Drama on the Whitewater: Tor-Fauxpas costs Funk the Medal
Slalom kayaker Ricarda Funk misses the intended medal at the Olympics significantly. Three years after her Olympic victory, she has to settle for the eleventh place. A mistake in the lower part of the course ruins her dream of a second Olympic medal.
Ricarda Funk looked at the result board in disbelief for a few seconds after her slalom drama, unable to comprehend her error in the Hexenkessel of Vaires-sur-Marne. The Olympic champion from Tokyo let go of the reachable medal in the sprint finish, but after a brief shock, bitter tears flowed. The 32-year-old had to settle for the eleventh place in the kayak competition at the Paris Summer Games on Sunday.
"I haven't quite come to terms with it yet. I took a risk, but it was too much today," Funk said in a broken voice to ZDF, looking tearful: "I'm very disappointed. I was in the race and fought well. I would like to do it again, but unfortunately that's not possible." She had poured a lot of "heart blood" onto the course.
In front of numerous German fans among the over 15,000 spectators in the east of Paris, Funk paddled past the 20th gate after a strong start, but was penalized 50 seconds for it. Her parents Claudia and Thorsten were shocked on the sidelines. Funk had won the semifinals despite a paddle strike, but went last into the tumultuous wildwater course in the final. Three years ago, Funk had won the first gold medal for the German Olympic team in Tokyo.
"We're all massively disappointed now"
"I thought: How cool is it to start as an Olympic champion last," Funk described her emotional state before the race. And in the upper part of the canal, she was initially under the time of the ten-time world champion Fox, who had laid down a remarkable time of 96.08 seconds without touching a gate.
But then came the costly mistake. "She may have lost focus for a moment. That's part of the sport. Nevertheless, one can say that the performance was there. You have to take risks. That's the thin line between risk and control," said head coach Klaus Pohlen and added: "We have to accept and endure it. We're all massively disappointed now. It would have been nice to have a good start at the Olympics. We have to move on."
Medal chance in new event
Finally, Funk wanted to experience the full magic of the Olympics in Paris. But a kind of Olympic curse weighed on the soldier. The Games in Rio 2016 were supposed to be her first. She was the favorite, but the dream shattered - and then the tragedy: Her trainer Stefan Henze died in a car accident during the Games.
"2016 was a shitty year for me, that still doesn't really go into my head what happened there," she said. Despite the tragic setback, she took a new approach for Tokyo, but due to Corona, the Games took place a year later than planned - and Funk wondered: "What does Olympia really have against me?" At the make-up date 2021, it couldn't have gone better sports-wise. Gold! But she could hardly celebrate it. Due to Corona regulations - and because her hometown, the Kreis Ahrweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate, was hit by floods never seen before.
The games in Paris will no longer be remembered as a highlight. At least there is still another medal chance left. Besides the K-1 Kayak, Funk also competes in the new Olympic discipline of Kayak-Cross. Funk sees the competition as "a great enrichment. In Cross, I'm really excited. That's where the elbows get packed." In the coming days, the German Canoe Federation sends Noah Hegge, Elena Lilik, Sideris Tasiadis, and Stefan Hengst as further medal candidates to the whitewater.
Despite the setback at the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris, Ricarda Funk remains optimistic about her medal chance in the new event, Kayak-Cross.
Regardless of her disappointment at the Olympic Games, Funk is looking forward to competing in Kayak-Cross, viewing it as a "great enrichment."
