Dhe wants to return to Frankfurt this winter, to the outer ring of the ice rink. “Walk a little in your own footsteps,” says Felix Rijhnen with a smile. Where he once did lonely laps on the only track far and wide. On ice inadequate for competitive sports, insufficiently secured because back then there were no boards. At training times on the edge of the day, where he had to share the ice cream with children and pensioners.
Mo. – Fr. at 4 p.m.; Sa. – So. at 6 p.m.
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It was winters that sharpened Rijhnen’s personality and athlete profile. “Training out there at minus 13 degrees was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” says the 31-year-old. His motivation was also put to a severe test at that time. Rijhnen improved steadily, got faster and faster – and yet again and again slowed down by the German Speed Skating and Short Track Association (DESG). Because as a career changer, he didn’t want to devote himself to work on ice all year round, but instead stayed true to his first profession, speed skating.
The man from Darmstadt was inspired by athletes like the Frenchman Alexis Contin, who was world class on asphalt in summer and on ice in winter. But Rijhnen, who has been among the world’s best with roles under his feet for many years and has won various medals at world and European championships, was literally booted out of the DESG with runners under his feet. Frustrated, the man from Darmstadt turned away from speed skating, although he was one of the extended German leaders and was briefly in action in the World Cup.
Common cause on the ice
Goodbye, he thought, and practically didn’t go on ice for six years. But deep inside it looked different: “I wasn’t finished with it completely, I wasn’t finished with speed skating,” says Rihnen. “During the Winter Olympics in particular, I was concerned when I saw my old colleagues compete there, while I never had the chance to exhaust my potential.”
This has changed now. On the one hand, the downturn in the competition caused by the corona has hit Rijhnen’s speed skaters. On the other hand, the stubbornness of the internationally starving DESG that they do not promote speed skaters like Rijhnen on principle has evaporated. And none other than Alexis Contin has been hired by the association as a base trainer in Berlin. Once they fought intense duels during the active days of the French on skates, now they have been doing things together on the ice since the beginning of the year. So good that Rijhnen, the new old man on the ice and picture surface, did a great job at the German championships in Inzell two weeks ago.
Alexis Contin once inspired Felix Rijhnen in his sporting approach: speed skating in summer and speed skating in winter.
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Bild: Picture-Alliance
The endurance specialist took silver in the mass start race and bronze over 10,000 meters. In addition, he set new personal bests at every start. The ticket for the first two World Cups of the season in Poland and Norway was bought. Although Rijhnen had to cancel his participation in the upcoming Speed Skating World Championships in Colombia, he only wrestled with this decision for a short time.
Because suddenly even qualifying for the Olympics in Beijing appears within reach. “It’s crazy that this chance still opened up on the ice. It would be awesome if it worked. It’s not entirely unrealistic. And I have nothing to lose, ”says Rijhnen on the phone in the Polish city of Tomaszow Mazowiecki. On Friday he finished there in the World Cup race over 5000 meters as the second-best German in the field of 40 starters, 22nd place.
Tactical advantages
The model athlete has recently made great progress on the individual distances – his best time over 5000 meters is now 6:26:65 minutes, over 10,000 meters at 13:23:95 – but the international peak times, especially in an Olympic season, are a little way away. Rijhnen should rather make the jump to Beijing via the Mass Start and Team Pursuit formats, which will be held in Tomaszow Mazowiecki at the weekend. There and at the next World Cup in Stavanger it is important to crack the national and international Olympic norm.
In the mass start races, Rijhnen helps his extra class in speed skating, where such racing formats are held in a similar way. In terms of race overview and tactics, he can gain advantages there. He doesn’t need to hide from the ice elite in terms of physique either. He has some catching up to do in the technical field due to his short ice age.
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“In shorter distances or in moments when the race gets really fast, I reach my technical limits too early,” says Rijhnen. At the German championships he only missed first place in the mass start race because, while in the lead, he made a mistake in the last corner.
Rijhnen has taken it. Just like the fact that his honeymoon will have to be postponed further. If possible after February, so after the Beijing games. Rijhnen and his then fiancée Katharina Rumpus were still on the podium in Berlin at the end of September. As each runner-up in the Berlin Marathon, the largest speed skating event on the scene. The wedding took place in early October. There was no carriage for the bride and groom, but there was a rickshaw – with two prominent draft horses.
The two Hessian professional cyclists and regular training companions of Rijhnen, John Degenkolb and Jonas Rutsch, stepped on the pedals. Meanwhile, the groom is chasing after his Olympic dream, which began on the Frankfurt Ice Oval on Ratsweg. “I look back on this time without resentment,” says Rijhnen. “It was definitely good for something and it helped me mentally.” Maybe even to the gate of Olympus, as a lateral entrant and late starter.
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