Olympia compact: Beach volleyball duo Ludwig / Kozuch has a victory in their pocket because of Corona

18 days of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, 18 days full of top sporting performances, happy and tragic moments, curious events and unrelated occurrences. Olympic news of all kinds at a glance:

July 23: Beach volleyball players Ludwig / Kozuch have already won a victory

The German beach volleyball players Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch already have a victory in the preliminary round and only have to play two games. The Czech duo Barbora Hermannova / Marketa Slukova cannot participate because of the positive Corona test at Slukova and get all games with a “DNS” for “Did not start” (not started). This was announced by the organizers of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament. The game Ludwig / Kozuch against Hermannova / Slukova would have been the last preliminary round game in Group F on July 28th. If they made it to the round of 16, the German duo would have a long break.

Ludwig showed a lot of compassion. “It’s just sad. We know them very, very well, they are very good training partners. I get goose bumps again when I think about it,” she said. “That you can hold out the whole season so well, that you stick to everything and do everything to ensure that you are at the Olympics, hang on for a year and then have this misfortune. I do not wish anyone that.”

July 23: Shortly before the opening, more than 100 corona cases at the Olympics

Shortly before the opening ceremony of the Summer Games in Tokyo, the organizers published 19 more corona cases in connection with the Olympics. This is the highest value since the tests began to be recorded on July 1st. This increased the number of positive tests to a total of 106. As the organizing committee announced in its daily report, those affected include three athletes who do not come from Japan. However, the organizing committee does not mention names or countries of origin.

July 22nd: Ludwig and Hausding lead the German Olympic team as flag bearers at the opening ceremony

Laura Ludwig and Patrick Hausding will lead the German Olympic team as the flag bearers to the Kasumigaoka National Stadium in Tokyo at the opening ceremony on Friday. The beach volleyball Olympic champion and the record European diving champion received the most votes in the election carried out by the German Olympic Sports Confederation.

July 22nd: Creative Director of the opening ceremony fired one day before the ceremony

One day before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, their artistic director was fired. Show director Kentaro Kobayashi stumbled upon an old sketch in which he made fun of the Holocaust, as the organizers of the games said. It turned out that Kobayashi had used words “that made fun of a tragic historical fact,” said Olympic chief organizer Seiko Hashimoto. The organizing committee has therefore decided to release him from his post. Previously, other Olympic makers had to take their hats.

July 21: Total loss of the Olympic boat of the German quad kayak

A total loss of their four-kayak on the trip to Tokyo shocked the German K4 crew around veteran Ronald Rauhe shortly before the Olympic Games. The parade boat of the German Canoe Association (DKV) was rammed by a forklift while loading in Luxembourg and badly damaged, according to a statement on Wednesday. The forks hit the K4 so badly and destroyed it, “that it was a total write-off.” A replacement boat for Max Rendschmidt, Rauhe, Tom Liebscher and Max Lemke is scheduled to go to Japan this Thursday.

“The trainer and we were pretty relaxed at first. The special thing is that this boat with this type of construction only exists twice in the whole world,” explained Liebscher. “One is now destroyed, the other we have currently used during the preparations in Duisburg. This boat must now go to Tokyo as quickly as possible,” said Liebscher.

July 21: IOC awards the 2032 Olympics to Brisbane

Brisbane will host the Olympic Games 2032. The metropolis in the Australian state of Queensland was awarded the contract for the Summer Games in eleven years from the 138th session of the International Olympic Committee in Tokyo. Brisbane had been declared a “preferred applicant” by the IOC in a new award process and was therefore the only candidate for the XXXV games. Olympics to choose from. For Australia it will be the third summer games after 1956 in Melbourne and 2000 in Sydney.

July 21: Five other athletes tested positive for Corona – including top shooter Amber Hill

Five other athletes tested positive for the corona virus before the Tokyo Olympics began. These are the Dutch skateboarder Candy Jacobs (31), the Chilean taekwondo fighter Fernanda Aguirre (23), the Czech table tennis professional Pavel Sirucek (28), the British shooter Amber Hill (23) and a beach volleyball player from USA. None of them can take part in the competitions. The hardest hit is the Olympic favorite and world number one Hill. “There are no words that can describe how I feel now,” she said. She was “absolutely destroyed” after the news of the positive test. All affected athletes should not show any symptoms.

July 21: Bear alarm to kick off the games

A furry fan almost succeeded in circumventing the ban on spectators at the Olympic Games in Japan, which was imposed due to the corona crisis. Shortly before the start of the first competition on Wednesday in Fukushima, a collar bear caused a stir inside the Fukushima stadium: As a police spokesman for the AFP news agency confirmed, the intruder could not be found until the start of the first competition. According to the paper, they even played music over the loudspeakers to scare the animal off and ignited firecrackers – but in vain. The bear was nowhere to be found. Regardless of the unwanted guest, the softball game went on without incident. It ended with an 8-1 win for the Japanese hosts.