The “sportswoman of the year”, the sprinter Gina Lückenkemper, is already thinking about the 2023 World Cup.
The evening of August 16th was memorable and the Olympic Stadium in Munich was the setting for an epic piece of sports history. It was probably the sporting moment of the year when Gina Lückenkemper fell after 100 meters and thus flew to gold in this final in the blink of an eye with 10.99 seconds. “I had absolutely no idea where you were at the finish line,” recalls Lückenkemper in a recent RTL interview, but of her last thoughts on her rapid journey to becoming the European sprint queen: “I noticed two steps away from the finish line: there is a 50/50 chance you’ll lie face down. Then I knew I was going to fall.” And then she moved all in. A golden decision
But first Lückenkemper tried to find his bearings on the terrain of the Scottish track. His helpless gaze at the scoreboard was soon accompanied by the deafening screams of the German track and field fans. The crowd was completely freaked out, it was clear to everyone in the stadium that it was a medal, “just not for me,” says the athlete of the year 2022 and laughs – as he has always done since he was in Amsterdam six years ago he ran for the first time in the public spotlight over 200 meters with the EM bronze. Two years later she won silver at the European Championships in Berlin in the 100m.
Charged with adrenaline, Lückenkemper did not at first feel “badly injured” when she fell on the target, with her own spikes. “I had so much adrenaline in my body after this final that I only realized it when the blood was rushing down my shins and I asked myself: why do I feel so wet? I looked down and then at my knee and thought, ‘Oh, it shouldn’t be like that.'” At the hospital that evening, the severed leg was stitched up with eight stitches. A little shock at the end of a big night. The anxious question: Would it now fail five days later for the season?
For four days, Sport-Germany debated whether it could be successful. And yes, at the end of the European Championships at home, he led the German relay team as a finalist – complete with black tape on his legs – from winning the bronze medal at the World Championships in Eugene to gold at the European Championships in Munich.
This can now continue. His goal for 2023: “Run fast!” Even faster, even more successful. The World Cup in Budapest (August 19 – 27) is the highlight of the season for Lückenkemper, who trains in Florida, and the next opportunity to write another epic piece of sports history.
