Dhe expected medal from the flag bearer, a silver sensation from the chick – and two other surprises as well: the German team had an unexpectedly successful start at the Paralympics in Beijing. Monoskier Anna-Lena Forster provided the template in Yanqing with silver in her supposedly weakest discipline, before in biathlon Linn Kazmaier and Marco Maier, who were only 15, also followed up with second places and Leonie Walter with bronze.
“Just sensational,” enthused DBS President Friedhelm Julius Beucher after the start. Forster had to take a deep breath after her first downhill medal. “A lot” of the load fell off, the 26-year-old said in an interview with the sports information service: “I’m really happy. I’m super relieved that I can take a medal with me. This is a good start.”
Forster withstood the pressure
The expectations of Forster were enormous, but she withstood the pressure. The fact that the victorious Japanese Momoka Muraoka was 82 hundredths of a second short of the seated class made her only quibble briefly given her four remaining chances for the top step of the podium. “The chance of gold was there, for sure. Unfortunately, today I wasn’t quite able to call up the performance that I’m actually able to drive.” Yes, according to the four-time world champion, “maybe there will be more”.
We can certainly expect even more from the visually impaired Kazmaier in the future. At just 15 years and exactly four months, the youngest German and second youngest participant in the entire Games together with guide Florian Baumann sensationally stormed to second place in the sprint in her Paralympics debut and crowned herself as the youngest German medalist at the Winter Games. “I’m really happy, but I still can’t really believe it,” said the woman from the Black Forest.
Sovereign to silver: Anna-Lena Forster
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Bild: picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS
You’ve already “dreamed about it. But not that it works now, but at some point in my 20s or so. I didn’t expect that at all,” she said. Because of congenital cone dystrophy and nystagmus, Kazmaier only sees blurry, shaky images. Without her shooting error, she could even have climbed to the top of the podium in Zhangjiakou’s fridge in the absence of the excluded and otherwise dominant Russian competition.
“I thought that can’t be true,” Beucher told the Sport Information Service: “What strength, will and natural talent this girl has. I’m delighted.” Directly behind Kazmaier, Walter also landed on the podium with guide Pirmin Strecker after a miss. “It’s something very special. It’s a wonderful feeling to have taken the medal in the first race,” said the Freiburg native, who only turned 18 in January.
Like the two visually impaired, the flawless Maier also won his first international medal in the standing class in minus 10 degrees and gusty winds. A protest because of an allegedly illegal weapon was rejected. “The medal means everything to me,” said the 22-year-old from SV Kirchzarten: “A wish has become reality. It’s incredible.”
Even if there are a few more races to come, he will certainly “celebrate a little”. Certainly a few others from the German team will join them.
