World champion Angelina Köhler will not win a medal at the Olympics. The bronze winner has been controversial recently. Köhler, who is in fourth place, has spoken out about it.
Angelina Köhler did not hide her sadness about narrowly missing out on an Olympic medal. The 23-year-old cried bitterly after her fourth place in the 100-meter butterfly. “It’s so incredibly sad. I gave it my all. Fourth is the first loser,” said Köhler on ZDF. “It’s a bit shit right now. I have to process it first.” Köhler finished after 56.42 seconds. “It couldn’t have gone any faster,” said the Berliner. “I definitely won’t stop. I’ll give it my all so that we can still make it to the final.”
Torri Huske from the USA was crowned Olympic champion. Silver went to her compatriot and world record holder Gretchen Walsh. Bronze went to China’s Zhang Yufei.
Köhler started her first Olympic competition as a medal candidate, but not as a favorite. When she became world champion on the track in Doha in February, several strong competitors were not there.
Bronze winner was recently controversial
There had already been a stir before the Summer Games about third-placed Zhang Yufei, who Köhler was 21 hundredths of a second behind. “Of course, stories like this always leave a bad taste in the mouth. I hope that things will be clarified,” said Köhler late in the evening, long after her race. “I stand for clean sport. I stand for justice and we will see. But for now, the medal belongs to her and there is nothing wrong with that.”
In April, media investigations revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine at a national competition in China in early 2021. However, they were not banned.
China’s anti-doping agency Chinada attributed the positive tests to contamination in a hotel kitchen, and the World Anti-Doping Agency Wada agreed with this assessment. This caused incomprehension among many athletes and officials – even though an independent investigator from Switzerland later found no wrongdoing on the part of Wada.
The name Zhang Yufei is also on a list of swimmers who tested positive, published by ARD. The core of the research is an unpublished investigation report by Chinada – according to ARD, verified by several sources.
Zhang Yufei herself recently expressed the hope that her international competitors would believe in her innocence. “I don’t think there is a single athlete, either from China or abroad, who would test positive for doping,” she said. “They wouldn’t want to destroy all the hard work they have done over the years in terms of doping.” The 26-year-old reported that she and her teammates had been tested three to four times a week in recent months.
Source: Stern
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
