Olympia 2022 - The cross-country team can hardly believe their luck after sensational silver

Katherine Sauerbrey, Katharina Hennig, Victoria Carl and Sofie Krehl surpassed themselves on the cross-country ski run and left all the major Scandinavian powers behind: Sweden, Finland and Norway. Only the Russian quartet was a bit stronger at the end.

The “death-defying” Krehl, completely exhausted and overjoyed, fell into the arms of her cheering teammates, the visibly moved national coach Peter Schlickenrieder was still sobbing uncontrollably with joy an hour after the “giant thing”.

the German cross-country skiers have a silver winter fairy tale in Beijing experienced and, after years of agonizing failure in the Olympic relay crime thriller, tied in with great times.

Olympics – cross-country skiing

This is how the women’s relay went: German quartet wins silver

YESTERDAY AT 03:04

“It’s a sensation, I didn’t think a medal was realistic,” said the completely stunned Schlickenrieder after his anchor Krehl had saved herself “on the last groove and with the last grain” from the rushing teams from Sweden and Finland .

Where is Krehl? German women’s relay sensationally storms to silver

“Sofie was scared to death before she started running,” said Schlickenrieder, which the supposedly weakest runner in the team also confirmed: “Sure, after all it was about a medal, I’ve never been in a situation like that. I gave everything – it would have been a long time I couldn’t hold out any longer.”

Sauerbrey, Hennig, Carl and finally Krehl delivered their masterpieces on the brutal course in the bare mountains of Zhangjiakou, were even in the lead and on course for gold until the final phase. However, the selection of the Russian Olympic Committee secured the Olympic victory with a lead of 18.2 seconds on the German foursome.

Silver! The spell is broken

“It’s so nice that we’ve finally been rewarded for our hard work,” said Hennig, who, like her fifth place in the individual over 10 km, once again proved her world-class level: “We’ve been through a few in the past few years valleys gone.”

Behle analyzes women’s relay after silver: “That was the best”

The botched home World Cup in Oberstdorf had gnawed at Schlickenrieder and his team: “It hurt a lot back then. But you learn from defeats.”

It was the first German cross-country medal at a major event in eight years. It wasn’t quite enough for a cross-country skiing miracle like in 2002 in Salt Lake City, when the women’s relay team around Evi Dingebacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad stormed to Olympic victory in Salt Lake City.

Silver relay overjoyed: “It’s totally crazy”

Most recently, a German quartet won bronze in Sochi in 2014, at that time with the final runner Denise Herrmann, who has now become Olympic champion as a biathlete in Beijing. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed and send you all the energy,” Herrmann greeted her ex-colleagues via “ZDF” from the neighboring biathlon stadium.

The German team had plenty of energy.

Olympic debutant Sauerbrey handed over to Hennig in second place, who was leading after the second classic part. Carl was also the first to hand over to Krehl – who had to let the Russian go, but defended the medal with all her might. “It was a huge thriller,” said Schlickenrieder, “but with a happy ending.”

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Silver shines almost like gold! German cross-country skiers create a medal coup