Florian Wellbrock has been crowned Olympic champion. With a demonstration of strength, the 23-year-old swam on Thursday night to the first gold medal for the German Swimming Association in 13 years. In the open water race over ten kilometers, the double world champion determined the action from the start with the self-image of a champion and hit the Hungarian Kristof Rasovszky and the Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri after a little less than 1:50 hours. Wellbrock’s team-mate Rob Muffels, after all third in the World Championship, crossed the finish line beaten.
For the German swimmers it was the third medal in Tokyo after Wellbrock and his fiancée Sarah Köhler in the 1500 meter freestyle pool. The last time the swimmers were more successful was in Beijing in 2008, when Britta Steffen was crowned double Olympic champion and record world champion Thomas Lurz won bronze in the open water. At that time there were a total of five medals for the DSV.
Lurz won the last Olympic open water medal to date for Germany with a silver medal in London in 2012. As a Eurosport expert, he attested Wellbrock a “gigantic race”. The DSV was clearly more successful in Tokyo with three swimmer and two jumper medals than at the games in Rio 2016 and London 2012, when there was only one medal for the entire team.
29.2 degrees water temperature
Wellbrock set an example right after the start with a water temperature of 29.2 degrees in the early morning hours in the Odaiba Marine Park. He immediately put pressure on in his first Olympic open water race and quickly gained a head start on the field in which Muffels was only at the forefront at the beginning.
The Frenchman Marc-Antoine Olivier, Olympic third in 2016 and vice world champion, set out to pursue Wellbrock and skipped the first refreshment station. He soon caught up with Wellbrock, and Rasovszky followed. But the Magdeburg resident increased the pace again and again, even though the group of direct pursuers grew larger. But Wellbrock continued to improve – he was simply too strong for the competition that day and won by a large margin.
Medal hopefuls with good nerves
Wellbrock started the race as the favorite in the women’s race the day after Leonie Beck finished fifth. The 23-year-old, who won the bronze medal in the 1500 meter freestyle at the Tokyo Aquatics Center on Sunday, was crowned historic double world champion two years ago. At the World Cup in South Korea, he first triumphed over the Olympic ten kilometers and then also won over 1500 meters in the pool. Now he is the first German gold medalist in open water, which has been Olympic since 2008.
Even before the Olympics, Wellbrock did not let himself be disturbed by the hustle and bustle for himself as the greatest hope for a medal among German swimmers. The native of Bremen, who trains in Magdeburg with national trainer Bernd Berkhahn, presented himself highly concentrated in the days of Tokyo and also put away an annoying fourth place in his first final. Over 800 meters he was only 35 hundredths of a second short of bronze.
He and Köhler, who has already left the Japanese capital, were the medal guarantors for the German swimmers. On the short distances, some athletes – including former top performers – did not achieve their top form at the great sporting climax.
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