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Catherine Hennig and Victoria Carl
Photo:
Daniel Karmann / dpa
According to her own statement, Victoria Carl was shaking "all over her body", Katharina Hennig "couldn't believe it".
Long after the big sensation, the two cross-country skiers in the ski center of Beijing were still vacillating between disbelief and infinite ecstasy.
Hennig and Carl ran to gold in the team sprint at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
After years of sadness in German cross-country skiing and medalless games in 2018 in Pyeongchang, it is already the second completely unexpected medal.
The relay had previously won silver.
“I'm full of adrenaline.
I do not know what to do.
I walk around like counterfeit money,” said Victoria Carl.
And Hennig: »We feel like we're in the wrong film.
We still can't really believe what we've done." It's "incredible that we were able to top the silver medal."
The German team's vague hopes for a medal had been dampened in the morning.
Katherine Sauerbrey was actually planned for the competition alongside Hennig.
After she had impressed as the starting runner in her first games in the silver relay, she decided against starting in the sprint.
After the tough days, the 24-year-old felt "not 100 percent fit," the association said - an admission that is not taken for granted in top-class sport.
Substitute Carl had to go.
In double-digit minus temperatures, the face masked against the icy wind with black, red and gold tapes, but at least sunshine, we set off on the 6x1.5 kilometer cross-country trail.
And it worked from the start, they followed the pace of the favourites.
At the last exchange, Germany was just ahead of Finland and the USA.
Carl later said: »Only on the last climb did I realize that it was about a medal.«
In the final sprint she defeated Sweden (+0.17 seconds) and Russia (+0.71s) by the blink of an eye.
Team colleague Katharina Hennig literally shouted her across the finish line.
Hennig and Carl had already won their race in front of the USA and Austria in the semifinals.
Last Saturday both had won silver in the relay together with Katherine Sauerbrey and Sofie Krehl - that in itself was a big surprise.
National coach Peter Schlickenrieder had previously mentioned reaching the final as a "super" goal for the team sprint - especially after the short-term team change.
After the gold medal, he wrestled with tears in the ARD interview.
'It's a brutal dream.
I have to pull myself together a bit.
You probably won't realize that for ten or 20 years," he said.
His voice broke and he had to swallow several times.
"I think I could cry all day."
Schlickenrieder turned 52 this Wednesday.
Carl and Hennig probably gave him the nicest birthday present imaginable.