What a success for German sailing - the skiff acrobats: Tina Lutz and Susanne Beucke (above) as well as Eric Heil and Tommi Plößel win Olympic precious metal: silver (above) and bronze © Sailing Energy/World Sailing


Hamburg. NRV. 4 August 2021: A Day for the history books of German sailing: NRV Olympic Team sailor Susann Beucke and her helmswoman Tina Lutz win the first Olympic medals in German women's sailing in 21 years, 30 minutes later NRV Olympic Team sailors Erik Heil and Tommi Plößel secure their second Olympic bronze medal with a fantastic race, and again later the Kiel Nacra 17 duo Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer crown the German sailing medal score board with their bronze medal. Three medals, two bronze and one silver in one day, two of them under the flag of the NRV OLYMPIC TEAM.

After a spectacular medal race, the 49er FX athletes finished their first Olympic Games in second place at around 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning. They had been working towards this for 14 years. Only a short time later, Erik Heil and Tommi Plößel won their second bronze medal in a final that was hard to beat for excitement. Just like first and second place, third and fourth place were decided on equal points.

This 3rd August was the reward of many years of hard work. Next Friday, the male and female athletes will be duly celebrated. After the reception of the sailors at Frankfurt Airport on Thursday evening, 10:35 p.m., the next day they will go to the Team Hamburg Lounge above Hamburg´s rooftops, where the athletes will be officially welcomed by the City of Hamburg and Sports Senator Andy Grote at 12 noon.

Klaus Lahme, Club Manager of the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, emphasized the uniqueness and the special achievement of the athletes: "Qualifying for the Olympic Games is already a real challenge. Only one starting place per nation, plus limited international contingents. The fact that we succeeded in providing five of the six German Olympic boats with the NRV Olympic Team was already a huge success. And now the athletes are bringing us two more medals back to Hamburg - madness!"

NRV Commodore Tobias König combines his joy above all with thanks to the team's founder and sponsors: "When our Admiral Gunter "Piese" Persiehl founded the NRV Olympic Team 21 years ago on the return flight from the Olympic Games in Sydney, there was certainly no way of thinking that the team would be so successful. We were already overwhelmed with joy that five of the six teams in Tokyo were from the NRV Olympic Team, but that Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke won silver and Thomas Plößel and Erik Heil bronze is just great. But I am also particularly pleased that Paul Kohlhoff and Alicia Stuhlemmer also won a bronze medal. We are closely connected to both of them and super happy how successful the German Sailing Team of the DSV has been at these Olympic Games. All of this would certainly not have been possible without the initiative of our Admiral Gunter Persiehl and the many supporters and sponsors of the sailors, whom I would like to sincerely thank at this point for their great commitment."

Last but not least, the 470 Women's Final today (Wednesday) was also another unusually hard-fought race. NRV OLYMPIC TEAM athletes Luise Wanser and Anastasiya Winkel sailed another fantastic race to finish these Olympic Games in second place and 6th overall.

Without the burden of the points from the disqualification after the first two races, the two would have undoubtedly sailed for the medals (purely mathematically, it would have been the Silver medal!). Their sailing performance at these Olympic Games was phenomenally strong and must be appreciated - even without medals. To fight back like that after the setback of the first day - that is sporting excellence!