This is how the 14th day of the Olympics works
Cold provides surprising medal chance
2/17/2022, 9:09 p.m
The Beijing Winter Olympics are coming to an end. For the German team there are still a few medals in there, on Friday even more than originally thought. The biathlon team can hope, with the ski crossers Thursday showed that a lot is possible.
Biathlon: Because it could be too cold for biathlon on the Olympic biathlon courses on Saturday, both final mass start races will take place on Friday: After the women’s race at 8 a.m. CET (ARD and in the live ticker on ntv.de) The men’s competition follows two hours later (10 a.m. CET). The men’s relay race had already been postponed by two and a half hours on Tuesday due to the icy temperatures of below minus 15 degrees. According to the rules, a cancellation is inevitable from minus 20 degrees, consequences are possible even at minus 15 degrees and strong winds.
So far there have only been two medals in the statistics for the German biathlon team, and there have never been fewer at the Olympic Games. But the chances are not so bad that the balance sheet will be pimped up again on the last day of the biathlon competitions. For the women, Denise Herrmann, gold medalist in the individual, delivered a strong performance in the bronze race of the relay, as well as the excellent shooters Vanessa Voigt, who finished fourth in the individual, Franziska Preuß and Vanessa Hinz can certainly do something in view of the four shooting bouts to be completed calculate. “I think it’s actually quite good, then you don’t have so much time to think,” said Preuss in view of the competition being brought forward. It’s not going to be fun anyway. “It’s going to be tough for everyone. You have to grit your teeth now,” said Preuss.
Among the men, Benedikt Doll, a German, even leads the mass start ranking in the World Cup. In addition to Doll, Johannes Kühn and Philipp Nawrath will be at the start. Germany’s biathlon legend Erik Lesser, on the other hand, will be absent at the end: The 33-year-old could not qualify for the final race. Doll came sixth in the individual and just missed out on a medal. “Today it was clear that you have to shoot zero or one,” said Doll. “Don’t know if I should cry or be happy, you can’t really buy much from the placement.” Now there is the next, the last opportunity to pick up a medal after all.
speed skating: Speed skating is a Dutch domain. When it comes to the ice oval, there is usually at least one athlete from the neighboring country on the podium. Mostly at the top. The Dutch success story could also be continued in the men’s 1000 meters (from 9.30 a.m.): With Thomas Krol and Kjeld Nuis, two Dutchmen are favorites in the race. The Canadian and top favorite Laurent Dubreuil, who dominates the World Cup, only finished fourth in his first race over 500 meters and definitely wants the medal.
The only German starter does not fight for the medals, but for his form: Joel Dufter struggled with a corona infection until shortly before the Olympics, over 500 meters he only finished 26th out of 30 starters on the first Friday of the Olympics a week ago. He “noticed that I just lack the power. This is only the second day on the ice. I just need three or four more days of training to get back into the right shape,” said the 26-year-old afterwards. Now there is a new chance to at least get close to your best form.
ski cross: What a final the German ski fans experienced at the women’s ski cross: Outsider Daniela Maier, who had previously fought her way very close to the medals in sometimes dramatic races, seemed to have finished as an unlucky fourth. But after waiting forever, competitor Fanny Smith was distanced because she is said to have obstructed the German decisively and, above all, deliberately. And so the 25-year-old still advanced to bronze – against the express protest of Maier, who had seen no violation of the Swiss competitor.
Now the men go into the infight on the narrow course, where four riders always fight for two tickets to the next round. From 7 a.m. German time, Florian Wilmsmann, Daniel Bohnacker, Tobias Müller and Niklas Bachsleitner want to repeat the coup of their teammate. A second German medal would be a sensation, even greater than Daniela Maier’s success.
snowboards: What role will German freestyle skier Sabrina Cakmakli play in Chinese superstar Eileen Gu’s next show? In any case, Cakmakli secured the last place for the finals in the qualification. Four years ago in Pyeongchang, the sports soldier finished eighth. Meanwhile, China’s top favorite, who won the qualifier, is reaching for her third medal of these Games in the icy snow tube of Zhangjiakou from 2.30am. The 18-year-old won gold in the big air discipline and silver in slopestyle.
Gu, an athlete, model and influencer with an impressive reach, is one of the most colorful characters in these games. The US-born athlete now enjoys hero status in China. The journalist Mark Dreyer is quoted on tagesschau.de as saying that the fact that she decided to no longer compete for the USA and instead for China” is “a gift for propaganda in China and for those who want to see it politically .” For China, Eileen Gu starts under the name Gu Ailing.