The step was heavy, the arms light.

At the age of 49, Claudia Pechstein finished twentieth among twenty starters in the 3000 meter speed skater race in Beijing in 4:17.68 minutes.

49-year-old Pechstein was around twenty seconds behind winner Irene Schouten from the Netherlands.

The winner, twenty years younger than Pechstein, was faster than any previous Olympic champion.

Previous record holder was – Claudia Pechstein, who won twenty years ago, in 2002 in Salt Lake City in 3:57.70 minutes.

Christopher Becker

sports editor.

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Pechstein, who started the first race at half past four in the afternoon Beijing time, nonetheless cheered when he crossed the finish line.

“That was a victory for me, with the start I set the record, the eighth Olympic Games, to be the first woman in the world to take part in the Winter Games.

You can only walk across the line with a cheer,” said Pechstein.

“Few will understand that I can still shine with my placement.

But I do it because I'm very proud of it."

Only ski jumper Noriaki Kasai from Japan has competed in eight Olympic Winter Games so far.

US Virgin Islands luger Anne Abernathy started Olympic training in 2006 at the age of 53 but was injured in a fall and did not compete.

Pechstein with ballast in his head

During training on Tuesday, Claudia Pechstein said she didn't want to be last in her record appearance, that wasn't her claim as a competitive athlete.

On Saturday, she finished 4.88 seconds behind her 27-year-old Chinese opponent Adake Ahenaer, who finished 16th.

"Normally I have to have the Chinese in the sack," said Pechstein afterwards, but both the night before and his own feelings stood in the way of a better race: "I couldn't even put it away for a moment and do my race." Pechstein the German Olympia team together with Francesco Friedrich to the Olympic Stadium before state and party leader Xi Jinping opened the 24th Winter Games.

"When I walked to the starting line and was introduced as 'the most successful' and such, that plays a role in my head, I actually couldn't really run my race." In fact, it was clear by the start of the second lap at the latest that Pechstein the Chinese wouldn't be able to bat either on this day, which was so important to her.

Pechstein ran with the baggage of his own importance in his head.

The opponent told her before the race: "I'm running against a legend", that was, after the exertion of the opening ceremony, the next additional luggage that she gladly took with her: "Of course it goes down like oil, but of course it wasn't so easy to run with it, with all the compliments in mind.

But I'm happy to take that with me, because unfortunately you don't hear that very often in the media in Germany."

Pechstein still had the old days in mind, even on Saturday: "Everyone who knows me knows that I could have run more there.

But that doesn't matter.

I've beaten all the girls who started today, I know that."

When one runner went over her time from Salt Lake City, Pechstein watched on a screen in the mixed zone, with her Salt Lake City win in mind.

"No record, I still have it," she said, looking at the screen.

Schouten, who started against Italy's Francesco Lollobrigida in the last heat, snatched the record but was the only one to outperform Pechstein in Beijing on the very fast ice in America.

Lollobrigida was second in 3:58.06 minutes, Canadian Isabelle Weidemann was third (3:58.64 minutes).

Irene Schouten, the winner, still remembers the 2002 Salt Lake City games.

Born in Andijk am IJsselmeer, she was nine years old at the time.

"They were the first ones I watched," she said after her victory.

Schouten especially remembered another victory for Pechstein in Utah, over 5000 meters.

However, from a different perspective, that of a disappointed child: "My heroine was Gretha Smit, she won the silver medal in the 5000 meters, she ran a marathon, I looked up to her." And the Olympic record?

"If you tell me that was twenty years ago, then he stood a very long time.

I'm glad I have him now."

Schouten is credited with winning four medals in Beijing, possibly even four gold ones. The busy schedule is a blessing for the Dutchwoman. "I skate, I eat, I sleep - all the time," she said of life in the Olympic Village in the face of Omicron. “I'm glad I have so many races. Otherwise it would be pretty boring.”

Claudia Pechstein turns 50 on February 22nd.

Three days before her milestone birthday, on February 19, the penultimate day of the Beijing Games, she will compete in the mass start race, a competition in which the chances of finishing better than last are significantly more favorable.

Until then, the Berliner wants to practice Olympic tourism as far as possible.

“I try to take part in all the events I can attend.

I want to experience the whole German team, cheer them on, be there live.

In the other games before, they had behaved very, very professionally.

Now, under Corona conditions, the other athletes are happy about one or two more spectators.

In fact, a few hundred spectators were present in the new National Speed ​​Skating Oval in Beijing, although the cheering on the Chinese starters did not create a particularly perceptible atmosphere.