Fischer Celebrates Olympic Podiums
With a cry of triumph and relief, Therese Johaug of Norway crossed the finish line of the final event, the 30K Freestyle. The outstanding Norwegian was putting a golden exclamation point at the end of the extremely successful Winter Games for the Fischer Race Family: 57.3% of all Nordic medals were won on Fischer skis. Take a closer look at the disciplines in which cross country skis are used, and it’s 62.3% of medal winners who relied on the total Fischer package of skis and boots, with 75.4% also using the TURNAMIC® Binding Set-Up. Fischer sent the clear message that as the most successful ski, boot, and binding brand by a huge margin, they are once again the clear number one in the Nordic market.
In total, 39 gold, 27 silver, and 32 bronze medals went to Fischer Race Family athletes. These 98 medals fell just five short of eclipsing the fabulous total medal haul in Sochi 2014, which still marks the most successful Olympic Games in company history. Just as eye-catching as successful was the use of the new Speedmax Helium skis and Speedmax boots, which caused a real buzz in Beijing (CHN) with their design in bright neon yellow and black.
In the very first event, the women’s Skiathlon distance race, Therese Johaug, Russian Natalia Nepryaeva, and Austrian Teresa Stadlober were extremely impressive in a Fischer sweep of the top three places, each wearing new equipment on her feet. Individual Olympic gold had been missing up to this point from the extensive collection of Therese Johaug. And this currently dominant cross country racer was not yet done: Therese Johaug then captured gold in the 10K and 30K, thereby announcing herself as the most successful female athlete in the Fischer Race Family in Beijing. On top of this, Natalia Nepryaeva claimed Relay gold along with Russian compatriot Yulia Stupak, plus bronze in the Team Sprint. After a surprise Relay silver medal by German skiers Katherine Sauerbrey and Katharina Hennig, the latter of the two then had an even more surprising- though certainly well earned- gold in the Team Sprint. Kerttu Niskanen of Finland had to settle for silver by a mere .4 seconds in a Classic thriller, then made up for that to some extent with an unbelievable finish line sprint to also take bronze in the final event, the 30K.
Her brother, Finnish skier Iivo Niskanen, coolly scooped up a complete array of medals to take home, with 15K gold, silver in Team Sprint with countryman Joni Mäki, and bronze in Skiathlon. Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo secured even one more gold, winning the Sprint; the Team Sprint with fellow Norwegian Erik Valnes; followed by a bronze in the 15K; then finally a bronze in the Relay with teammates Hans Christer Holund and Emil Iversen. Russian Denis Spitsov added more gold in the Relay and silver in Skiathlon, while countryman Ivan Yakimushkin took silver in the 50K event (shortened to 30K). In the Relay, Russians Veronika Stepanova, Alexey Chervotkin, and Sergey Ustiugov contributed gold, while Ebba Andersson and Frida Karlsson contributed bronze, playing significant roles in the extremely successful showing of the Fischer Race Family.
The most industrious of all the Fischer medalists in Beijing was Norwegian biathlete Johannes Thingnes Bø. He set the standard there as a four-time Olympic champion in Sprint, Mass Start, Mixed Relay, and Relay, plus bronze medal winner in the Individual. Right behind him was Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet, who also took home five medals as the Olympic champion in the Individual and Pursuit, as well as runner-up in Sprint, Mixed Relay, and Relay. Norway’s Tarjei Bø enjoyed earning his first individual Olympic medals with a bronze in Sprint and silver in Pursuit, to go with his golds in Mixed Relay and Relay. Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma did his part for Fischer’s outstanding medal tally with silver in the Mass Start. The Russian team even fielded complete Fischer foursomes in the Mixed Relay, as well both Relays. Russian athletes Uliana Nigmatullina, Kristina Reztsova, Svetlana Mironova, Irina Kazakevich, Alexandr Loginov, Maxim Tsvetkov, Said Karimulla Khalili und Eduard Latypov quickly raised the Fischer medal count with silver in the women’s Relay, and bronze in both the Mixed and men’s Relay. Latypov also took a Pursuit bronze. On the women’s side, Tiril Eckhoff of Norway earned the full medal array with gold in the Mixed Relay, silver in Mass Start, and bronze in Pursuit. Denise Herrmann of Germany took gold in the Individual, and bronze in the Relay with compatriot Franziska Preuss. Sweden’s Linn Persson and Hanna Öberg were Olympic champions in the Relay, while Justine Braisaz-Bouchet of France finished up by easily taking the Beijing Olympic title in the final women’s Biathlon event.
In the Nordic Combined, black and yellow dominated the podiums as well. All the Olympic champions, as well as 16 of 18 medal winners outfitted with Fischer jumping skis, as well as cross country skis, bindings, and boots enjoyed success.
In the first competition, from the small hill, Vinzenz Geiger of Germany turned up power over the final kilometers to take the win over Joergen Graabak of Norway. The experienced Norwegian then took gold on the large hill and led his teammates and compatriots Espen Bjornstad, Espen Andersen and Jens Luraas Oftebro to the Olympic Team competition title. Oftebro had previously taken silver on the large hill, ahead of former champion Akito Watabe of Japan. With another strong cross country performance, Vinzenz Geiger secured silver for the German team, featuring Fischer athletes Julian Schmid and Eric Frenzel, ahead of the Fischer foursome from Japan: Yoshito Watabe, Akito Watabe, Hideaki Nagai and Ryota Yamamoto.
In Ski Jumping, Ursa Bogataj of Slovenia, Katharina Althaus of Germany, and Nika Krizar of Slovenia provided a Fischer medal sweep in a brilliant performance off the hill. The two Slovenians also took gold in the turbulent Olympic debut of the Mixed Team competition. The Austrian eagles Stefan Kraft, Daniel Huber, and Jan Hörl put up performances that earned gold in the Team ski jumping competition, while Germany’s Karl Geiger took bronze in the Iarge hill Individual jump, then battled for Team bronze with compatriots Constantin Schmid and Markus Eisenbichler.
