"If someone had told me when I started windsurfing that I would be sixth at the Olympics four years later, I would have taken it straight away." These balanced words came from the mouth of 22-year-old team junior Theresa Steinlein, who was quickly able to overcome her bitter disappointment at coming so close and yet missing out so unfortunately on a semi-final place by looking at what she had achieved at the Olympics. She had competed in her windsurfing quarter-final as brilliantly as if it had been easy: Lightning start, lead, strong speed, consistently in the top two, everything under control. But in the end it didn't work out that way. The top athlete from the NRV Olympic Team tells us how she experienced the quarter-final and the surprisingly shattered dream of reaching the semi-finals, in which a wind shift allowed the surfers from Peru and China, who had previously been trailing behind, to win the race out of nowhere on the other side of the course:
I had a mega good start and was mega fast." Theresa Steinlein
"I led the field from the start and then went upwind in second place after the gate. Five girls were chasing me. It's been over the right-hand side here for three months now. That's why I endeavoured to get to the right-hand side as quickly as possible today. In those two minutes, however, it went over to the left side. The last two in the field took the left-hand side because they didn't want to finish last. And they landed the lucky punch. Sometimes luck plays a part. That happened to the last two today, unfortunately not to me. I have to accept that. That's just sailing. I would make the same decisions again."
"Resi" Steinlein has her sights set on the 2028 Olympics
The iQFOiL newcomer bade farewell to her Olympic première with greatness and has her sights set on continuing her career. In the beach arena in front of the pitlanes of the finalists, Theresa "Resi" Steinlein said: "If everything stays the same as in the last few years, then I will definitely continue. I have the best setup with my coach Daniel Slijk. And we get to train at a mega cool location on Lake Garda, where we can get lots of water lessons. Plus the cool DSV support - together that's the best thing you can have."
Kördel disappointed with his performance
Sebastian Kördel was far less satisfied with his Olympic week. The 2024 world champion had been one of the favourites in the run-up to the Games and had been among the front runners at many major events in the iQFOiL class. But the year 2024 wasn't going so well even before the Games, yet he came to Marseille in sixth place in the world rankings. The fact that he then caught a bad cold shortly before the Games didn't exactly help. Then came the second day of competition, on which Kördel almost lost all chance of a place in the medal series. But Kördel fought his way back, won two races and was leading in the last race of the series until it was cancelled due to a lack of wind. A win would have put him in the top ten and into the quarter-finals. But the 33-year-old from Radolfzell looks back thoughtfully on the Olympic week: "Everyone loves a good comeback story. After a terrible second day, I kept fighting to get back into the medal race. It went well with two race wins, but in the end the wind didn't play ball and I ended up in twelfth place. That could have been a nice story. I'm disappointed with my performance and need some time to reflect," writes Kördel on his Instagram page .
iQFOiL a complete success - race format controversial
Nobody will doubt that the decision in favour of the iQFOiL material was a blessing for Olympic windsurfing. There were fast and exciting races to watch even when there was little wind. The mixture of different courses also produced many different winners. The idea of a marathon was also a good one, but the realisation was not so good: the women had to surf twice into a large wind cover behind an island, in which they bobbed around for a long time and had no chance of getting onto the foil. That was no advert for the sport. The live tracking and the footage in the live broadcasts, on the other hand, was great. The placement format with the medal series on the last day and the awarding of medals will probably continue to be controversial. Do we really need up to 20 qualifying races to determine the best ten for the final day? And then the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the grand final for the medals are each decided in a race lasting just seven minutes? That makes it super exciting, but not necessarily fair for the athletes. We'll see if the format is revised again before the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. In any case, windsurfing at the Olympics with the iQFOiL was great fun.
