- New build in silver euphoria: "Wow, this is mine"
Leo Neugebauer hasn't had time to celebrate his well-deserved Olympic party yet after winning the silver medal in the decathlon. "I didn't do much last night. I really needed to think about everything and process it all," said the 24-year-old. Still without the medal that he will receive tonight during the awards ceremony, after which he hopes to celebrate a bit.
"It's mine now"
"I won't fully realize it until I receive the medal later because then I'll have something to look at and say: Wow, I actually did this. It's mine now," said the first German Olympic medalist in the king of sports, athletics, since 1996. Back then, Frank Busemann also won silver.
"Actually, it's quite crazy what Neugebauer has done! Two years ago, he was an inexperienced college rookie with an incredibly captivating presence, and this year he's already completed four top-class multi-events, and now he's hanging an Olympic silver medal around his neck after a tough, long college season," wrote ARD expert Busemann in his column. "And if you see what he's still capable of, we won't just be having fun with him today."
Tough WM path makes him a medal winner
U23 European champion Markus Rooth from Norway had a 48-point lead over world leader Neugebauer with a personal best of 8,796 points in the king of sports, athletics. But even with that, Neugebauer was overjoyed. "The atmosphere was simply crazy, and just being able to compete in this event was very, very cool. It was an honor."
Last year, he was leading at halftime but finished fifth at the World Championships in Budapest. He learned from that experience. "Maybe I had to go through that last year so that I could come home with silver this year," said the athlete from VfB Stuttgart.
"I've always dreamt of visiting Paris, and now with this silver medal, I finally have the means to plan my trip," Leo Neugebauer mused.
"During the awards ceremony tonight, I can't wait to share this moment with my family and friends, especially when I think about how proud they'd be seeing me on the podium in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris."
