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Slopestyler Annika Morgan will take part in the final on Sunday
Photo: MAXIM SHIPENKOV / EPA
Oh, you beautiful outdoor sport: For the second day in a row, treacherous winds are disrupting the training of the downhill skiers.
In chronically wind-prone ski jumping, the first decision is pending - and Katharina Althaus has excellent chances of a medal.
This has been the case since the official opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
This was important:
Actually, the downhill
of the men should take place
on Sunday (4 a.m. CET) .
But the supreme alpine discipline is plagued by a problem: the gusty winds on the slope in Yanqing, which had caused the training to be postponed the day before, made the final third training run impossible.
After only three starters the session was stopped.
US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin
had previously
called the conditions “not just a challenge, but also very dangerous”.
Romed Baumann, Dominik Schwaiger, Josef Ferstl
and
Andreas Sander
are scheduled to start
for the DSV team on Sunday .
Vice World Champion Sander was given preference over
Simon Jocher
after the wind conditions had prevented the originally planned sporting decision.
The Nordic Combined is plagued by the problem of having more starting places than athletes who are ready for action:
Terence Weber
and
Eric Frenzel
are in isolation after positive corona tests.
The conditions for Frenzel in the quarantine hotel were initially “very bad”, criticized team doctor Stefan Pecher – meanwhile, however, the 33-year-old is “much better taken care of”.
Manuel Faißt
is to travel as a substitute on Sunday.
Snowboarder
Annika Morgan
has
achieved a notable success in
slopestyle .
The discipline is about collecting points with tricks and jumps over an obstacle course.
In qualifying for the medal decision on Sunday (2.30 a.m.), the 19-year-old managed to make it into the final of the top twelve with a good second attempt in tenth place out of 30 starters.
"It's standard for me that I don't land it in the first and then land in the second," said the athlete from SC Mittenwald.
That's going to be important
The time has come: the first medals will be awarded on Saturday morning. A total of six decisions are pending throughout the day. It starts at 8.45 a.m. with the
women's skiathlon
over 15 kilometers. However, the DSV starters around
Katharina Hennig
shouldn't be expected to be at the very front
in these games: "It would be a miracle if she won a medal there in an individual competition," said team boss Peter Schlickenrieder, dampening expectations of his best runner.
The same applies to flag bearer
Claudia Pechstein
: The 49-year-old has not been able to keep up with the international competition for years, her start over the
3000 meters
(final from 9.30 a.m.) is success enough for the most decorated German winter Olympic athlete in history (five gold medals) .
In contrast, the German
biathlon mixed relay
(10 a.m.) relies on two Olympic newcomers: starting runner
Vanessa Voigt
and final runner
Philipp Nawrath
make their debuts at the games,
Denise Herrmann
and
Benedikt Doll
contribute experience.
Althaus with the first chance of gold
Speaking of experience: After participating in these games, Pechstein is catching up with the same-old Japanese ski jumping veteran Noriaki Kasai, both of whom took part in the Olympic Games eight times.
Just before the individual competition on the
normal hill
(11:45 a.m.) at the facility in Zhangjiakou ,
Katharina Althaus
met Kasai, who was unable to qualify for the Beijing Games .
"Fangirl moment," Althaus captioned the selfie with Kasai on Instagram.
The silver medalist from Pyeongchang has a good chance of gaining more fans herself in Beijing: Top favorite Marita Kramer is missing due to a positive corona test, Althaus is second in the overall World Cup behind the Austrian and was already convincing in training.
A medal is possible - possibly even gold.
If the wind cooperates.
All competitions of the day at a glance can be found here.
cev/dpa