Reception for Olympic champions Aline Rotter-Focken and Jonathan Rommelmann

Reception in the town hall for Krefeld Olympic participants
:
Krefeld celebrates historic gold medal

–

Aline Rotter-Focken was the first German woman to win gold in wrestling in Tokyo. On Monday there was a reception in her honor in the town hall.
Photo: Lammertz, Thomas (lamm)

–
–

Krefeld Mayor Frank Meyer received Olympic participants from Tokyo in Krefeld’s town hall – including gold medalist Aline Rotter-Focken, who was nominated for the NRW athlete election of the year on Monday.

The reception in the town hall for Krefeld’s Olympic participants on Monday afternoon had a historic dimension this year: The wrestler Aline Rotter-Focken is the first German Olympic champion in women’s wrestling; her victory made headlines around the world, also because it was the culmination of her career. She won gold in the last fight of her career. In the morning, the athlete in Düsseldorf was nominated as one of the five candidates for the Felix Award. In the afternoon, the reception followed in the historic council chamber of the Krefeld town hall, where Mayor Frank Meyer received them, rower Jonathan Rommelmann and his trainer Sabine Tschäge in a ceremony and presented the plaque on which all Krefeld participants are listed.

–

With the new board, the city is continuing a tradition that began with the 2012 Games in London: every four years since then, a board with Krefeld athletes who have participated in the Olympic Games has been added. So far these have been on the town hall forecourt. The new board, like all the others, will be placed on a wall inside the town hall. The panels that had already been installed were dismantled in the course of the renovation of the town hall square.

–

Jonathan Rommelmann won Olympic silver in rowing.
*Photo: Lammertz, Thomas (lamm)*

–

In his welcoming address, Lord Mayor Meyer promoted a new perspective on the Tokyo Games, a perspective that leaves the harsh criticism of the bad medal record of the German Olympic participants behind. The Frankfurter Rundschau had spoken of a “historical debacle” at the time, the sports portal sportbuzzer of the “worst German Olympic record since reunification”. Meyer emphasized that it was not fair to simply use a medal table to compare these games, which would have taken place under Corona conditions and thus under considerably more difficult conditions for the athletes, with previous games. On the other hand, he campaigned for “humility” and gratitude for the fact that the world’s athletes could have celebrated a festival in the midst of the pandemic; Tokyo was also a special signal of hope, a “symbol for overcoming this pandemic”.

–

Aline Rotter-Focken’s victory was the “absolute highlight” of the games, the mayor further emphasized, and the sympathy in Krefeld was “enormous” and “the city issue” in general. With applause, Meyer suggested that the KSV Germania gym, which was previously just the hall on Steinstrasse, be renamed Aline-Rotter-Focken-Halle. Rotter-Focken began her career there. A sympathetic side aspect: As a successful athlete, she also trained children and young people on Steinstrasse, thereby doing valuable integration and educational work in a sometimes difficult neighborhood.

–

Mayor Frank Meyer honored from left rowing national trainer Sabine Tschäge, silver medalist Jonathan Rommelmann and gold medalist Aline Rotter-Focken.
*Photo: Lammertz, Thomas (lamm)*

–

The Olympic victory was timed perfectly. After victories over Wassilissa Marsaljuk from Belarus, the Chinese Zhou Qian and the Japanese Hiroe Minagawa in the final, Rotter-Focken clearly defeated the multiple world champion Adeline Gray from the USA 7: 3. In doing so, she made herself the first German Olympic champion in women’s wrestling – and that in the last fight of her athletic career: After the games, the 30-year-old had announced her retirement from active wrestling. The title of Sportsman of the Year for North Rhine-Westphalia could be a drop of the cake.

–

The Felix Award is the choice for NRW Sportsman of the Year – a title that Aline Rotter-Focken had already won in 2015. This time, Hülserin, who was named “The Best 2021” by around 4,000 athletes sponsored by Deutsche Sporthilfe, is certainly one of the favorites – although the other candidates Isabell Werth (dressage rider), Mieke Kröger (cyclist), Julia Krajewski (eventing rider) and Anna-Maria Wagner (judoka), all of whom won medals at the Tokyo Games.

–

The goal of all athletes: to win an Olympic gold medal.
*Photo: Lammertz, Thomas (lamm)*

–

This award would then also be a good omen for the election to Germany’s Sportswoman of the Year 2021, who will be chosen in December and, among other things, selected by a jury made up of numerous German sports journalists. Should she be ahead there, she would be the second woman from Krefeld to be named Germany’s Sportswoman of the Year. The first was the former swimmer Wiltrud Urselmann, once the world record holder for the 200-meter chest distance, which was crowned in 1957.

–

In addition to Aline Rotter-Focken, two other medalists were also invited: the two rowers from the Crefeld rowing club Laurits Follert and Jonathan Rommelmann, who had both won silver in Tokyo. Follert, who could not believe the appointment in the town hall on Monday because he is continuing his training as a federal police officer in Kienbaum, drove to silver with the Germany eight, Rommelmann at the side of Mainz’s Jason Osbourne in the lightweight two-man. Both are also nominated for the Felix Award in the team competition and compete against Max Hoff / Jacob Schoff (kayak runner-up), Timo Boll / Dimitrij Ovtcharov / Patrick Franziska (table tennis) and the German mixed judo team. The third silver medalist, who was born in Krefeld, was absent from the reception: Sabine Schut-Kery, who finished second in the Olympic Games with the USA dressage team, also lives in America, her adopted home.

–

Leave a Comment Cancel reply