Grandiose Svenja Weger gala at the start of the Olympic regatta: Suddenly the best
"She has to rise above herself and have a stellar moment to make it into the medals." That's what Willy Kuhweide said about Svenja Weger before these Olympic Games. The 1964 Enoshima Olympic champion could not have known that the aforementioned Laser Radial helmswoman would open her Olympic debut with just such a stellar moment. In fact, there were several great moments, as the start of the Olympic regatta turned out to be somewhat more extensive than expected. The unstable and sometimes very dull weather at the start of the Olympic summit off Enoshima was caused by a low pressure system that the world's sailing elite gathered in the Olympic harbour have been referring to as a "mini typhoon" for days. It is moving east of Enoshima from south to north-east and is having unpredictable effects on the wind and weather conditions in the Olympic area of Sagami Bay. Which is why Laser World Champion Philipp Buhl said in the evening: "None of the weather forecasts are correct today."
However, Svenja Weger remained unimpressed by the sometimes very light winds on the first Olympic sailing day of her life. She remained unimpressed by the one-and-a-half hour delay in the start between the first and second race of her 44-boat fleet, the largest of all Olympic fleets in Japan. And she also remained unimpressed by the high-calibre opponents, who otherwise often fight it out for the best places in front of her. But on this first sailing day of the XXXII Olympic Games, everything was different.
It was the light blonde helmswoman from the Potsdam Yacht Club who had the best plan, started somewhat conservatively but very effectively from the centre of the field in both races, usually positioned herself ideally and kept her cool even after a dominant lead in the second race and took the well-deserved first German one-day victory for the sailors at these Games. Svenja Weger leads the classification in Japan with just six points. She was more successful than her 43 opponents from as many countries and was suddenly the best on the evening of her super Sunday. When asked whether the result might have shocked her a little herself, the calm athlete with the clear light blue eyes said after a moment's thought: "A little."
Wegers last major success was seven years ago. In 2014, she won the European Championships and made a name for herself. However, it was not enough to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. In the years that followed, Weger often sailed well, but never competed hard enough for another major title. She managed to secure a place on the national starting list for her Laser Radial discipline for these Olympic Games at the 2018 World Championships in Aarhus - ahead of all her team-mates in Germany's favourite disciplines. She then had to fight hard for her personal nomination. In preparation for the Games of her life, the sports soldier, in consultation with her coach Jonsz Stelmaszyk, allowed herself to work on individual weaknesses during the last test regattas of the year. The receipt in the form of miserable placings was as hard to swallow as a dry bread roll. "I knew what I was letting myself in for, but it's still hard to accept," she says at the official athletes' uniforms a few weeks before the Olympic Games, talking about the low blows just before the Olympics.
It is quite possible that precisely these setbacks have now contributed to Svenja Weger, who has recently worked so intensively on parts of her starts and manoeuvres, finally being able to assert herself more effectively. She has never lacked sailing ability. Rather in assertiveness, in the "killer instinct", as her team-mates put it. Weger herself weighed up the situation before the Olympics: "There are situations in which it makes sense to go for close cover. But there are also many situations where you can do it smarter and more intelligently. It's a question of the right interpretation at the right time."
On this Sunday, Wegers' timing was brilliant. And her nerves withstood her opponents' power play with aplomb. Born in Heidelberg, she is not really one to seek the limelight. But suddenly she was right in the thick of things in the Olympic harbour, having casually relegated the top-favourite Danish world champion Anne-Marie Rindom to second place after the first two races and starting the new week with the yellow bib of the front runner. "I'm happy and a bit proud," she said after the races in Enoshima harbour. You could see how unfamiliar the role is for her. The passionate water sportswoman, who had tears of joy streaming down her face at the finish of her race win, said with great sympathy: "I had actually hoped that my Olympic excitement would subside a little after the first day. That's probably not going to happen now." It is precisely because she is so down-to-earth that she could manage to hold on to the momentum and continue to ride the wave of success that everyone favours her.
First and foremost, Philipp Buhl was delighted with his Laser team-mate's success. The Laser World Champion, who would have loved to add an Olympic medal to his World Championship gold, opened his Olympic regatta with a solid tenth place, without any mistakes, and rated his result as "good", saying: "I'm happy with the result and my mental approach." The second race of his Laser fleet fell victim to heavy wind shifts of more than 30 degrees and had to be cancelled. Buhl was not unhappy about this because, like many top competitors, he had to contend with the strange and unpredictable winds in race two. The Allgäu native was much happier about Svenja Weger's impressive performance. "I know that she's good, but after the last results I almost didn't believe that she could prevail. I'm really happy for her! When we arrived on the course for our races, I looked for her but didn't spot her straight away. Only then did I see that she was all alone at the front. So strong! I was about 100 metres behind the start line and shouted for her."
For Svenja Weger, this first Olympic sailing day of the masked games in Japan was like a little summer fairytale. Right from the start, she had explained that the unpredictable and changeable area suited her because of its waves: "The area tends to suit me because I can play to my downwind strength when there are a lot of waves." And yet there weren't that many waves on this opening day on the Kamakura course. But what is not, can still be.
The Olympic regatta will continue on Monday for the RS:X surfers (without German participants) as well as the Laser and Laser Radial. The Laser men will probably have to race three times, as their cancelled second race will be made up immediately. Philipp Buhl is looking forward to this, as is Svenja Weger. The winds are expected to pick up a little. Rain could also come. For the German Laser aces, who will be among themselves once again on 26 July before the best skiff athletes of the German Sailing Team, Tina Lutz/Susann Beucke and Erik Heil/Thomas Plößel, take part in the Olympic action on 27 July, the prospects do not mean a horror scenario at all. It should be added that the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste won the first and only men's Laser race ahead of the Finn Kaarle Tapper and Philipp Buhl's training partner Hermann Tomasgaard. His youth idol Robert Scheidt, double Olympic champion and rock star of the Laser scene in his seventh Olympic appearance at the age of 48, only allowed Philipp Buhl to cross the finish line behind him in eleventh place. If Buhl has his way, it can stay that way in this duel. However, he would like to see it play out a little further up the rankings.
