Germans go for the gold in Athens

It has been anything but a gold rush for Germany in the first week of Olympic competition, but a number of athletes faring from the proud sports nation have mounted the podium in disciplines ranging from swimming to judo.

Yvonne Boenisch earned Germany's first gold of the Games with a major upset victory over North Korean judo superstar Sun-Hui Kye.

It was Germany's equestrians, though, that have had the most success over the first seven days of the Athens Games.

On Wednesday, Bettina Hoy won the gold medal in individual eventing, the three-day event described as the sport's equivalent of the decathlon, shortly after the German team's gold medal in the same Olympic discipline was reinstated.

Germany's team medal had been dramatically stripped away on French claims that Hoy had committed an error on the show jumping course — a contention with which the judges initially agreed, only to reverse their decision after Germany launched a counter protest.

Hoy's dramatic double-gold win came nearly 20 years after she earned her first Olympic medal. "I do feel a lot older, that is for sure," the ecstatic rider said after her win. "I cannot put it in words, I will have to wait for it to sink in."

Other gold medallists include Yvonne Boenisch, who earned Germany's first gold of the Games with a major upset victory over North Korea's 1996 Olympic champion Sun-Hui Kye in the women's 57 kg judo final, and Manfred Kurzer, who set a world record on the way to collecting gold in the men's 10 meter running target shooting event on Thursday.

German athletes clinched silver medals in the women's road race cycling event, the men's synchronized diving 3 meter spring board, canoeing and shooting.

With bronze medals in shot put, canoeing, judo and the women's 4x200 meter freestyle relay and the women's 200 meter backstroke in swimming, the German team collected a total of 15 medals by Friday afternoon, giving them the place among the top five that the team had set is sights on.

Yet while there have been highs for 254-man, 198-woman German delegation, there have also been lows.

Cyclist Jan Ullrich failed to get a road race medal following his Sydney gold, instead delivering a disappointing 19th place finish.

In swimming, Franziska van Almsick's dreams of gold went unfulfilled after she managed only a fifth place finish in the 200m freestyle. Later, world champion Hannah Stockbauer crashed out in the 400m freestyle.

With over a week of competition remaining, hopes are still high that Germany can reverse a steady decline in its overall medal count showing.

At the 1988 Games in Seoul, West and East Germany won a combined total of 142 medals. Four years later, a united German team claimed 82 medals in Barcelona, followed by 65 in Atlanta and 56 in Sydney.

Links:

Olympic predictions see gold in Germany's future (from Germany Info)

Olympic team aims for top-five finish (from Germany Info)

Olympic spirit alight in Berlin and Munich (from Germany Info)



Athens 2004

German Olmpic Committee

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