Thursday 29 July 2021
Olympic bronze for world champion
Herzog lands next canoe slalom coup
Already the third medal in canoe slalom: World champion Andrea Herzog wins bronze in the canoe single at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. In the final, she ends up behind the Australian Jessica Fox and the British Mallory Franklin. With this, the 21-year-old continues the successful streak of German canoeists.
Slalom canoeist Andrea Herzog followed the decision at the Olympic premiere very coolly, after the bronze coup she hugged her trainer before she hugged her friend Philipp Reichenbach. “I’m overjoyed at the moment, I can’t believe it. The others drove great,” she said.
The others were the multiple world champions Jessica Fox from Australia and Mallory Franklin from Great Britain, who won gold and silver in the single canoe in the Kasai Canoe Slalom Center in Tokyo. The 21-year-old Herzog also showed a tremendous feeling when dancing around the poles and drove to bronze. For the German canoe slalom team, after gold from Ricarda Funk and bronze from Sideris Tasiadis, it is already the third medal at the Summer Games in Tokyo. This was last achieved at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Sports soldier Herzog was 6.09 seconds behind the Olympic champion on the demanding route in the 25-pole maze. Like Franklin, Herzog made a mistake, but Fox made a mistake on her run. Herzog drove cautiously, not taking a full risk – it was a solid ride to Olympic bronze.
“I don’t necessarily have to get a medal”
President Thomas Konietzko of the German Canoe Association was happy after winning the third medal in the third competition. “There has not been a performance like this in canoe slalom for a long time in the history of the Olympics. That gives us confidence for the fourth competition with Hannes Aigner and for the racing canoeists,” said Konietzko.
Born in Meissen, Saxony, Herzog traveled to Tokyo with the confidence of a World Cup victory. At the Olympic dress rehearsal on the home track in Markkleeberg near Leipzig, she defeated the entire world elite with an almost perfect run. “I’ll check off the win right away, in Tokyo it will start from scratch,” she said. In any case, the Leipzig woman prefers to be defensive and calm. In addition, she did not want to increase the pressure that was already there. “I don’t necessarily have to win a medal at the Olympics,” she said, adding: “I’m still young and still have a chance in Paris in 2024.”
But pressure situations are not alien to her: After her surprise victory at the 2019 World Cup – she was only 19 years old – it got exciting. “First I needed something to come to terms with the responsibility and the pressure situation,” she says openly and honestly. Therefore, she was not sad about the postponement of the Olympics by a year. “I had more time to get used to the situation.”
She knew that from her childhood: When she tried to paddle for the first time, she was found to be too easy – and laughed at. At a young age, when she was often out in canoeing with her family, she took her brother Robert on a trip to Slovenia to the wild Soca River. At the sight of the then still young student, the instructor in charge was pessimistic. Too petite, too small and too weak against the wild water – so his judgment. Andrea Herzog taught him better and conquered the currents and water rollers impressively – as at her Olympic premiere in Tokyo.
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