Monika Karsch: Great cinema in the head, but no happy ending

She wanted, she gave everything, but it was not enough: Monika Karsch missed the Olympic final in the “sport pistol” discipline.

Bad luck and a lack of ease played a role.

Tokyo - The dream of a medal has burst. Monika Karsch did not manage to get onto the podium again with the sport pistol. After silver in Rio, she finished 20th at the Olympic Games in Tokyo with a total of 580 rings. “I tried it to the end,” the Schongau native made it clear that she had given everything to make it into the final of the top eight after finishing 23rd in precision.

The mortgage of 288 rings from the first part of the program turned out to be too heavy to pay off in a duel. The 38-year-old would have needed a creamy day as her teammate Doreen Vennekamp caught him. In terms of precision, the Ronneburg woman even had one point less than Karsch on the account, but then shot completely unleashed and catapulted herself from 32nd place to fourth with a phenomenal 299 rings. "It was a war in my head with myself and I won it," said Vennekamp, ​​paying tribute to her result, which finally came in seventh in the final.

Her teammate also had a big head movie.

Karsch started her program perfectly with two tens.

"I knew that I had to attack today, attack and use my strength," she said, fully motivated to tackle the 30 shots.

But then an eight followed, which increased the pressure again.

She put up with this challenge too and added seven tens.

"I caught myself because I knew that the competition would not end until 30 shots," she said, as she motivated herself again.

Monika Karsch starts the duel perfectly with two tens

With a 98 at the start, nothing was lost, but she had to keep delivering. She started the second series with five tens in a row, but then began to wobble. Three nines pushed their result to 97 rings. Since their competitors weren't giving anything away, the pressure before the last round grew immeasurably. The marksman, who grew up in Rott, should now have cleared everything. But again three shots did not hit the target exactly and a 97 lit up on the electronic display for the second time.

292 rings were an impressive result, but they weren't enough to compensate for the previous day's yield.

“Yesterday was more disappointing for me because there were simply three rings missing,” she said, blaming her result in terms of precision for her performance.

Karsch, who has prepared in an exemplary manner for the games in Tokyo, ultimately lacked the little bit of luck that is necessary with all skill to land at the top.

“Moni had a lot of bad luck in the precision competition with many 9.9 ratings.

That could well have been three or four more rings, ”said national coach Barbara Georgi, who quarreled with her haul.

During the training, the doubts came

"She's pretty disappointed," said Thomas Karsch, describing the mood of his wife after talking to her on the phone. The husband, who also works with his wife as the state trainer of the Bavarian Rifle Association for pistols, discovered a few points via remote analysis that did not work as usual for her. “She doesn't have much to reproach herself for,” said him, technically speaking, there was hardly anything to complain about in terms of her performance. However, it struck him that the sports soldier was losing the boundless optimism that actually shapes her nature. "There were doubts," he admitted that the shooter brooded too much during training. “Too much analyzed, too skeptical,” he stated, that an unknown habitus crept into Monika Karsch.

Five years ago she had traveled to Rio completely carefree. During the whole trip she felt like she was in an adventure film, at the end of which she picked up a silver treasure. At that time, she experienced up close the pressure under which sport shooters, who had always missed out at the Olympics, put themselves. She herself flew through competitions as free as a hummingbird. There was not much left of this lightness in Tokyo, which was gripped by the pandemic. Karsch trusted in the routine of an Olympic medalist who wanted to repeat her success with diligence, meticulousness and organization. But something was missing. "The momentum wasn't on her side," her husband realized that it just wasn't her games, as much as she'd wished for it.

Karsch leaves the Japanese metropolis again on Saturday morning. She has to decide for herself how to proceed. After a few weeks of vacation, the German championships are on Then there is a big break. “I can imagine everything,” says Thomas Karsch, who considers his wife's sporting future to be completely open. The Olympics are only three years away from the Paris Games. Monika Karsch would then be 41 years old and in the best shooting age. Why shouldn't she spend a relaxing week in the city of love and light?