Philipp Buhl bravely kept his composure even after his disastrous final day at the Olympic regatta. You could see in the harbour of the Marina da Gloria that he would have loved to burst into tears. But he wanted to save that for later. With 34th and 17th place, Buhl had sealed his fate in Guanabara Bay: With 14th place, he has to say goodbye even before the final and said, "I'm so mega disappointed in myself."
The hope of the national sailing team has stumbled over the fact that he simply hasn't warmed to Rio's territory. This realisation had cemented itself so firmly in his mind long before the start of the Olympic Games that the wall could no longer be torn down. Not even from the outside by his coaches Thomas Piesker and father Friedl Buhl. "I thought I could overturn this trend here at the Olympics." But he didn't succeed, no matter what he tried. "I had too many question marks in my head," mused the 26-year-old after the most painful defeat of his career. He could only keep shaking his head at his result and then credibly announce: "I'm going to have to cry tonight. It has to be now."
The world number one realised himself that he had achieved his worst result of the year at the Olympics of all places. He didn't even try to blame anyone other than himself: "I'm the one to blame." The otherwise so sunny Allgäu man looked back on the penultimate race, in which he finished an indisputable 34th place by his standards, with a partially stunned expression: "There were all these helicopters. You think the whole world is watching you tear it up. I thought about the people who were supporting me and who I was now letting down. All I had to do was do the right thing at the right moment. That's the art of sailing."
Buhl described his start to the fatal penultimate race, in which a gap had opened up for him, as almost "anxious". But he did not take advantage of it and cannot explain to himself why he lacked the drive. The mediocre start to the Olympic regatta with two 16th places had rekindled Buhl's doubts about his ability to conquer the unloved Brazilian territory, which he had successfully suppressed in the meantime. At no point during the Olympic regatta was the helmsman, who is known as a fighter and "happy hunter" and who is known for his open self-criticism, able to dispel these doubts. Not even the race win in race seven gave him more courage. Buhl was so devastated at the end of his Olympic premiere that when asked about his sailing future, he initially only replied: "Let's see what the public has to say." He didn't feel like making any more decisions that evening. Nevertheless, nobody had any doubts on Saturday evening that this athlete would come back once he had digested the heavy knockout blow.
Parallel to Buhl's elimination, national hero Robert Scheidt scuppered his chances of a third Olympic victory on Saturday. However, the Brazilian can still win bronze if he sails outstandingly in the final on Monday. Croatia's Tonci Stipanovic is the front runner ahead of Australia's Tom Burton and New Zealand's Sam Meech.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
