Lückenkemper and Co. are tears after sensation
They deliver a big surprise in the Paris rain: The German sprinters win bronze together at the Olympic Games. Gina Lückenkemper and Co. win the first German relay medal since 1988 over 4x100 meters.
Gina Lückenkemper sank to her knees in the pouring rain of Paris and spread her arms wide. Then the former European champion and the other sprinters grabbed black-red-golden flags and went around the track grinning, because: With a fabulous run, the German sprint relay team surprisingly stormed to Olympic bronze.
The quartet with Alexandra Burghardt, Lisa Mayer, Lückenkemper, and Rebekka Haase ran 41.97 seconds in the Stade de France and won the first German medal since reunification in the team event over one lap of the stadium. The German Athletics Association (DLV) could rejoice over the third medal in France after two silvers from Leo Neugebauer and Malaika Mihambo.
"Full risk" for the medal
Even in the preliminary round, where Sophia Junk, who was not in top form this time, started instead of Burghardt, the DLV team had already achieved a significantly faster time (42.15) than at the European Championships in Munich in 2022 (42.34). Before the final against the big sprint nations, Mayer announced that they would "go all out" to "compete for the medals" - and this plan worked perfectly.
The last time a German medal was won over 4x100 meters was by the DDR in 1988 with silver. In Paris, the USA with world champion Sha'Carri Richardson decided the duel for gold against Great Britain (41.85) in 41.78 seconds.
For the former European champion Lückenkemper, the Summer Games in France thus ended more than satisfactorily, after she had not been able to fulfill her dream of reaching the final over 100 meters. The German champion missed out on the gold medal race by two hundredths of a second. Now tears of joy flowed from the 27-year-old in the arms of her best friend Haase.
Lückenkemper had quickly shaken off any anger and frustration. "I think you could already sense in the curve what the legs are actually capable of at the moment," she said after the strong preliminary round and offensively announced: "Whoever didn't have us on their radar beforehand, I'm sorry. We knew we would be standing here with a really strong relay team and would attack properly."
The German Athletics Association (DLV) expressed their joy after the German sprint relay team, consisting of Alexandra Burghardt, Lisa Mayer, Gina Lückenkemper, and Rebekka Haase, achieved a historic bronze medal in Athletics at the Olympic Games in Paris. Their time of 41.97 seconds was the fastest since the European Championships in Munich in 2022, demonstrating their determination to compete for medals and their successful execution of the "full risk" strategy announced by Lisa Mayer before the final.
