They set up patio heaters in the Odeon, the inner courtyard of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior that Leo von Klenze once built as a concert and ballroom. But only one of the heat dispensers is in operation, which suits the occasion well: Host Joachim Herrmann, who heads both the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Sports in the Free State, said goodbye to the top athletes of the Bavarian police force for the Winter Olympics this Tuesday at Munich’s Odeonsplatz to Beijing. The only thing missing is snow, but it probably won’t fall in Beijing from February 4th, at least not from real clouds.
Like others, snowboarder Melanie Hochreiter has brought her sports equipment with her, the long, narrow board looks great in this somewhat slanted patio heater/standing reception atmosphere, on the tables there are coffee, water and juices, welded-in FFP-2 masks and cans of peppermint -Candies on customers. Many cameras are buzzing, the usual image film is running on a large screen, Minister Herrmann praises the Olympic participants and, of course, Bavaria’s police. Then they line up for the photo, behind the giant bob resting on the cobblestones in the Odeon.
The question and answer session is also about hair, bob pusher Tobias Schneider turns out to be the hairdresser of his roommate Michael Salzer. “He complained that his hair was so long. At some point I couldn’t listen to it anymore and tried to apply my hairdressing skills. It looked quite passable,” says Schneider. It is perhaps the only moment when the athletes seem really relaxed, even smile. Otherwise you can see a lot of seriousness on their faces, at least not what was seen so often before so many games, whether summer or winter: real anticipation.
This dichotomy was also evident in Ramona Hofmeister. The 25-year-old overall World Cup winner last season and third at the Olympics in Pyeongchang 2018 is also considered a medal candidate in Beijing, and her realistic dream is to be at the top in China. But she makes no secret of the fact that she has longed more for the Olympics. “Of course I’m looking forward to the day of the competition, but there’s a lot of negative energy around it. The anticipation isn’t quite as great as it was four years ago.”
Hofmeister was already in a World Cup race on the Olympic track in 2019, she won, “the race was organized very well, but maybe you have to turn a blind eye if you fly there as an athlete,” she later told the SZ: ” We all know that it’s not the best venue. There are many points where you could make negative comments, but I don’t want to do that now. It’s too late for sporting boycotts anyway.”
Olympic anticipation looks different: snowboarder Ramona Hofmeister said on the podium with Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann that there was “a lot of negative energy around”.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
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A few meters further, the bobsledders try to push their sports equipment for the cameras. But that doesn’t really work on the cobblestones, there is hardly a more unsuitable surface for the skid speedsters. It was worth trying. It was also symbolic, the games in Beijing are likely to be quite jerky, Corona, human rights, a lack of fans, the lack of freedom to break out of the Olympic bubble. This also applies to Christian Rasp, one of the most prominent police athletes alongside Hofmeister, whom Hermann says goodbye to Beijing.
For Rasp, 31, Franceso Friedrich’s challenger, it is also the second Olympic Games, as Hofmeister knows the bobsled pusher, who became world champion in 2017 with pilot Johannes Lochner, the track from a test competition in 2019. But he got it back then a foretaste of what awaits him in Beijing. “The flight attendants were in full protective gear, the terminal was closed to us at the airport, we were escorted down the freeway that was closed to us, as if we were the US President who was a guest there,” says Rasp.
However, he didn’t have a feeling of being locked in, but sportingly rather fantastic conditions, with a 400-meter track for sprint training and two weight rooms. “You weren’t allowed to leave the area,” says Rasp. Like the other athletes, he received a guide from the German Olympic Sports Confederation for the upcoming games in Beijing: “It is well-intentioned, it is wanted to have responsible athletes. But it is also pointed out that it is not common in China , to say your opinion, especially your political opinion. The flower shows that you have to take the risk yourself.”
It was recently stressful for Rasp, the World Cup in St. Moritz at the weekend, getting dressed in the Allianz Arena on Monday, saying goodbye in the Odeon on Tuesday in the midst of the patio heaters. In between, they still had to bring their bobsleigh to Königssee, where it was quickly rewrapped in Olympic-style and then shipped to the container. The bob is now traveling ahead to the Middle Kingdom.
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