Lukas Dauser’s Olympic career is over. It’s not enough for a happy ending. A mistake he never made before costs him a medal. He hasn’t revealed how long he will continue to do gymnastics.
His heart hurt more than his injured upper arm, his head was empty: gymnastics world champion Lukas Dauser left the Olympic stage without the brilliant exit he had longed for. A mistake that had never happened to him before cost the 31-year-old a possible medal at the Olympic Games in Paris. With 13,700 points, the Olympic silver medalist from Tokyo only managed a disappointing seventh place in the high-class parallel bars final.
“It’s bitter,” admitted the sad Unterhachinger in the catacombs of the Arena Bercy. “Definitely” his heart hurts the most. He hadn’t been able to get into his competitive mode. “It’s extremely bitter,” he repeated, “after the story I would have naturally hoped for a happy ending, for me to just do a nice routine. It’s a shame. Not everyone can have a happy ending, even if I don’t like stories without a happy ending,” said Dauser. He has “relatively a lot of emptiness” in his head.
Praise for the physiotherapist’s continuous commitment
His story is that of a torn muscle in his right biceps, which he sustained 44 days before his parallel bars final. Germany’s 2023 Sportsman of the Year had always described it as a miracle that he even experienced his third Olympic Games in Paris. “Big praise to Cyrus for managing that. It’s amazing,” said national coach Valeri Belenki about the constant work of physiotherapist Cyrus Salehi.
While his arm didn’t cause him any problems, the injury affected his preparation. Because he couldn’t practice and automate his exercise often enough, he made a mistake he had never made before. During the element called Tsolakidis, he lost his balance and hit the left bar with his leg. “I’ve never made that mistake before during that element,” admitted Dauser, “after that thing, I knew it was over. The rest wasn’t so bad after all.”
Preparation bordered on “sheer madness”
His home trainer Hubert Brylok in Halle/Saale had only one thought at that moment: “Shit! That hurt so much. The emotional pain was greater than the pain on the bar. For both of us.” He and his protégé had worked meticulously towards this final day and had overcome the handicap of the muscle injury. “We know what he has invested in the last few weeks. It borders on sheer madness, the way he has tormented himself and fought to get back on track. It was sheer madness,” reported the coach.
It is unclear how long he will have Dauser under his wing. What is certain, however, is that the parallel bars world champion will not compete in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. “I won’t do four years anymore,” he announced. After Paris, he will finish the Bundesliga season and compete in the Swiss Cup.
End of career remains open
The 31-year-old, who will become a father for the first time in September, wants to decide by the end of the year whether he will end his career or continue to compete at least until the European Championships in Leipzig next year. “It’s an incentive, but nothing more,” he said, adding: “I have achieved a lot in my career and I am already very proud of that. I am very disappointed that it didn’t work out today.”
When Dauser stepped up to the parallel bars for his ultimately botched exercise, China’s Zou Jingyuan had just finished his fabulous performance with 16,200 points and thus won gold, as he did in Tokyo in 2021. Silver went to Illia Kowtun from Ukraine with 15,500 points. Bronze went to team and all-around Olympic champion Shinnosuke Oka from Japan with 15,300 points.
Source: Stern
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