Champion and World Cup leader in tobogganing, fared similarly badly. The athlete from the WSC Erzgebirge Oberwiesenthal set the best time in the first run in Beijing, but fell in the second run at the exit of the treacherous curve 13. Goodbye medal dreams! At the same place, her biggest competitor, the Austrian Madeleine Egle, failed in the first run. The beneficiary was someone who seemed to have no nerves: Natalie Geisenberger from Munich won her third Olympic gold in a row.
During a pandemic, dying of favorites works differently. The Austrian Marita Kramer, who is the superior leader in the women’s ski jumping World Cup, missed the women’s ski jumping competition due to a corona infection. For the same reason, the dominator of the last three World Cup seasons in Nordic combined, the Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber, could not compete on the normal hill.
The mixed team competition for ski jumpers showed that jury decisions can also bring down favorites. Because several ski jumpers’ suits were criticized for being too wide (allowing for extra buoyancy and longer distances), four out of five favored nations had no chances for the medal ranks: Japan, Norway, Austria and Germany all looked through their fingers. Slovenia won by 111 points over a perplexed Russian team.
Of course there are also athletes at the Olympics who live up to their role as favourites. Experience often helps. The Swiss Beat Feuz, four-time winner of the downhill World Cup rankings, won Olympic gold for the first time at the age of 34. The five-time snowboard world champion Benjamin Karl from Austria had to be 36 years old to be on the top of the podium in the parallel giant slalom. At the same age, Canadian Lindsey Jacobellis, five-time snowboard cross world champion, won her first gold at the Olympics. And the 14-time cross-country skiing world champion Therese Johaug from Norway won an individual gold medal in a skiathlon for the first time at the age of 33.
What always helps is healthy self-confidence. When the Swedish speed skater Nils van der Poel, who likes to quote Nietzsche and still seems likeable, was asked before leaving for Beijing whether he would return with a medal, he said: »I absolutely believe that. I think I’ll come home with two. Otherwise the competitors must have improved enormously.” Van der Poel won the 5,000 meters with a new Olympic record. In the 10,000 meter competition on Friday, he is considered practically unbeatable.
Van der Poel’s compatriot Sara Hector presented herself less confidently. Prior to this season, the 29-year-old had only won one World Cup giant slalom. This winter she was on the podium five times in six races. On the day of the race in Beijing, Hector said she was so nervous that she threw up before the start. She won anyway. Even in slalom, Hector was on course for gold, although she had never finished better than fifth in that discipline in the World Cup. Shortly before the finish, however, she merged. Joy and sorrow are also close together at the Olympics.
