Winter sports: Rap in the crisis: Hase/Wolodin can crown season

If everything were as carefree as the performances by Minerva Hase and Nikita Wolodin, you could sit back in a relaxed manner before the World Championships. While the European Country Running Champions can rush from success to success and expand the medal collection in Boston, the present of the German figure skating in the individual disciplines looks as dark as it has not been for a long time. And that one year before the Olympic Games.

It’s about quota places for the winter games

The World Cup starting on Wednesday is not only about precious metal, but also important quota places for the Olympics. “The goal is to get quota places at the World Cup in all possible disciplines,” says Claudia Pfeifer, the sports director of the German Eislauf-Union (DeU). It is therefore definitely necessary to reach the freestyle.

For men, Nikita Starostin starts who wants to make amends to 27th place after a disappointing European Championship – and also has to book the ticket for Milan and Cortina. Jennifer Janse van Rensburg/Benjamin Steffan take part in the Eisanz. In the pair run, the World Cup fifths Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel are there in the pair run. And with women? Not a single German.

The successful times are long gone

For the first time since 2003, Germany does not provide a World Cup starter because no runner has fulfilled the starting requirements of the ISU World Association. The chances are also bad for participating in the Olympics, because Boston is about a large part of the tickets. Only a qualification competition in Beijing in September remains the last chance.

“This is very, very annoying and of course a setback. You have to say that,” says Pfeifer. She admits that the connection to the top of the world has been lost. “But we have to deal with that now.”

The glorious times of the 1970s and 1980s, in which the FRG and the GDR were dominant in the women’s ice skating and the east with Katarina Witt had produced a world star, are long gone.

Sports director: “Very, very many system constraints”

A German star in the individual competitions will not be expected soon. “The cause is certainly that, first of all, we cannot draw out of the masses in terms of performance density in Germany. And on the other hand, it is also because we just need very, very, very long breath to train the junior athletes in quality. This has something to do with training sizes,” explains Pfeifer.

The problem: The system in Germany requires more stamina than in other countries, according to the official. “We have a lot, a lot of system constraints and there are very, very many talented athletes even at a young age, which we of course lack in adult concentration.”

Hase and Wolodin as a title hope

Germany can still hope for a medal and even for the first gold at a World Cup since the title of the Duo Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot seven years ago. Minerva Hase and Nikita Wolodin are among the top favorites in Boston and could crown their season with another victory.

Already in December at the Grand Prix final, which is the most important competition after the big championships, and at the European Championship in the Estonian capital Tallinn at the end of January, the two were at the top of the podium.

An infection and “ailments” in preparation

However, the preparation for the World Cup was “mixed up”, as Hase says. Because her ice skating partner Wolodin had to do with a stubborn infection for two weeks in February. “Accordingly, we had to start training a little slowly again. Then there were ailments here and there.” However, the 25-year-old clarifies that you are no less well prepared.

For the duo in the short program on Thursday night (11:45 p.m. CET) and in the crucial freestyle on Friday (11:15 p.m. CET), it is about medals. “It would of course be nice to complete the season again with two good programs,” says Hase without calling out a specific placement as a goal. “And then we will see where we land.”