Despite the small jump at the end, Elizabeth Seitz reached the Olympic final on the uneven bars – after London 2012, and Rio 2016 for the third time in a row. In the all-around final, she meets her Stuttgart teammate, Kim Boye.
London, Rio, Tokyo – The city’s Olympic journey to the finals continues on the uneven bars of Elizabeth Seitz. But only when the 27-year-old saw the rating light up on the scoreboard and clenched her fist was clear. Vinali. Mother Claudia was one of the first to congratulate. “She even answered the phone directly.” Claudia Seitz sums up what the mother and daughter said in one word: “crazy.” Three Olympics and three finals in gymnastics. Madness. Because many masters had already fallen from the sky on the uneven bars. And most recently, Eli Seitz himself was in EM in the spring.
Anything is possible in the final
In a split second, it is decided whether Eli can grab it again after a spirited journey from lower mast to upper mast, or whether he falls. In Tokyo there were no spectators in the hall, but the audience sat at home. Grandmother, uncle and nephew got together, and in the midst of it all, Elizabeth’s brother Gabriel – himself a successful gymnast and two-time junior runner-up in Germany. After getting to the final the topic is of course: “Well done Eli” and the question of what to decide on the medal. This is the difficulty. The difficulty of the gymnastics exercise in English is “difficulty” or grade D. Elizabeth Seitz achieved 6.2 (score D), and the best gymnast in Tokyo was Belgium’s Nina Derwill with a score of 6.7. Seitz, who lives and trains in Stuttgart, earned a total of 14,700 points (D 6.2 + E 8.5) for her impressive performance, just like the Chinese Yufei LU. Since only gymnasts from each country are allowed to start in the final, and thus two of the four qualifier Russians are lost in the final, Seitz drops to fifth on the qualifying list even if only a little after Tsukahara is out and then no longer counts.
The Stuttgart trio in the all-around final: Seitz, Boye, Mai
Seitz still had some kind of extra competition because she also qualified for the all-around final and was allowed to practice gymnastics again on all four machines on Thursday — in the final with American Simone Biles, who confidently won the playoffs despite her specialty. Error. Kim Bowie, who trains like Seitz in Stuttgart, also qualified for the all-around final for the top 24 gymnasts. In 2008 in Beijing, she was still a participant in the International Youth Olympic Camp, and now at the age of 32, she has proven herself among the best in the world, already doing gymnastics in London, Rio and now Tokyo. The two are taken care of in Tokyo by national coach Ulla Koch and longtime home coach Robert May of Ostfildern-Ruit.
It’s my mom’s birthday in the unequal bars finals
After a sixth place in the asymmetrical bars final in London, and a beautiful fourth in Rio, getting an Elizabeth Seitz medal would be a dream come true. For Mother Claudia, next Sunday is a double holiday. It’s her birthday and she’s receiving the finale from Ellie as a gift – with or without a medal. The engagement in itself is a success and the family has already announced to rejoice and celebrate.