Two days before the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, ÖOC President Stoss took stock.
One gold, one silver and five bronze medals – the last time the Austrian team won this many medals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Shortly before the end of the Tokyo Games, ÖOC President Karl Stoss drew a first Olympic balance sheet. The 64-year-old spoke about …
… the unexpected successes These are incredibly successful games for us and of course we are happy with every athlete about the excellent results and the medals. We clearly outperformed the performances of Rio de Janeiro (one medal) and London, where we went home with zero medals.
… the golden Anna Kiesenhofer even made it into the Wall Street Journal thanks to her strong performance. She did and implemented what she set out to do. She plans her program herself and the family environment is right with her. Success begins in the head. If you don't have that free, you will never be successful in sport.
… strong Austrians The Alexandri sisters also made it into the Wall Street Journal. Although they didn't win a medal, they still drew attention to themselves with their freestyle. Like the kayak athletes, track and field athlete Ivona Dadic and Felix Auböck, who made it to the final three times and narrowly missed a medal. Hats off to these brilliant achievements.
… Solo athletes like Anna Kiesenhofer, Sepp Straka or Felix Auböck made it to top performances in Tokyo without an association and without ÖOC. There is that in other nations too. The reasons for this are often studies or a job.
… Reasons for success As the ÖOC, we have always believed that the games would take place. Every decision was questioned. Does it benefit the athlete and the Olympic sport? The Olympic centers are also important. 80 percent of Olympic athletes now train there.
… Weaknesses A better and clearer structuring of the funding would be desirable. Sufficient funds are available, the only question is how to better bundle and channel them.
Shown: With their scary freestyle, the Alexandri sisters made it into the Wall Street Journal
… the organization of the games The sports facilities were of the highest quality. The only drawback was that the tiers were empty. The organizers had Corona under control. 520,000 tests were performed, 320 of which were positive. That is two per thousand.
… the outlook We will probably experience a similar corona situation in Beijing in six months. That is a subjective fear, it would be just as unfortunate as it was in Tokyo.
