Aline Rotter-Focken from Krefeld won gold in freestyle wrestling in the class up to 76 kilograms against the top seeded American Adeline Gray. She is the first German female wrestler to become Olympic champion.
Former world champion Aline Rotter-Focken is the first German Olympic champion in women’s wrestling. In the last fight of her career, the Krefeld woman won the final of the weight class up to 76 kilograms on Monday 7: 3 against the favored American Adeline Gray. Even the finals of the 30-year-olds on Sunday was a historic success and secured the German women’s team the first ever Olympic medal. For Rotter-Focken, who is now ending her active career, gold was also the crowning glory of her career in the last fight.
With victories over Wassilissa Marsaljuk from Belarus, the Chinese Qian Zhou and Asian champion Hiroe Minagawa from Japan, Rotter-Focken had reached the final in Tokyo. In that, she was considered an outsider against the five-time world champion and top-seeded Gray at the games in Japan. But she surprised her opponent, with whom she is close friends and against whom she had lost at the 2019 World Cup.
Aline Rotter-Focken: For years the figurehead of the women’s team
The last Olympic champion from the ranks of the German Wrestling Association (DRB) was Maik Bullmann, who triumphed in Barcelona in 1992. Alexander Leipold won gold in Sydney 2000. After a controversial doping process, he is legally the winner of the tournament, but for legal reasons he is not allowed to call himself Olympic champion. He is no longer included in the official winners’ lists.
Rotter-Focken has been the figurehead of the German women’s team for years. In addition to gold in 2014, she won three other World Cup medals: 2017 silver, 2015 and 2019 bronze. She got three of these four badges in the class up to 69 kilograms. So far, she has lacked Olympic precious metal. Unlike the men, the German women completed a training camp in Japan right before the Olympics to acclimatize. The plan worked. Purposefully marched Rats-Focken in Tokyo into the final.
“Medal long overdue”
“That was my dream,” she said after her success in the semi-finals. This medal is “long overdue in view of the great work our team has been doing for years”. This gold is not only a great success for Rotter-Focken himself. Also for national coach Patrick Loes, who has been looking after her for ten years. “I saw her grow up,” said the 34-year-old, who sometimes has to serve as a sparring partner. Just like the athlete’s husband, former wrestler Jan Rotter. With friends, he followed the farewell performance of his wife in a cinema in Triberg.
“Of course we will miss Aline – as a draft horse, training partner and teammate,” said Loes. “But it won’t be completely gone either.” The DRB plans to include the company health manager in its structures in the future – for example in courses. “She has done a lot for our sport and will continue to do so,” said sporting director Jannis Zamanduridis. This Olympic title should also help the women’s wrestling, which is still an absolute niche existence in this country, to further establish itself.
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
