After the premature end of his last Olympic Games, water diver Patrick Hausding was at a loss.
"My fitness was there, my motivation was there," said the record European champion after his completely surprising end in the preliminary fight from the 3-meter board, "I was actually not nervous." And yet five days after bronze he succeeded in synchronized jumping with Lars Rüdiger almost nothing more in detail.
After three mistakes in six jumps, the Berliner left the Olympic stage a day earlier than planned.
364.05 points were only enough for 21st place. "Jumping in the water is decided in milliseconds, and in the crucial milliseconds today, something technically didn't work for me," said Hausding: "Or maybe I wanted too much."
The 32-year-old, who led the German team to the Olympic Stadium, leaves Tokyo with pride.
"Still, I have the medal that I wanted to pick up here," he said, "that was the dream, the great luck, and that will put a lot of things into perspective." ZDF and Eurosport) Hausding is only a spectator, then he wants to “cheer hard” on Martin Wolfram from Dresden, who made it through eighth (444.50).
Hausding can look back on four summer games with three medals - one silver, two bronze - in three different competitions.
“This makes you immortal in jumpers' circles,” he said before the unsuccessful graduation: “It will take a while before something like this happens again.
Of course, that makes me incredibly proud. "
In the individual competition, in which he had won bronze in Rio, Hausding fell back to 25th place out of 29 participants after two unsuccessful attempts.
With a strong four and a half somersault forward, he once again set his sights on the first 18 places for the semifinals, but also failed in the last round.
Wolfram, fifth from the tower at the 2016 Games, started well and was fifth for a long time before losing three places in the final round. In the semifinals, the 29-year-old wants to "hold up the German flag".