One day before the closing ceremony of the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, the German Olympic Sports Federation drew a very positive conclusion.
“Team D has turned the Olympic Games into a spectacle,”said Chief of Mission Dirk Schimmelpfennig:”We are once again one of the leading winter sports nations and have heard the national anthem more than ever before.”
For DOSB President Alfons Hörmann, the Olympic victories of the Nordic Combineers in the relay and figure skating pair Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot as well as the inclusion of the ice hockey team in the final were the “truly unique successes” of the games.
The German team has won 13 gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals so far. On Sunday there will be another precious metal in the four-man bob (from 9.30 a. m. OZ/17.30 CET) and the ice hockey team’s sensational entry into the final game against Russia (13.10 a. m. OZ/5.10 CET) will be sure to win silver.
The gold record of 1998 in Nagano and 2002 in Salt Lake City (twelf Olympic victories) had already been improved with the triumph of the combiners last Thursday. The meager balance sheet of Sochi in 2014 (total of 19 medals) is history.
“We have spent 19 medals plus x as a target – the x is now relatively large,”said Schimmelpfennig. DOSB CEO Veronika Rücker added:”I am also convinced that we would be awarded a fair play medal for Team D.”. The team embodies everything you want from a team. It was a perfect performance.”