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First medal for Germany
Althaus flies just past gold
02/05/2022 1:39 p.m
She wins the first medal for the German team at the Olympic Games: Katharina Althaus wins silver in ski jumping on the normal hill. The 25-year-old leads after the first round and is only beaten by Ursa Bogataj from Slovenia.
Katharina Althaus won Olympic silver in ski jumping, giving the German team its first medal at the Winter Games in China. The 25-year-old was only beaten by the Slovenian Ursa Bogataj. Nika Kriznar from Slovenia also secured bronze. Althaus jumped 105.5 and 94 meters from the normal hill in Zhangjiakou. In the end, she separated 2.2 points from gold – about a meter. “I’m super proud and I’m super happy,” said Althaus. “At first I was a bit annoyed because my jump wasn’t that good. But then I was happy.”
The girl from Oberstdorf started the competition as the favorite for a medal and was in the lead after the first round. She is second in the overall World Cup. The leading Marita Kramer from Austria could not travel to Beijing because of a corona infection.
As the second best German, Juliane Seyfarth finished in 19th place at temperatures of 13.5 degrees below zero. The 31-year-old should also have good cards for a start in mixed on Monday. “It was positive for me, I’m quite satisfied,” said Seyfarth. Close behind her followed Selina Freitag and Pauline Hessler on ranks 22 and 24.
On the other hand, Sara Takanashi went empty again. The Japanese, who holds a lone record with 61 World Cup victories, had to settle for the thankless fourth place. The 25-year-old is still waiting for her first individual gold medal at a major event – despite her many years of dominance, she has never won a world championship.
Already on Monday it’s about the next medal
At the past games in Pyeongchang, Althaus had won silver behind Maren Lundby. Neither the Norwegian, who skips the entire season, nor the weak Carina Vogt are there this time. Althaus has long since taken over Vogt’s role in the German team. The Allgäu native has been the most consistent German jumper for years and is an absolute top performer in the team of national coach Maximilian Mechler, who took over from Andreas Bauer in the summer.
After things didn’t go so well last season – no German jumper made it onto the podium in an individual World Cup – Althaus has found his way back to his old strength this winter. She won the World Cup in Lillehammer, and Althaus jumped onto the podium a total of seven times. With changing winds and freezing cold, strong nerves were required in Zhangjiakou. Althaus and her best competitors from Slovenia put on a great ski jumping show in front of almost empty stands.
Althaus didn’t want Kramer’s absence to be seen as an opportunity for himself. “I’m so sorry for her that she can’t jump with us here,” she said after strong training jumps. “I hope she gets her chance in four years.”
Althaus has the next opportunity to win another medal on Monday. Together with a teammate and two jumpers from the team of national coach Stefan Horngacher, she then wants to attack in the mixed team.