Slovak water slalom player Michal Martikán will be a member of the Austrian team at the Olympic Games. He accepted the offer to train canoeist Nadine Weratschnigová after he did not qualify for Tokyo and the Slovak side did not address him with any form of cooperation.
–
Photo: TASR, Michal Svítok
Michal Martikán before leaving for Tokyo, where he will be a member of the Austrian team.
–
At Vienna Airport, he admitted that he had traveled to the Olympic venue with mixed feelings.
The 42-year-old Martikán has five Olympic medals in his collection, including two gold medals (balance 2–2–1), but he did not make it to Japan in C1 from an internal qualification:
“As an athlete, I did not get into the final fights and the relevant position, whether a coach or another member of the team, was not. Of course, I’d rather be on our expedition, but on the other hand it’s a good experience and I decided to accept the offer. “
The experienced Slovak was contacted by the Austrian head coach.
“Since I did not receive any offer from ours to take part in the Olympics and I did not manage to go as an athlete, my friend, the coach of the Austrian team, noticed.
He asked me if I would spend the final part of the training with them and if I would not share my many years of experience with their canoeist, who does not have a personal trainer this time.
I will try to advise and provide her with service around the trainings and especially give some tactical advice, “said Martikán, whose 23-year-old trustee took third place at the June World Cup event in Markkleeberg, Germany:
Photo: TASR, Jaroslav Novák
Michal Martikán
Michal Martikán.
–
“But it often happens that it is a lottery for women. We need to focus on the details, on D-Day they will all be very well prepared.
It will not only be about happiness, but really about concentrating, it will be essential. “
Weratschnig won bronze in C1 at the 2017 European Championships and the World Championships 2019.
So far, Martikán has helped the Austrian national team from a distance:
“I’m in contact with Nadine, she sent me training videos. I know what the track looks like, they’ve adjusted it compared to the pre-Olympic races.
It’s best to see it live, but it will be a similar track as in Rio. Last year, I would have said it was easier, but they made a few more changes that helped the difficulty.
It will be a bit nicer, but it must be said that it is much easier than in Beijing, Athens or Atlanta. “
Read more
Slafkovský again without OH: I put a lot into it, nothing came back to me
Although the holder of the historically first gold Olympic medal in the era of independence traveled to Tokyo in Austrian colors, before departure he believed that the Slovak team would also experience a successful Olympics:
“I would not like to comment on it specifically and I would not like to shout it.
Despite the fact that our team is not so numerous, I think that we can easily have as many medals as we have managed in the previous Olympics, maybe even more, if we are lucky.
It’s open, I don’t like to speak up from the position of an athlete. “
– .
