The German snowboarder Annika Morgan achieved a strong eighth place at the Winter Games in Beijing.
The 19-year-old from Mittenwald impressed in her Olympic debut in the final on Sunday morning (local time) with 64.13 points.
"I'm so happy, I can't complain at all.
I wasn't nervous at all, I had a lot of fun," said the native of Mittenwald and added in sunny Zhangjiakou: "I'd like to continue driving."
Her day had gotten off to a bad start: “I overslept badly.
I set my alarm at quarter to six – and I didn't wake up until half past six."
Nevertheless, she made her best run right from the start.
She fell in the last two rounds.
Despite this, she finished ahead of two-time Olympic champion Jamie Anderson of the USA.
Gold for Zoi Sadowski-Synnot
Victory on the demanding course in Zhangjiakou, on which the athletes ride over railings and ramps and jump over a small hut, went to Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.
The 20-year-old secured New Zealand's first gold medal in the history of the Olympic Winter Games with a spectacular last run.
After a total of three rounds in the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, she won with 92.88 points ahead of Julia Marino (USA/87.68) and Tess Coady (Australia/84.15).
Morgan is the first German snowboarder to qualify for an Olympic slopestyle final.
Even before the highlight of the season in Beijing, she set one or the other sporting exclamation point this winter and, among other things, achieved two podium finishes in the World Cup - one in slopestyle and one in the Big Air discipline, in which she will also start at these games.
The sports director of the German team, Andreas Scheid, still has great hopes for her in the future.
“Annika is still very young and the level here is higher than in the World Cup.
At the 2026 Games she will be at the perfect age," he said.
Morgan had even spoken to her brother on the phone between runs.
"He said, 'If you land that, you might win a medal.
That made me really nervous.”