EA figure skating scale, two divers on the ice and repeated bows to the audience: Claudia Pechstein said goodbye to the Winter Games in Beijing in the style of an Olympic champion. With nine plaques around her neck as a symbol of her nine Olympic medals, the Berliner was luck personified in the National Speed Skating Oval on Saturday.
“It was a really great surprise. I was really happy about that. That’s just a way to say thank you from German sport,” said the exceptional speed skater. Team doctor Gerald Lutz had the idea, the German Chef de Mission, Dirk Schimmelpfennig, put the medals around her.
Finally in ninth place
Three days before her 50th birthday, Pechstein had previously provided the best women’s result for the German Speed Skating and Short Track Association (DESG). At the end of the competitions on the ice oval, she had finished ninth in the mass start race at her eighth Olympic Winter Games – and left a possible end to her career open. “For me, it’s like I did a farewell lap from the Olympic Games in Beijing,” she said, dodging appropriate inquiries.
Pechstein had already made a courageous appearance in the semifinals. “I made it my goal to get to the final. I did it. That was my goal,” she said. In the final she also won an intermediate sprint and thus secured ninth place. “That was just cool and a perfect end to my eighth games. Just awesome. I’ve shown that I’m still capable at my age. I’m very, very proud of myself,” said the oldest participant.
Irene Schouten from the Netherlands, who celebrated her third Olympic victory in Beijing, won gold ahead of Ivanie Blondin from Canada and Francesca Lollobrigida from Italy. For Michelle Uhrig from Berlin, the end came after a fall in eleventh place in the semifinals. Felix Rijhnen from Frankfurt/Main, who was 14th in his semifinals, also missed the final. The Belgian Bart Swings won the Olympics ahead of the two South Koreans Chung Jae Won and Lee Seung-Hoon.
Pechstein was also unable to prevent the German speed skaters from not winning a medal at the Winter Games for the third time in a row. Overall, seventh place for Patrick Beckert from Erfurt over 10,000 meters was the best result for the German skaters.
Since her Olympic debut in 1992 in Albertville, Claudia Pechstein has won five gold medals and two silver and two bronze medals in her career. At the start of her eighth Winter Games, she finished 20th and last in the 3000m.
The German flag-bearer is leaving Beijing before the graduation ceremony this Sunday, “so that I can be home on time for my birthday,” she said. A party is not planned. “We still have Corona. There won’t be a big party with a lot of people on my 50th,” she said.