16 years and 14 times on the podium
Ruthfuss “Immortal” wins a very special medal
3/11/2022 7:37 AM
There was another German medal at the Paralympics in Beijing: skater Andrea Rothfuss climbed to the podium for the 14th time in her first Paralympic Games. On the other hand, Edelmetall misses another hope for a German medal in the blink of an eye.
Figure skater Andrea Ruthfuss also returned from her fifth Paralympics with a medal. The 32-year-old surprisingly won the bronze medal in the giant slalom in the standing class and wept with glee at the finish line. “The opener! The marks weren’t on a medal, but they surpassed themselves,” said seven-time Paralympic champion Anna Schaeffelhuber as an ARD expert. “This medal is the best and most beautiful,” said Rothfuss. “It even beats the gold medal from Sochi. I dreamed of it, but I didn’t think it was possible. But I made the impossible possible.”
However, when China’s Mengqiu Zhang won, Ruthfuss also benefited from the downfall of Iba Aarsjo, who finished second after the first round. In the downhill, Ruthfuss, who has lost his left hand since birth, missed a medal for fourth place last Saturday. In Super-G on Sunday there was a “very annoying” ninth place. So it worked out with precious metals for Rothfuss, who was on the podium in each of the five disciplines at Pyeongchang in 2018. Anna Maria Rieder of Murnau took an impressive fifth place in the giant slalom.
For Ruthfuss it was the 14th Paralympic medalist. One gold, nine silvers and four bronzes are now on the balance sheet, and I’ve won at least one in every match. She won her first medal in 2006 at the age of 16: a silver in the giant slalom in Turin. With her medal from Beijing, Ruthfuss tied with Claudia Bechstein. The woman from Erfurt, who competed in her eighth Olympic Games in Beijing last February, thus becoming the number one Olympic record holder, took her nine Olympic medals at five Olympics between 1992 and 2006. On Sunday, Schweben Ruthfuss will start, Who was voted Disabled Athlete of the Year 2009, in the slalom. In this discipline, she won the gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Sochi in 2014.
After finishing fourth in the slopes, customs’ Ruthfuss indicated to Tagesspiegel that the Games in Beijing might be her last – but not necessarily. “For the past two years I have been completely alone and focused on the games in China. There is no time to think of anything else that could distract me from my goal.” It’s also about staying fit and injury-free. “Otherwise, the sport thrives because of your wealth of experience and how much you can pay yourself. The overall package is important and the head makes all the difference.”
Forster misses the medal in the blink of an eye
Meanwhile, 15-year-old Len Kazmayr and Leonie Walter, who is three years older, won the next medal. Kazmayr, the youngest German participant in Beijing, came second on Friday in the 12.5km biathlon with guide Florian Baumann with a time of 50:23.2 without missing a single shot. She was only 3.6 seconds behind the winner from Ukraine Oksana Shishkova. For the freshman, this was her fourth medal in China at her Paralympics premiere. Walter, the 10-km Paralympic champion, also finished third with guide Bermaine Stricker without shooting errors in 52:27.6, bringing him to the podium for the fourth time in the Games. Johanna Richtenwald finished fourth with a time of 57:00.8 minutes.
On the other hand, Anna-Lena Forster just missed her fourth medal at the 2022 Paralympic Games. In the giant slalom in the seated category, the 26-year-old finished only fourth after two rounds, six hundredths of a second behind China’s Wenjing Zhang. Japanese Paralympic champion Momoka Muraoka was 8.71 seconds ahead of the best German single. After crossing the finish line, Forster is visibly disappointed by team doctor Hartmut Steinus. Previously, in China, she won gold in the combined super and silver in downhill and super G, behind Muraoka.