Ahead of the competition: Florian Wellbrock celebrated a start-to-finish victory.
Photo: AFP / Oli Scarff
When the German national anthem rang out in Odaiba Marine Park, the six men who hoisted the medalists’ flags did their job with admirable precision. The German, Hungarian and Italian banners were raised bit by bit in unison and without any visible hectic. It happened close to perfection – and thus in the same way as Florian Wellbrock had slid through the water before. The Japanese flag commissioner and the Magdeburger had done everything right. It is unclear whether the six men later received praise or confirmation in another form – the German was rewarded with the gold medal.
“That still feels a little unreal,” Wellbrock said a little later. To be an »Olympic Champion« now feels »unbelievably good« in any case. The 23-year-old has been a shining light and a bearer of hope for the German Swimming Association (DSV) for two years at the latest, when he became double world champion over 1500 meters in the pool and ten kilometers in open water in 2019. A few days ago, Wellbrock gave the bronze medal over 1500 meters to the association precious metal, which had recently been chronically unsuccessful at the Olympic Games. The minimum goal had already been achieved. However, he only fulfilled the requirement for himself in the almost 30 degrees Celsius warm water in the Bay of Tokyo. “When you arrive as a world champion, you also want to win,” he admitted as the medal dangled around his neck.
Since the Seoul Games in 1988, no German man had triumphed in swimming, since Uwe Daßler’s victory for the GDR in the 400-meter freestyle, the Olympic dry spell for German swimming continued, and Wellbrock ended it. He was one of the favorites of five or six athletes, anything but a medal would have been a big disappointment. Gold was realistic – but the dominance with which he dominated the competition was unexpected: the stylist among the long-distance swimmers was also the fastest in the Olympic race from the start.
“Here with the warm water, it is right to conserve your strength,” said the gold medalist and assured him that he had not tackled the circuit in Tokyo Bay exceptionally quickly. What was unusual, however, was that no one could follow his pace. Wellbrock wondered: “When I was around the first buoy, I thought to myself: Hey guys, don’t you want to swim a competition?” During training on the days before the race he had noticed for himself that the water was warm, but is not so much warmer than that in the pool. From this he deduced that he would proceed cautiously but not fearfully.
With this route he was ahead of all competitors. For five laps he pulled a small group of five swimmers behind him, before increasing the pace on the penultimate loop and pulling away. The long final sprint on the final 600 meters robbed Wellbrock of a lot of strength, but at the same time provided an impressive 25-second lead over the Hungarians Kristof Rasovsky and Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy. Even over this long distance, that’s an unusually large amount. At the end of his World Cup success in 2019, Wellbrock only had a two-tenths lead, at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro the first seven were only four seconds apart. Now, in Tokyo, everything was different: Wellbrock was swimming in a league of its own in the most important race of his career so far.
At the age of 23, he is still relatively young, but is already able to shoulder the hopes of an entire association. He could symbolically have perished at his first Olympic Games, but he managed to convert the anger from the races in the pool into energy for the final competition. “I actually got a little frustrated after the pool matches,” he admitted. A medal jumped out over 1500 meters, over 800 meters he hit fourth. Wellbrock had been left behind by the competitors on the last lane. There was no danger in the open water because he had left them all far before the finish line.
Paltrinieri ran a little exhausted in front of the winner in the direction of the shadow, which promised at least some cooling. The Italian, who beat Wellbrock over 800 meters with a splendid final sprint, won silver and passed the Germans to fourth place, was asked how hot it was in the water. Paltrinieri, with the bronze medal dangling around his neck, replied, “It was hot, but that wasn’t my biggest problem.” Wellbrock, who had irresistibly hurried away, had caused him greater pain.
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