- Double gold for head and tail - "Sleeping" brindle
After a spectacular double gold, Max Lemke sang the national anthem, with Jacob Schopf fighting back tears during the medal ceremony. The Potsdam duo secured a start-to-finish victory over 500 meters in the Nautical Stadium of Vaires-sur-Marne, before witnessing what was likely the last Olympic race of their teammate, Sebastian Brendel. In the canoe, the three-time Olympic champion finished eighth in his fourth Games.
"It's absolutely beautiful to share this moment with so many joyful people here," said Lemke, who celebrated the four-man victory the night before with his colleague and party animal Schopf "with just a 0.0 beer." "We approached it professionally, even went paddling again after two hours of press, and worked everything out. Then we discussed our tactics," said Schopf, who "put everything into the first 350 meters."
Second German duo goes home empty-handed
The second German medal hope in this race did not come to fruition. Max Rendschmidt and Tom Liebscher-Lucz finished fifth. "You can't always win, you have to accept that others are better," said Rendschmidt, who missed out on his fifth Olympic gold.
The duo's thanks went especially to national coach Arndt Hanisch, who "has sacrificed a lot of sweat, blood, and probably sleepless nights in recent years." The coach admitted that he didn't know "which double is stronger, today one, tomorrow the other."
Hanisch thought of Germany's poster paddler Brendel in the moment of success. "The wind unfortunately turned in the wrong direction for the finals against him, he had to steer quite a bit, losing too much energy," he said, adding that Brendel would make a calm decision about his future in the fall.
Brendel has no chance at fourth Olympic gold
Brendel missed his fourth gold medal at his fourth Games by a significant margin. The three-time Olympic champion, who won gold in the single canoe in London and Rio, and bronze in the canoe double in Tokyo, was about seven seconds behind the bronze medalist from Moldova and lost ground to the leaders in the second half of the race. Czech Martin Fuksa won gold, followed by Brazilian Isaquias Queiroz Dos Santos.
"It's a disappointing result. I tried to attack again, but I need to come to terms with it first," said Brendel, who plans to "make a decision in the next few weeks in peace. I was in good shape, as seen in the preliminary and semi-finals, it's just a shame it wasn't enough."
German Chancellor and hobby rower Olaf Scholz (SPD) witnessed the dramatic final seconds of the women's event at the Nautical Stadium, where the wind is extremely strong from behind and the water is very choppy for the first time.
Women win bronze in kayak double
After the finish, it took about five minutes for the photo finish to determine two third places, awarding bronze to Paulina Paszek and Jule Hake in the kayak double. "It felt like hours," said Paszek, emphasizing "moments like these stay with you forever." Hake was also overwhelmed. "We've never experienced anything like this. Now we're going to celebrate like crazy," said Hake.
They finished at the same time as the Hungarian pair Noemi Pupp and Sara Fojt. Gold went to the New Zealand pair Lisa Carrington and Alicia Hoskin, while silver went to the Hungarian pair Tamara Csipes and Alida Dora Gazso. The second German duo Lena Röhlings and Pauline Jagsch finished sixth.
During the subsequent award ceremony, the Hungarian pair received gold in the women's kayak double event. In the men's canoe double race, despite a valiant effort, Max Rendschmidt and Tom Liebscher-Lucz had to settle for fifth place at the award ceremony.
