Wrestling at the Olympics: Stäbler crowns his career with bronze, Kudla also wins a medal

In the last fight of his career, wrestler Frank Stäbler fulfilled his lifelong sporting dream.

The three-time world champion won one of the small finals in the weight class up to 67 kilograms in Tokyo on Wednesday and won his longed-for first Olympic medal with bronze.

The 5: 4 over the Georgian Ramas Soidze was the worthy end of his impressive career.

Stäbler symbolically took off his wrestling shoes on the mat and bowed to the other athletes, supervisors and helpers in the hall, who applauded him long and appreciatively.

"Breathtaking," stammered the overwhelmed athlete afterwards.

“The dream has come true.

I brought it home with the very last possible strength.

For me this bronze medal is like a gold medal. "

Kudla with a medal again

Half an hour after Stäbler, his teammate Denis Kudla also secured the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The 26-year-old from Schifferstadt defeated Egyptian Mohamed Metwally in the weight class up to 87 kilograms on Wednesday. Kudla had already won bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. After gold from Aline Rotter-Focken (up to 76 kg), it was already medals two and three for the German Wrestling Federation (DRB) at this year's event in Japan.

Stäbler would have liked to have won gold in his last tournament, but narrowly failed in the quarter-finals on Tuesday to Mohammad Reza Geraei. Since the Iranian then reached the final, the 32-year-old was allowed to run again in the hope round. "The tension was of course enormous," said Greco-Roman national coach Michael Carl about the hours of anxiety before the semi-finals on Tuesday evening. In the hope of being able to intervene in the fight for the medals again on Wednesday, Stäbler began to reduce his weight again immediately after his return to the Olympic village.

Normally it weighs around 75 kilograms, but in Tokyo it was only allowed to weigh 67 kilograms during the morning check.

It's a week-long ordeal that the Swabian has taken on again and again for his international appearances in recent years for the Olympic Games.

And this time it cost him even more energy than in previous years due to changes in the weighing rules and times.

Olympic curse defeated

According to coach Carl, the relief in the German camp was "huge" when Geraei actually reached the final battle and thereby heaved Stäbler into the hopeful round. In the first, the Swabian defeated the Colombian Julian Stiven Horta Acevedo in just two and a half minutes, clearly technically superior. Then he banished his Olympic curse by defeating Soidze. For years, Stäbler had been chasing a medal at the world's largest sporting event - he missed it twice. In 2012 in London he lost his bronze fight against the Georgian Manuchar Tschadaia and finished fifth. In 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, he was handicapped from a foot injury in the quarter-finals and then lost in the hope round.

Now in Tokyo he threatened to go away empty-handed again. The preparation for his big farewell performance was anything but optimal. For a long time, Stäbler has been struggling with the consequences of a split shoulder joint. He was also infected with the corona virus last autumn. Since then he has been relying on special breathing therapy. All in all, the postponement of the games by a year was definitely a disadvantage for the exceptional athlete.

Despite his many successes, Stäbler felt in some ways incomplete before the games in Japan. The Olympic medal was "the last piece of the mosaic that is still missing," he said. Now he has it. The longstanding flagship wrestler, who has shaped his sport like no other, leaves the mat as a triumphant and joins the guard of the greatest German wrestlers such as the legendary Olympic champion Wilfried Dietrich, the "crane of Schifferstadt", Pasquale Passarelli or Maik Bullmann .