Nobody was faster.

Not the American Smith, not the Australians McLoughlin and Winnington, who started this race below the world record.

Not even Felix Auböck from the Republic of Austria.

Even the 18-year-old Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, whose name was hardly known to anyone minutes before, but this has just changed tremendously, was no faster than Henning Mühlleitner from Neckarsulm.

Mühlleitner, who turned 24 ten days ago, needed 55.35 seconds for the last 100 meters in the 400-meter freestyle race.

He was the fastest man in the pool.

And hit - fourth.

Christoph Becker

Sports editor.

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13 hundredths of a second after Smith, behind McLoughlin and behind Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui, 18 years old, so unknown that there isn't even an Arabic Wikipedia page about him. Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui, eighth of the youth games in Buenos Aires 2018, became the Olympic champion in 3: 43.36 minutes. A success so unlikely that not even a “medal suit”, the glamorous brother of the tracksuit, was available for the award ceremony. Hafnaoui took the gold medal in a t-shirt and shorts. Glittered more anyway.

Henning Mühlleitner also took it.

And took the “sheet metal medal.

Or wooden medal.

Or whatever you like to call it.

That doesn't bother me very much.

I am maximally satisfied with what I have achieved today. ”Mühlleitner then said that he had swum a“ mega great race ”, which can hardly be contested, especially with a view to the last hundred meters.

However: The run-up that he had done on Saturday was "a bit of a hit for me".

"That was awesome"

You could say that. No one was faster on Saturday than Henning Mühlleitner over the entire route. He improved his best time by more than one and a half seconds to 3: 43.67 minutes. So on Sunday, after a short night, he was the last to come out of the waiting room and took a seat in front of the starting block of Bahn four. All eyes on Mühlleitner. “Just before I ran out, I noticed: Now it's going to be exciting. But I had a huge smile on my face, under the mask. That was mega. "

Would he be the first German Olympic champion since Michael Groß in 1988? Would he, who says he always swam “under the radar”, be the first German man to win an Olympic medal on an individual route since Stev Theloke 21 years ago? “I just tried not to change anything compared to yesterday, just swimming the exact same race again, not trying anything.

Simply my tactics. ”Which meant: Mühlleitner swam 300 meters behind.

Seventh, sixth, fifth.

“It's amazing what the race does to you, where you draw the energy, when you see where you are in the race.

At some point after 200 meters, when I can play to my strengths, I'll be more aware of what's going on around me. ”And then: the final sprint.

How Mühlleitner swam on the last two lanes, on Saturday and Sunday, is impressive.

But not impressive enough for a medal in the final.

Start with a high mood

Henning Mühlleitner first drew attention to himself at the European Championships in Glasgow in 2018, when he swam into third place. This was followed by an operation on his knee with protracted consequences, a bacterial infection slowed him down, he missed the 2019 World Cup, then Corona came.