Qualification in Paris: Bitter disappointment: Gymnastics team misses Olympic final

For the second time in a row, the German gymnasts have had to deal with a bitter disappointment. As at the European Championships in Rimini a good three months ago, the team of national coach Valeri Belenki also missed the team final at the Olympic Games in Paris. 245.395 points were only enough for eleventh place for the strong parallel bars world champion Lukas Dauser as well as Andreas Toba, Nils Dunkel, Pascal Brendel and Timo Eder in the qualification. At the last World Championships in Antwerp, the team of the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) had finished sixth.

For the final on Monday, the German team would have had to be among the top eight. “Big praise to the team. I think they pulled themselves together,” said Belenki. After the first round, the DTB team was in fourth place, but after two rounds they had already slipped to eighth place.

Dauser, who was handicapped by an upper arm injury suffered five weeks ago, only performed on the floor and parallel bars. The 31-year-old shone on his special apparatus with 15.166 points and will fight for the medals as fifth in the elimination round on August 5th.

Dauser reveals details about the injury

“It was crazy. The pressure was huge, I put it on myself in the last few days,” said Dauser, admitting that his eyes were moist with joy and relief. “At the end of the day, it’s a miracle that I’m even here. I have to pinch myself sometimes.”

For the first time, he also announced a diagnosis of the injury he sustained during the Olympic qualification in Rüsselsheim. “Exactly five weeks ago, I tore a muscle in my biceps and also damaged another muscle,” reported the Olympic silver medalist from Tokyo.

The best German all-rounder was Dunkel with 81.232 points, which qualified him for the final in the six-event competition next Wednesday. However, the athlete from Halle narrowly missed the decision on the pommel horse despite a good score of 14.566 points.