"The early bird catches the worm" is actually what they say, but in our case, he rides a bike and catches success: Even now in January, our best professional cyclists are planning how they can best bring in victories in the spring and summer. Result: Emanuel Buchmann of Team Bora-hansgrohe is foregoing the Tour de France, where he still finished fourth in 2019. He wants to focus entirely on the Giro d'Italia and get as far forward as possible there. Instead, his teammate, German champion Maximilian Schachmann, will be allowed to go to France. Schachmann has no chance of winning the overall, but he is expected to deliver stage victories. "If you look at the Tour, there are many stages that suit him," says team boss Rolf Aldag. Toi, toi, toi.
Everyone wants a boss like that: Francesco "Franz" Friedrich, the outstanding German bobsledder, missed out on another European title, presumably because of his attachment to an old companion. In the last race of the season, Friedrich gave his pusher Alexander Rödiger another go, even though Rödiger had recently been suffering from a torn biceps muscle. For Rödiger it was the last race of a long career, which his boss granted him. As a result, Friedrich's four-man bobsled "only" finished second after a long winning streak. But that was still enough for the runner-up title in the European Championships. And for Rödiger, it was a farewell that brought tears of emotion to his eyes.
The young German handball team defies Corona, and manages to win the group at the European Handball Championship. If that's not good news! Some of the players that national coach Alfred Gislason had to re-nominate for the Poland game last Tuesday night due to nine positive Corona cases came straight from the sofa at home. In goal was 39-year-old Johannes Bitter of HSV Hamburg, who told the Süddeutsche Zeitung He admitted to the Süddeutsche Zeitung that he had "not practiced much handball" in the days before his (unplanned) call-up. Congratulations on this outstanding team performance, and we look forward to more! Stay positive guys, and negative at the same time!
According to his own words, national goalkeeper Manuel Neuer made a good trade during his Bayern's recent Bundesliga match against 1. FC Köln. He handed over his soccer jersey to coach Steffen Baumgart. "My daughter wanted it very, very much and so did I," Baumgart said. In return, Neuer received Baumgart's cap, which is generally just called a cult cap.
Don't cry, little Morgan - we want to see you laughing when you win after all. "I can't believe it. I was already crying," said freestyle snowboarder Annika Morgan after finishing third in the slopestyle in Laax. This was her second time on the podium this season. The 19-year-old started snowboarding in Laax, so she should be allowed a few tears. But at the Olympics, we only want laughter.
With each victory, she stretched out one more finger to the cameras. First one, then two, then three - then Anna-Lena Forster's gold fingers were complete. The para skier really cleaned up at the World Championships in Hafjell. She celebrated her team as the "Queen of Hafjell". We are looking forward to the next appearance of Goldfinger, hopefully already at the Paralympics in March.
A moment ago, the tooth fairy was fetching his baby teeth, and now he's already a professional soccer player. Axel Kei is the youngest athlete ever to receive a professional contract in a team sport in the USA. 14 years and 15 days old, Kei plays for Real Salt Lake in the MLS soccer league. We are very happy to see young dreams come true and keep our fingers crossed that his future career goes as planned!
