Olympia 2022: German false start – this is how the opening day went

The corona virus continues to spread, the pandemic remains a defining topic of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Before the opening on Friday evening, more cases were added, including among athletes. In ice hockey, the women from the USA and Finland had to go to an involuntary overtime. The German figure skaters made a false start in the team competition. The Olympic night at a glance.

This is how the opening day of the 2022 Winter Olympics went

Corona. Before the start of the games, other participants tested positive for the corona virus. As the organizers announced on Friday, 21 infected people were discovered in 72,425 corona tests the day before. According to this, 14 of the infections were found in athletes, supervisors and other Olympic accredited persons at Beijing Airport on arrival on the same day. The remaining seven infected are people in the Olympic bubble who have traveled before. The total number of corona cases has risen to a total of 308 since January 23. According to the information, a total of 11,963 people traveled to the games via Beijing Airport between January 23 and February 3.

video proof. A curiosity at the women’s ice hockey tournament: At the end of the game between Finland and the USA, the referees did not give a correctly scored goal by the Finns 2:20 minutes before the end – and only recognized this error after studying the video images after the game. When the game was officially over and the teams faced each other on the ice to shake hands, the referees decided that two minutes and 20 seconds would have to be replayed. But Finland couldn’t turn around, it remained at 2:5.

hope. The German figure skater Nolan Seegert still has his sights set on pair skating after his positive corona test. The 29-year-old Berliner wrote on Friday on social networks that he would do everything to be able to compete in the pair skating competition with his sporting partner Minerva Hase as planned on February 18 and 19. The duo missed the start in the team competition before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Seegert was the first German athlete to test positive for the corona virus in Beijing and is in an isolation hotel.

medal hunt. The German head of competitive sports, Dirk Schimmelpfennig, has no doubts that Norway will once again be number one in the medal table at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. “Norway is the measure of all things. It is the leading winter sports nation,” said the Chef de Mission. The Scandinavian country won 39 medals in Pyeongchang in 2018. Germany followed in second place with 31 plaques, ahead of Canada (29).

false start. The German figure skaters made a false start in the team competition by Paul Fentz. The Berliner was unable to implement his short program as planned on Friday and finished last. “I was far too fast with the toe loop, too full of energy. The only thing left for me was the double combination,” said the German champion. Since the 29-year-old was only registered for the team competition, the Winter Games are already over for him. After the absence of the couple Nolan Seegert/Minerva Hase due to the corona, the German team had no chance in the first Olympic competition, as only five of the ten teams reached the final anyway. The goal of the Germans is therefore eighth place in order to secure the Olympic funding for the next four years. After the performance of the ice dancers Katharina Müller/Tim Dieck (Berlin/Dortmund), the team was in ninth place.

decimated. Germany’s national ice hockey team trained in Beijing for the first time on Friday without four players. Defenders Marcel Brandt and Korbinian Holzer as well as strikers Stefan Loibl and Daniel Pietta were missing from the unit after arriving in the Olympic city the day before. The German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) initially did not give any reasons for the absence of three players. One player from the 25-strong squad had not yet flown to Beijing because he had not yet had enough negative tests after a corona infection in Germany. The latecomer, who has not yet been named, is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Saturday. On Thursday, Germany will start the tournament against record Olympic champions Canada.

ice ages. The German lugers are optimistic about their individual competition this weekend. In the final training session on Friday, Johannes Ludwig from Oberhof set the best time. “The tension and excitement is getting bigger, but that’s part of the game. I saw in St. Moritz that if you’re not 100% focused, unexpected mistakes can happen,” said the overall World Cup winner, who won the season finale in St .Moritz failed in the final run. After a total of five World Cup victories this winter, the Olympic bronze medalist is the top favourite. Felix Loch from Berchtesgaden drove the second-best time in the sixth and last training run, after conjuring up the best time on the ice the day before.