16 years, 14 times on the podium
“Eternal” Rothfuss wins a very special medal
3/11/2022 7:37 am
There was another German medal at the Paralympics in Beijing: Ski racer Andrea Rothfuss made it onto the podium for the 14th time in her fifth Paralympics. On the other hand, Edelmetall misses another German medal hope by a blink of an eye.
Ski racer Andrea Rothfuss also returns from her fifth Paralympics with a medal. The 32-year-old surprisingly won bronze in the giant slalom in the standing class and cried with joy at the finish line. “Chapeau! The signs were not on a medal, but she has surpassed herself,” said the seven-time Paralympic champion Anna Schaffelhuber as an ARD expert. “This medal is the best and most beautiful. It even surpasses the golden one from Sochi,” said Rothfuss. “I dreamed of it, but I didn’t think it was possible. But I made the impossible possible.”
However, when the Chinese Mengqiu Zhang won, Rothfuss also benefited from the fall of Ebba Aarsjoe, who was second after the first round. In the downhill, Rothfuss, who has been missing his left hand since birth, just missed out on a medal with fourth place last Saturday. In the Super-G on Sunday there was a “very annoying” ninth place. So it worked out with precious metal for Rothfuss, who was on the podium in each of the five disciplines in Pyeongchang in 2018. Anna-Maria Rieder from Murnau took an impressive fifth place in the giant slalom.
For Rothfuss it was her 14th Paralympic medal. One gold, nine silver and four bronze are now on the balance sheet, she won at least one in every game. She won her first medal in 2006 at the age of just 16: silver in the giant slalom in Turin. With her medal from Beijing, Rothfuss drew level with Claudia Pechstein. The woman from Erfurt, who competed in her eighth Olympic Games in Beijing in February and had thus made herself the record Olympian, also collected her nine Olympic medals at five Olympic Games between 1992 and 2006. On Sunday, Schwäbin Rothfuss, who was voted disabled athlete of the year in 2009, will start in the slalom. In this discipline she had won her Paralympic gold medal in Sochi in 2014.
Forster misses the medal by a blink of an eye
After her fourth place in the downhill, Rothfuss, who works for customs, indicated to the “Tagesspiegel” that the games in Beijing could be her last – but not necessarily. “For the past two years, I’ve been completely on my own and focused on the games in China. There’s no time to think about anything else that could distract me from my goal.” It’s also about staying fit and injury-free. “Otherwise, the sport thrives on your wealth of experience and on how much you can push yourself. The overall package counts and the head makes a big difference.”
Meanwhile, Anna-Lena Forster narrowly missed her fourth medal at the 2022 Paralympics. In the giant slalom in the sitting class, the 26-year-old only finished fourth after two rounds, six hundredths of a second behind the Chinese Wenjing Zhang. The Paralympic champion was Momoka Muraoka from Japan, who was 8.71 seconds ahead of the best German monoskier. After crossing the finish line, the visibly disappointed Forster was comforted by team doctor Hartmut Stinus. Previously, in China, she won gold in super combined and silver in downhill and super-G, behind Muraoka.