Historic Olympic “highlight”: Claudia Pechstein is making history

Historic Olympic “highlight”
Claudia Pechstein writes history

Historically: Claudia Pechstein is the first woman to qualify for the eighth time for the Olympic Winter Games. To do this, the speed skater has to fight hard and withstand “extreme nerve stress”. In the end, the five-time gold medal winner wants to “hug the world”.

Speed ​​skater Claudia Pechstein (49) made history and met the norm for her eighth Olympic Winter Games. The five-time gold medalist finished eleventh in the mass start finals of the World Cup in Calgary, Canada on Sunday. With this, eight weeks before the Games in Beijing (February 4 to 20), she managed to meet the national and international requirements.

“This is the absolute highlight of my sporting career,” said Pechstein, “when it was clear that I could take part in the Olympics for the eighth time, I could have hugged the whole world.” A start in Beijing is Pechstein’s big goal. As the first woman in the world, she qualified for the eighth time for the Winter Games, a mark that had only been achieved by the Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai so far.

The norm of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) provides for two placements in the top 15 per discipline, with two eleventh places last weekend in Salt Lake City and now in Calgary. For the international standard, a place in the top 24 of the World Cup ranking is mandatory, Pechstein finished 17th.

“An extreme nerve strain”

In Calgary, Michelle Uhrig from Berlin confirmed her Olympic standard from the previous week as eighth. Joel Dufter (Inzell) managed over 1000 m as 15th in the A group, the norm for the Olympics. In 1: 08.08 minutes, the third place in the European Championship met the DOSB’s nomination criteria in the last international qualifying race. Patrick Beckert (Erfurt) and Felix Rijhnen (Darmstadt) had already succeeded in this.

In the semifinals, Pechstein’s Olympic project seemed to have failed, she finished eleventh and thus actually passed the final. Before the last sprint ranking, however, Pechstein had been pushed off the track, so national coach Helge Jasch successfully protested. Pechstein advanced to the final.

“That was of course an extreme strain on Claudia ‘s nerves,” said Jasch, “it is admirable how she dealt with it and then got the Olympic ticket in the final.” The pressure was “enormous,” said Pechstein, “now I’m just overjoyed that I made it. For me, this is the perfect culmination of my career.”

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