Annika Zillekens unexpectedly gets a new chance. The pentathlete starts the Olympic final hectically and even has to misuse a metro ticket. A miracle doesn’t happen.
At the end of an adventurous, emotional rollercoaster ride, Annika Zillekens was smiling with delight. The modern pentathlete was denied a happy ending with a medal in the Palace Park of Versailles. But thanks to a last-minute withdrawal by Briton Kate French, the 34-year-old was still able to compete in the final of the Olympic Games, finished 15th and was pleased with a conciliatory end to her eventful career. “In conclusion, I can say that I am not satisfied, but I am happy. I am going home from the Olympic Games with a big smile on my face,” said the Berliner.
The history of her last competition was marked by ups and downs, disappointments and unexpected joy. Three years after the scandal in Tokyo, she and her teammate Rebecca Langrehr experienced another horse drama on Saturday. Of all things, the discipline of show jumping, which is on the modern pentathlon program for the last time at the Summer Games and which caused so much outrage and accusations of animal cruelty in 2021, was once again the downfall of the German women.
Prehistory and déjà vu
In Tokyo, Zillekens hit the headlines under her then name Schleu when her horse refused to ride at all and she tried desperately and in tears to get it to keep riding by hitting it with a whip. The images from that time went around the world and there was a huge outcry. Zillekens and the national coach Kim Raisner, who is leaving on September 30, were reported for animal cruelty, but the proceedings were then dropped.
In the semi-finals of Versailles she experienced a déjà vu. When Zillekens competed with Arezzo de Riverland, the horse stumbled badly at the fifth obstacle and refused to compete after that. “At that point the competition briefly collapsed for me,” she said later. She was two seconds away from the final – for which Zillekens was unexpectedly granted permission to take part less than two hours before the start of the competition.
After eight-kilometer run into the Olympic final
The race from the Olympic Village to Versailles began at 9:20 a.m. “But I had already run eight kilometers in the Olympic Village,” she reported. At 10:49 a.m., eleven minutes before the start, she was on her horse for the opening discipline. Zillekens rode flawlessly. “I’m so happy that I was able to show another great ride, that I can say goodbye to the Olympics like this. That was the most important thing for me today,” said the five-time world champion.
Without warming up and preparing, and with legs that felt like lead, things didn’t go well in the fencing, swimming, and especially not in the final laser run. “When I noticed that I couldn’t do much running anymore, I was able to enjoy the atmosphere,” she said. In the rush of setting off in the morning, Zillekens couldn’t find her shooting screen, which she had lent to her teammate Marvin Dogue (Potsdam) the day before. The solution came in the form of a metro ticket, which national coach Raisner pulled out of her stash.
“I was able to enjoy the games here in Paris again. I would have liked to have shown more. But I know what the circumstances were like. It really would have been a fairytale if it had worked out,” said Zillekens. She had been to four Olympic Games. “I’ve won everything four times now. It’s not a happy ending, but it’s a nice story, I’ve experienced a lot,” said the future teacher about her peace with the Olympics.
Obstacle replaces riding
“My career is definitely over, I will not switch to obstacle racing again,” Zillekens confirmed her decision. In the last horse riding competition at the Olympic Games, Hungarian Michelle Gulyas won ahead of Elodie Clouvel from France and Seong Seungmin from South Korea. The day before, Marvin Dogue and Fabian Liebig had taken eighth and twelfth place in the victory of Egyptian Ahmed Elgendy.
In four years in Los Angeles, instead of riding, a “Ninja Warrior” course will have to be overcome. “We say bye bye to the horses. We are fully focused on our new combination with the obstacle race,” said World Federation President Klaus Schormann in conclusion.
Source: Stern
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