Record Olympic participant Scheidt reaches for medal six: "The right people are already in the top ten"
Tatjana Pokorny
· 26.07.2021
Back then, 23-year-old Scheidt beat his 19-year-old British challenger Ben Ainslie in a furious final, using every trick in the book. Scheidt did it by involving Ainslie in a false start - the disqualification of both sailors brought the Brazilian gold. Ainslie returned the favour four years later at the 2000 Games in Sydney: he took Scheidt under his wing and sailed his gold rival to the back of the fleet. Both were able to cancel out the worst result of their series. But it was precisely this - precisely calculated by Ainslie - that secured the first of four gold medals for the Briton, making him the most successful Olympic sailor in sporting history to date. The duel between Scheidt and Ainslie could have gone on for a long time, but Ainslie preferred to switch to the Finn dinghy - away from Scheidt. In the Olympic single-handed sailing discipline for heavy athletes, Ainslie completed his historic performance with three more Olympic victories. Scheidt remained loyal to the Laser and remained its figurehead for decades.
In Enoshima, the 48-year-old father of two boys will be one of the favourites for the seventh time in a row. It is true that the former dominance of the two-time Olympic champion and five-time medallist has diminished with age. But Scheidt remains the rock star of the Olympic single-handed dinghy. "There's still a fire burning inside me," Scheidt explained when he retired after finishing fourth at his home Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He got the go-ahead for his comeback from his sons Erik and Lukas as well as his wife Gintaré Scheidt, who herself won a silver medal in the Laser Radial at the 2008 Olympic Games. "My family is behind me," says the grandson of a German grandfather who emigrated to Brazil after the First World War and set up a paper and cloth factory there. "He met my grandmother in São Paulo," says Scheidt, "they had six children. One was called Fritz, and that was my father." Scheidt's mother is Swedish. According to the exceptional athlete, he has a special relationship with Germany: "I took part in Kiel Week sixteen times, I like the country and have many friends there."
Philipp Buhl is a good acquaintance. As a teenager, the reigning German Laser World Champion had pictures of his idol Robert Scheidt stuck in his exercise books. It was the Brazilian whose sailing style Philipp Buhl, who grew up sailing on the Großer Alpsee in the Allgäu region, studied often and intensively for his own further training. 17 years separate the South American father of all Laser successes and his South German opponent. At the last test regatta before the start of the current Olympic summit race in Enoshima's Sagami Bay, Buhl was able to beat Scheidt by one point. After his Olympic debut in 2016, which ended in 14th place, Buhl would like to see the same result in his second Olympic outing. But Buhl knows: "Robert is still dangerous and good for a medal." Scheidt will bring all his experience to bear to defeat Buhl and at least eight other Laser medal contenders once again. Why is he still putting himself through the agony at his age? "I don't have to prove anything anymore," says Scheidt, "but it's still so much fun."
For his seventh Olympic appearance in a quarter of a century, however, he also had to toil and give his body the rest it needed after hard training. Now he is back at full strength, even if the strain is more noticeable on the face of the nine-time world champion than on the faces of strong challengers such as Matt Wearn from Australia or Sam Meech from New Zealand, both 27 years old. Scheidt reveals in one sentence why it is not just his outstanding sailing skills that make him so strong: "You have to realise that the Olympics is above all a mental game." Scheidt already proved that he is a master of it when he won his first Olympic title in 1996. What is still possible now will become clear in the medal race of the ten best laser sailors on 1 August at the latest. Scheidt's challenge in Enoshima: "Of course it's not so easy now because the years have passed. But I will fight hard for a podium place." On the second day of the Olympic regatta, Scheidt was just behind Philipp Buhl in eighth place and said: "There are already the right people in the top ten." Like Buhl, he considers it a "privilege" to be able to compete in the Olympic regatta in challenging times.
German rival Buhl was able to move up to sixth place on the second day of the Olympic regatta with 2nd and 10th place. The man from Sonthofen was happy and grateful on Monday to have survived the demanding day in barely legible winds without the mishaps that caused the other top sailors to stumble. Buhl has created a strong starting position for himself and emphasised his potential at this Olympic summit with his near victory on the day. The 31-year-old has all the cards in his hand for the battle for the medals. Svenja Weger had to make do with 21st and 29th place after her gala start on day two, but is still in the top ten in eighth place after four races. The German skiff sailors start their Olympic series on Tuesday. At the same time, the latest weather forecasts pointed to strong winds. Firstly, however, the start of all disciplines scheduled for Tuesday has been confirmed.
