Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Time trial follows basketball
Zeyen postponed her wedding for gold
Annika Zeyen subordinates everything to her dream of Tokyo. She won gold in wheelchair basketball as early as 2012, and later switched to handbike after working as a track and field athlete. In the past year she has to make a decision. She pursues her goal and rewards herself.
Annika Zeyen had postponed her wedding planned for this summer in order to write a piece of Paralympic history. The plan worked. And when she actually won Paralympics gold in the second summer sport, her fiancé was the first to congratulate. From England he called a colleague of Zeyen’s and was put through. “It’s nice to have colleagues at the finish line,” said Zeyen, who works as Brand Manager for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Her victory in the time trial with the handbike was not only unusual because she is the only IPC employee who competes in Tokyo and the only one who has ever won a title. But also because the paraplegic woman from Bonn won gold in wheelchair basketball in 2012. “To win gold in two different sports is unbelievable. You can’t beat that,” said the 36-year-old, who has only competed in international handbike races for two and a half years.
From the operating room to the podium
It was the sporting climax of what from a German point of view was very emotional morning on the former Formula 1 track at the foot of Mount Fuji. The bronze medal for Kerstin Brachtendorf was very moving. Because the 49-year-old, who drives with an immobile ankle, had only had to undergo a vascular operation 19 days earlier. “I left the training camp three weeks ago and went straight to the operating theater. Everything was actually canceled in my head,” said the Cottbus woman: “And now I am standing here and have a medal. That is unbelievable.” After an occlusion of the internal pelvic artery, she was stented.
Vico Merklein (Nendorf) achieved his best time trial result with silver in the handbike. Flag bearer Michael Teuber (Munich) was satisfied with bronze, although he had missed the fourth title in a row. In contrast, multi-talented Andrea Eskau (Magdeburg) described her fifth place after leading in the first round as “very angry and sad”. It would have been the 16th medal for the eight-time Paralympic winner in summer or winter. Denise Schindler (Munich), who was only ninth after bronze on the track, spoke of a “black day”. Meanwhile, Sebastian Dietz (Bay Oeynhausen) was delighted with bronze in the shot put in the athletics stadium.
“I know what it means to torment yourself”
But the headlines on Tuesday belonged to Annika Zeyen. Because in times of professionalization in para-sport, victories in two so dissimilar sports are actually hardly feasible. “Even as a basketball player, I always rode a handbike for endurance. So it wasn’t that far off,” said Zeyen with a laugh. When she ended her basketball career in 2016, she first tried her hand at athletics as a racing wheelchair user. “I enjoyed that, but I couldn’t continue because of an injury,” she said: “Today I’m overjoyed that I chose the handbike.” She had never won a time trial before. “Today was a really good moment for that,” she said cheerfully.
She had stopped playing basketball so that she no longer had to follow the training times of the club and the national teams. “In individual sport you train not less, but more flexibly,” she said. And although the two sports are fundamentally different at first glance, she has taken a lot from her first career. “I’ve been a competitive athlete for many years,” she said: “I know what it means to torment yourself. And I’m very ambitious and hard-working.”
Therefore, after the corona-related cancellation of the games in the previous year, the wedding was even postponed. But now Annika Zeyen will step in front of the altar as a double Paralympic winner.
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