After the early victories in the 470 women and Ynglings, today it will be decided who will be on the top podium in the 470 men, Finns and Lasers. In addition, the tornadoes and star boats have their first race.
"For our athletes today it's about finishing the games with a respectable result and maybe even improving one or the other place", team boss Jochen Schümann announced the motto of the day this morning. "The results of the Olympic Games remain in personal statistics for a lifetime, so it is now important to get out of the affair as much as possible."
He still sees the 49er crew Marcus Baur / Max Groy as the Germans' best chance for a medal. After Baur went crazy, who accused the association of mismanagement and hindrance to its preparation two days ago, the team was calm again. "We had a very long, very good conversation last night," said Schümann. "The main thing was to find the restart button." The team should concentrate on sailing again and, because of a few bad results, not question everything that they previously found positive. It was Baur's own decision to take the supposedly too soft boat, which he named as one of the reasons for the poor results recently.
The 49ers have a day off today.
That's why the oldies of the German team are going on the track for the first time today: Roland Gäbler and Gunnar Struckmann in the tornado and Alexander Hagen and Jochen Wolfram in the star boat. For the 39-year-old Gäbler it is the fifth Olympic Games, the 49-year-old Hagen, the oldest of all sailors starting in Athens, is at the Olympics for the second time. One can only hope that from today the rule will apply: age before beauty.