Wednesday 25 August 2021
Schindler races bronze on his bike
The first medal goes to Germany
Day 1, first medal: The start of the Paralympics goes brilliantly for Team Germany. Thanks to Denise Schindler, who is racing for bronze on the bike. In the meantime, she has improved the old world record, the “magic sonic barrier”. The 35-year-old already has a bonus in mind.
The first medal goes to Germany: At the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, cyclist Dennis Schindler won the bronze medal on the track and won the first medal awarded in Japan in all sports. Cheered enthusiastically by a German delegation led by DBS President Friedhelm Julius Bucher, the 35-year-old from Munich clearly beat American Clara Braun (4:01.523) in the race for third place in the 3000m chase with 3:55.120. It was the personal best performance of the below-knee amputee athlete.
“The president himself yelled at me for a bronze today,” Schindler said. “He knew how important it was to get my medal in the ring at the end.” So she is “incredibly happy”, but also very relaxed. She said, “I was under so much pressure, I wasn’t around all day. In the end, so many stones fell from my heart, it belongs to the whole track.” When Schindler, known as the “Killer Bee,” was asked what she wanted to reward herself for, she said with a laugh, “With gummy bears.”
“My Big Dream”
Australian Paige Greco took gold in a new world record time of 3:50.815 minutes ahead of Xiaomei Wang (China/3:54.975). Schindler was also just under three seconds off the previous qualifying world record in 3:57,625, but third place had to be satisfied because the two finalists were faster. Schindler was two seconds away from reaching the final.
However, I was thrilled about her solid time in qualifying.” Crazy, that was my big dream, I’ve been working towards it for a long time now, and it was a kind of magical sound barrier that you never managed to break, now Schindler said.
Schindler, who slipped under a tram on an icy road at the age of two in her hometown of Chemnitz and lost one of her legs, won the fourth medal at her third Paralympics. After two silver and one bronze medals on the road, she was first on the track.
