- Olympic farewell with a heartbreak: Dauser without a medal
Lukas Dauser, the World Turn Gymnastics Champion, left the Olympic stage without the glorious exit he had hoped for. A mistake he had never made before cost him a possible medal at the Paris Olympics. With 13.700 points, the 31-year-old from Unterhaching finished a disappointing seventh in the high-class horizontal bar final.
"It's quite bitter," Dauser admitted in the catacombs of the Arena Bercy. "Above all, my heart aches the most. I just couldn't get into my competitive mode." He repeated, "It's extremely bitter. I would have wished for a happy ending, to simply perform a beautiful routine. It's a shame. Not everyone can have a happy ending, even though I don't like stories without one," said Dauser. "There's quite a bit of emptiness in my head."
Praise for the physiotherapist's dedication
His story is one of a muscle bundle tear in his right biceps, which he sustained 44 days before his horizontal bar final. That he was able to compete in Paris at all was, in his own words, a miracle. "Great praise to Cyrus for pulling this off. It's incredible," said national coach Valeri Belenki of physiotherapist Cyrus Salehi's dedication.
While his arm didn't cause him any problems, the injury affected his preparation. Because he couldn't train and automate his routine enough, he made a mistake he had never made before. On the Tsolakidis element, he lost his balance and hit his left leg on the left pommel. "That mistake has never happened to me on that element," Dauser admitted. "After that, I knew it was over. The rest wasn't so bad."
His coach, Hubert Brylok from Halle/Saale, had only one thought at that moment: "Shit! That really hurt. The emotional pain was greater than the physical one. For both of us." They had worked tirelessly to overcome the handicap of the muscle injury and prepare for the final day. "We know what he invested in the last few weeks. It's already insane how he pushed himself, fought to get back. It was insane," Brylok reported.
Dauser's future as a gymnast remains uncertain. However, it's clear that he won't compete in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. "I won't do four more years," he announced. After Paris, he plans to finish the Bundesliga season and compete in the Swiss Cup.
Retirement remains open
Dauser, who will become a father for the first time in September, wants to decide by the end of the year whether he will retire or continue at least until the European Championships in Leipzig next year. "It's an incentive, but that's all it is," he said. "I've achieved a lot in my career, and I'm already very proud of that. I'm very disappointed that it didn't work out today."
As Dauser began his ultimately flawed routine on the horizontal bar, Chinese gymnast Zou Jingyuan had just finished his outstanding performance with 16.200 points, winning gold, just as he did in Tokyo in 2021. Silver went to Ukraine's Illia Kovtun with 15.500 points, and bronze was won by Japan's Shinnosuke Oka, the team and all-around Olympic champion, with 15.300 points.
Dauser mentioned feeling heartache after his performance, saying, "Above all, my heart aches the most." Despite making a mistake he had never before, the injury to his right biceps affected his preparation, causing him to stumble on the Tsolakidis element and losing balance, resulting in heart pain.
