2012 Olympics: "I was so close to my dream"

The scene was touching: when the German surfers - beaten in the battle for the medals - returned to the harbour on Tuesday, they were greeted like winners. A small delegation of German coaches stood in the wind with an oversized black, red and gold flag, sending out a signal and celebrating Toni Wilhelm and Moana Delle as if they hadn't just lost the medals they had longed for. While other beaten athletes dragged their equipment ashore alone and crept around the harbour, the German surfers received the support they had earned with a week of impressive performances. Even without a medal.

"You can also win fourth place at the Olympics," said Toni Wilhelm after the medal final of the RS:X surfers, setting an example against the medal tunnel vision that led some people to prematurely talk about a German sailing disaster that day. But how can it be a disaster when a young team achieves fourth, fifth and sixth places at the pinnacle of their sport?

Of course, Toni Wilhelm wanted nothing more than a happy ending to his Olympic campaign. He worked hard for years to achieve this and battled in the Olympic arena outside Weymouth. Until the very end, he was reaching for the bronze medal that Poland's Przemyslav Miarcynski snatched from under his nose in the final sprint. "He's been winning medals for 20 years," Wilhelm himself had said before the final, which he started in third place with a six-point lead over the Pole, "it's not going to be a walkover." Wilhelm was proved right.

Because the man from the Black Forest fluffed his start in the final sprint of all places after a left turn at an angle that was becoming too acute and the gusty winds on the short course of the sailing arena "The Nothe" did not allow him to catch up either, Wilhelm only reached the finish line in ninth place in the final. Much too late. The Pole had crossed the line in fourth place. A total of 60 points was enough for the experienced Miarcynski to win his first bronze medal in his fourth Olympic appearance. Toni WIlhelm remained in fourth place with 64 points. "Tin", as he said himself.

On the same day that the German dressage riders had to concede their traditional gold medal to hosts Great Britain and the swimmers had long been derided as "zero numbers" in their home country, the loss of the hoped-for German surfing medal was not well received by superficial observers. It was quickly labelled a "disaster". Words fail you.

Toni Wilhelm put in a rousing performance in the Olympic arena and only fell off the pace at the end of the series. His own assessment: "Of course I was very disappointed at first. I was so close to my dream, I had waited my whole life for this day... and I even shed a tear after the race. Especially because it's all over now. I had a great time with my coach and a super week. I'll live on even without my medal."

And Toni WIlhelm went even further: "You also have to recognise that we had a great week with the whole DSV fleet. A fourth, a fifth and two sixth places - these are not just any results. These are really good performances at the Olympics."

Moana Delle was also one of these top performers. Like Wilhelm, the 23-year-old surfer started her Olympic debut with medal chances in the final. Just one point behind double world champion Lee-El Korsiz from Israel and Finland's Tuuli Petaja appeared to be catchable. However, Moana Delle was also "run over" by other surfers at the start and was only the last of the ten finalists to reach the first turning mark. The Kiel native put in an impressive chase to catch up, but in the half-hour race over the short sections of the course this resulted in no more than sixth place.

Delle had to settle for fifth place in her Olympic debut, while the medals went to Spain, Finland and Poland. But the Münster native accepted her fate in the same refreshing way she had surfed throughout the regatta: "I'm sad and happy at the same time. It's a shame that a mega regatta has come to an end with a race like this. For me, windsurfing marks the end of a chapter in my life. I will certainly get on a kiteboard one day. I've done it before, but I found windsurfing more attractive." When asked about a comeback in the event that the World Sailing Federation reconsiders its decision against windsurfing, Delle said: "Surfing in Rio? Why not? Sure! The light winds there are exactly my kind of conditions."

Almost unnoticed, the 470 sailors Kathrin Kadelbach and Friederike Belcher jumped up to sixth place on Tuesday with sixth and fifth place in the shadow of the medal races of the RS:X surfers. With a 25-point deficit to bronze, the Berliners and the Hamburg native have a difficult task to tackle in the remaining two races until their medal final. But it is not insurmountable.